Lydia, a slave girl, and a jailer: the church at Philippi
Acts 16:11–40; Philippians 1:3–5
At Philippi, Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, believed and opened her home. When Paul freed a slave girl from a spirit of divination, her owners had Paul and Silas beaten and jailed; at midnight an earthquake opened the doors, and the jailer and his household believed.
They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Acts 16:31 (World English Bible)
Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns in the inner prison when the earthquake came. The jailer, about to kill himself, asked what he must do to be saved. The next day the magistrates were alarmed to learn they had beaten Roman citizens without trial. The Philippian church became one of Paul's most generous partners.
Places
MacedoniaTroasPhilippiNeapolisSamothrace
Dating notes
Ussher: AD 53. Dates for Paul's journeys follow the conventional chronology, anchored by an inscription at Delphi, found in 1905, that dates Gallio's term as proconsul of Achaia (Acts 18:12) to AD 51–52; Ussher, who could not have known it, runs two to three years later.