Dict: smith - PHILIP

smith:

PHILIP - P>@ - (lover of horses) the apostle was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, kjv@John:1:44) and apparently was among the Galilean peasants of that district who flocked to hear the preaching of the Baptist. The manner in which St. John speaks of him indicates a previous friendship with the sons of Jona and Zebedee, and a consequent participation in their messianic hopes. The close union of the two in John:6 and 12 suggests that he may have owed to Andrew the first tidings that the hope had been fulfilled. The statement that Jesus found him kjv@John:1:43) implies a previous seeking. In the lists of the twelve apostles, in the Synoptic Gospel, his name is as uniformly at the head of the second group of four as the name of Peter is at that of the first, kjv@Matthew:10:3; kjv@Mark:5:18; kjv@Luke:6:14) and the facts recorded by St. John give the reason of this priority. Philip apparently was among the first company of disciples who were with the Lord at the commencement of his ministry at the marriage at Cana, on his first appearance as a prophet in Jerusalem, kjv@John:2. The first three Gospels tell us nothing more of him individually. St.John with his characteristic fullness of personal reminiscences, records a few significant utterances. kjv@John:6:5-9 kjv@John:12:20-22 kjv@John:14:8 ) No other fact connected with the name of Philip is recorded in the Gospels. He is among the company of disciples at Jerusalem after the ascension kjv@Acts:1:13) and on the day of Pentecost. After this all is uncertain and apocryphal, According tradition he preached in Phrygia, and died at Hierapolis.

PHILIP THE EVANGELIST - P>@ - is first mentioned in the account of the dispute between the Hebrew and Hellenistic disciples in kjv@Acts:6. He is one of the deacons appointed to superintend the daily distribution of food and alms, and so to remove all suspicion of partiality. The persecution of which Saul was the leader must have stopped the "daily ministrations" of the Church. The teachers who had been most prominent were compelled to take flight, and Philip was among them. It is noticeable that the city of Samaria, is the first scene of his activity. kjv@Acts:8. He is the precursor of St. Paul in his work, as Stephen had been in his teaching. The scene which brings Philip and Simon the sorcerer into contact with each other, kjv@Acts:8:9-13) which the magician has to acknowledge a power over nature greater than his own, is interesting. This step is followed by another. On the road from Jerusalem to Gaza he meets the Ethiopian eunuch. kjv@Acts:8:26) ff. The History that follows is interesting as one of the few records in the New Testament of the process of individual conversion. A brief sentence tells us that Philip continued his work as a preacher at Azotus (Ashdod) and among the other cities that had formerly belonged to the Philistines, and, following the coast-line, came to Caesarea. Then for a long period
not less than eighteen or nineteen years
we lose sight of him. The last glimpse of him in the New Testament is in the account of St. Paul’s journey to Jerusalem. It is to his house as to one well known to them, that St. Paul and his companions turn for shelter. He has four daughters, who possess the gift of prophetic utterance and who apparently give themselves to the work of teaching instead of entering on the life of home. kjv@Acts:21:8-9) He is visited by the prophets and elders of Jerusalem. One tradition places the scene of his death at Hierapolis in Phrygia. According to another, he died bishop of Tralles. The house in which he and-his daughters had lived was pointed out to travellers in the time of Jerome.

PHILIPPI - P>@ - (named from Philip of Macedonia), a city of Macedonia about nine miles from the sea, to the northwest of the island of Thasos which is twelve miles distant from its port Neapolis, the modern Kavalla . It is situated in a plain between the ranges of Pangaeus and Haemus. The Philippi which St. Paul visited was a Roman colony founded by Augustus after the famous battle of Philippi, fought here between Antony and Octavius and Brutus and Cassius, B.C. 42. The remains which strew the ground near the modern Turkish village Bereketli are no doubt derived from that city. The original town, built by Philip of Macedonia, was probably not exactly on the same site. Philip, when he acquired possession of the site, found there a town named Datus or Datum , which was probably in its origin a factory of the Phoenicians, who were the first that worked the gold-mines in the mountains here, as in the neighboring Thasos. The proximity of the goldmines was of course the origin of so large a city as Philippi, but the plain in which it lies is of extraordinary fertility. The position, too, was on the main road from Rome to Asia, the Via Egnatia , which from Thessalonica to Constantinople followed the same course as the existing post-road. On St. Paul’s visits to Philippi, see the following article. At Philippi the gospel was first preached in Europe. Lydia was the first convert. Here too Paul and Silas were imprisoned. kjv@Acts:16:23) The Philippians sent contributions to Paul to relieve his temporal wants.

PHILIPPIANS, EPISTLE TO THE - P>@ - was St. Paul from Rome in A.D. 62 or 63. St. Paul’s connection with Philippi was of a peculiar character, which gave rise to the writing of this epistle. St. Paul entered its walls A.D. 52. kjv@Acts:16:18) There, at a greater distance from Jerusalem than any apostle had yet penetrated, the long-restrained energy of St, Paul was again employed in laying the foundation of a Christian church, Philippi was endeared to St. Paul not only by the hospitality of Lydia, the deep sympathy of the converts, and the remarkable miracle which set a seal on his preaching, but, also by the successful exercise of his missionary activity after a long suspense, and by the happy consequences of his undaunted endurance of ignominies which remained in his memory, kjv@Philemon:1:30) after the long interval of eleven years. Leaving Timothy and Luke to watch over the infant church, Paul and Silas went to Thessalonica, ( kjv@1Thessalonians:2:2) whither they were followed by the alms of the Philippians, kjv@Philemon:4:16) and thence southward. After the lapse of five years, spent chiefly at Corinth and Ephesus, St. Paul passed through Macedonia, A.D. 57, on his way to Greece, and probably visited Philippi for the second time, and was there joined by Timothy. He wrote at Philippi his second Epistle to the Corinthians. On returning from Greece, kjv@Acts:20:4) he again found a refuge among his faithful Philippians, where he spent some days at Easter, A.D. 58, with St. Luke, who accompanied him when he sailed from Neapolis. Once more, in his Roman captivity, A.D. 62, their care of him revived-again. They sent Epaphroditus bearing their alms for the apostle’s support, and ready also to tender his personal service. kjv@Philemon:2:25) St. Paul’s aim in writing is plainly this: while acknowledging the alms of the Philippians and the personal services of their messenger, to give them some information respecting his own condition, and some advice respecting theirs. Strangely full of joy and thanksgiving amidst adversity, like the apostle’s midnight hymn from the depth of his Philippian dungeon, this epistle went forth from his prison at Rome. In most other epistles he writes with a sustained effort to instruct, or with sorrow, or with indignation; he is striving to supply imperfect or to correct erroneous teaching, to put down scandalous impurity or to schism in the church which he addresses. But in this epistle, though he knew the Philippians intimately and was not blind to the faults and tendencies to fault of some of them, yet he mentions no evil so characteristic of the whole Church as to call for general censure on his part or amendment on theirs. Of all his epistles to churches, none has so little of an official character as this.