Acts16 Notes

(Acts 16.). — Don’t fail to get a map illustrating Paul’s journeys. He travelled this journey overland. Forbidden to go west into Asia or north into Bithynia, they proceeded north-east to Troas. Here God’s purpose, that Paul should carry the Truth to Europe, was made known in a vision. Note there were seven Roman provinces in what we call Asia Minor. The term Asia Minor was unknown to the ancients. The provinces were: 1, Asia; 2, Bithynia; 3, Pontus; 4, Cappadocia; 5, Galatia; 6, Pamphylia; 7, Cilicia. The first epistle of Peter is addressed to five of these provinces.

Samothrace is an island in the Ægean Sea (just occupied by the Greeks). Neapolis is the port for Philippi. There was no synagogue, so they spent the sabbath at the place of prayer by the riverside; the first to hear and believe was Lydia of Thyatira, in Asia. Thyatira was one of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 2:18.
Note the little words “we” and “us.” See verse 10 as they reappear in 20:5, 6; it seems reasonable to suppose that Luke was left in charge of the ecclesia at Philippi. Read also the subscription at the end of 2 Corinthians.

“Spirit of divination” (Greek Python). Python was said to be a serpent born of the slime and mud left by the deluge, and to have been slain by Apollo. In other words, it was an idolatrous way of setting forth the fact that the Sun drys up the stagnant pools of water and prevents malaria, etc., where it does this. The damsel was cured with a word, though only a slave girl. Her masters vented their spleen on Paul and Silas, but God brought lasting good out of it all, the jailor’s baptism, the little ecclesia, and the loving epistle to the Philippians.


(1912). The Christadelphian, 49(electronic ed.), 572.