Acts Chapter 16 verse 12 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 12. - A city of Macedonia, the first of the district, a Roman colony for the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony, A.V.: this for that, A.V.; tarrying for abiding, A.V. A city of Macedonia, etc. This is a difficult sentence. The natural way of construing the words undoubtedly is, as in the A.V., "which is the chief city of the [or, ' that'] district of Macedonia, and a colony." The only difficulty in the way of so taking it is that when AEmilius Paulus, as related by Livy (45:29), divided the conquered kingdom of Macedonia into four districts (regiones or partes), Amphi-pelts was made the capital of the district in which Philippi was situated. But the epithet πρώτη does not necessarily mean the capital; it is found on coins applied to cities which were not capitals. Besides, in the interval of above two hundred years between Aemilius Paulus and St. Paul (from s.c. 167 to A.D. ), it is very probable that the city of Philippi, with its gold-mines and its privileges as a colony, may have really become the capital. And so Lewin, following Wetstein, understands it (vol. it. p. 209). We know that in the reign of Theodosius the Younger, when Macedonia was divided into two provinces, Philippi became the ecclesiastical head of Macedonia Prima. It had been made a colony by Augustus Caesar, with the name "Col. Jul. Aug. Philip.," i.e. Colonia Augusta Julia Philippensis ('Dict. of Greek and Roman Geog.'). It must, therefore, anyhow have been a place of first-rate importance at this time. Those, however, who do not accept this explanation, couple κολωνία with πόλις, "which is the first colony-city," etc, Others take πρώτη in a local sense, "the first city you come to in Macedonia" (Conybeare and Howson, Alford, Bengel, etc.). The R.V. seems to take ἥτις ἐστὶ... Μακεδονίας πόλις together, and πρώτη τῆς μερίδος as a further description of it - a most awkward construction. Alford renders it, "which is the first Macedonian city of the district.' But the natural way of construing a passage is almost always the best, and nothing prevents us from believing that St. Luke, who knew Philippi intimately, was strictly accurate in calling it "the chief city of the district of Macedonia," i.e. the district in which it was situated. That μέρις is the technical name of the division of a province appears from the title μεριδάρχης, applied by Josephus to a certain Apollonius, governor, under Antiochus Epiphanes, of the district in which Samaria was included ('Ant. Jud.,' 12. 5:5). The ancient name of Philippi was Dates first, then Krenides - the springs, or wells; and the word used by Livy of the districts of Macedonia, pars prima, secunda, etc., is an exact translation of μέρις It received the name of Philippi, from Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, who extracted a great revenue from its gold-mines. Its great historical celebrity arises from the battle in the plain of Philippi, in which the republican party, under Brutus and Cassius, received its death-blow from Octavius and Antony. (For a full description of Philippi, and of the privileges of a colony, see Conybeare and Howson, vol. 1:311, etc., and Lewin, vol. 1. Acts 11.) This. Alford, following certain manuscripts, reads αὐτῇ, "in the city itself," as distinguished from the place outside the city, where the προσευχή was. But, perhaps, St. Luke uses the word "this" from Philippi being the place of his own residence, and where he may have drawn up the narrative on the spot.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12) The chief city of that part of Macedonia.--More accurately, a chief (or first) city of the border-country of Macedonia. The description is not without difficulty, and has been noted by adverse critics as an instance of St. Luke's inaccuracy. The city of Philippi, rebuilt by the father of Alexander the Great, and bearing his name in lieu of Krenides ( = the fountains), was situated on the Gangites, a tributary of the Strymon; but it was not the chief city of any one of the four sub-divisions of the Roman province of Macedonia, that rank being assigned to Amphipolis, Thessalonica, Pella, and Pelagonia. As there is no definite article in the Greek, it is possible that St. Luke simply meant to say it was a chief town of the district, the epithet Prote ( = first) being often found on the coins of cities which were not capitals. The more probable explanation, however, is that he uses the Greek word translated "part," in the sense of "border-land," as in the LXX. of Ezekiel 35:7, Ruth 3:7, and that it was the first city of that frontier district, either as the most important or as being the first to which they came in the route by which they travelled. This was precisely the position of Philippi, which, together with Pella and other towns, had been garrisoned by the Romans as outposts against the neighbouring tribes of Thrace. It had been established as a colony by Augustus after the defeat of Brutus and Cassius, and its full title, as seen on the coins of the city, was Colonia Augusta Julia Philippensis.A colony.--The English reader needs to be reminded that a Roman colonia differed from the modern in being essentially a military position. Portions of the conquered territory were commonly assigned to veteran soldiers, and the settlement thus formed was considered politically as an integral part of Rome, all decrees of the emperor or senate being as binding there as in the capital itself. The colonies thus formed were as the "propugnacula imperii" (Cic. de leg. Agrar. c. 27), "populi Romani quasi effigies parvae simulacraque" (Aul. Gell. xvi. 13). Here, then, in the first European city to which St. Paul came, there was something like an earnest of his future victories. Himself a Roman citizen, he was brought into direct contact with Romans. (See Note on Acts 16:21.)