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The port city of Thessalonica (now called Salonica or Thessaloniki) was founded by the Macedonian General Kassander in celebration of the successful campaigns against the Persians (315 BCE). With the triumphs and expansion of their influence, new wealth poured into Macedonia and allowed new settlements to be established. This port was constructed on the Thermaic Gulf and knitted together twenty-six …

The largest island of the Dodecanese (48 miles long, 23 miles wide) houses nearly 100,000 inhabitants today (and scores of tourists). Rhodes (or Rodos) has become the regional capital of the Dodecanese islands. The highest point of the island is Mt. Ataviros (at 125 m ASL) in the center of the island. The island is fertile with a great variety …

Paul’s trip into Macedonia brought him from the harbor at Neapolis, 9 miles (15 km.) northwest over the ridge to Philippi. This strategic Roman garrison city became the place of the first established church congregation, with early converts to Christianity. Philippi was located 115 miles northeast of Salonika (Thessaloniki), now close to the Bulgarian border. The city occupies the edge …

Following the vision of the Macedonian man Paul received at Troas, he journeyed to Neapolis (by way of the island of Samothrace). Of the “abundance of Revelations” Paul had received, we are only privy to three in significant detail: the vision into Heaven with words he “could not utter”, the Macedonian man vision at Troas and the vision of the …

Because Paul spent more than one and one half years at Corinth during his Second Mission Journey, the city remains important to students of the Book of Acts. This city was constructed in antiquity on a narrow isthmus, a cosmopolitan city that connected the Peloponnese and the Balkan Peninsula. Corinth had deep-water harbors on each side, with Cenchrea on the …

Coos (also Cos, Kos) is long and narrow, the second largest island of the Dodecanese, behind Rhodes. The island is not far from the shore of Asia Minor, near Halicanarssus, and is most noted as the ancient home of Hippocrates the physician. The island has a long and colorful history. Some time in the Greek Dark Ages (1150-800 BCE) the …

Paul and his companions visited Cenchrea after nearly eighteen months of ministry in Corinth, during the Second Mission Journey. The city was a small port located more than two miles south of Isthmia and about six miles east of Corinth. It was constructed along the road from Isthmia that leads south to the “Baths of Helen” of antiquity. Cenchrea functioned …

The city of Berea (modern Veria) was founded in the Archaic Period in the southwestern part of Macedonia, some 73 km west of Thessalonica. Ruins extend to 700 BCE (though scarce), when the city probably began as an agricultural market center. The founders were no doubt Thracians and Phrygians driven out by the Makadne in one of the archaic transitions. …

Paul’s visit to the historic and adorned city of Athens marks one of the most challenging parts of his career as a missionary and Apostle. He arrived alone, while Silas and Timothy remained in Macedonia. Though modern visitors are impressed with the great buildings of the Acropolis and Olympian Zeus, the agora and the impressive stoas, Paul was stirred by …

Paul and Silas passed through the small village of Apollonia on their way to Thessalonica, and may have lodged there. There is no evidence from Scripture that they preached or ministered there, as they seemed intent on moving directly to Thessalonica. The village of Apollonia in Macedonia was located along the Via Egnatia some thirty miles west (44 km.) of …