Ancient Philippi is in a valley about 15 kilometers north of the Aegean coast near the city of Kavala. It was a windy, chilly day and the place was mostly empty except for a team of archaeologists busily digging away near the Roman theater. Philippi features prominently in the New Testament. It was Paul and Silas first stop in Europe.
It is the place where they were thrown into prison, only to be rescued by an earthquake. Later, Paul wrote a letter to the Philippian church that ultimately made its way into the cannon of the New Testament. While in Philippi, Paul met a woman named Lydia. Lydia was a God fearer, a term Luke and Paul used to describe Greeks who sympathized and worshiped with Jews. The ruins are about half a mile from a small creek. The Bible mentions that Paul met Lydia as she was washing cloths by a river. So, I drove down to check out this famous location. It is nothing more than a drainage ditch that runs past a garbage dump!
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