Hi All!

I've been in northern Greece for the last few days, visiting some of the very first cities in Europe visited by St. Paul. I've been staying in Thessaloniki, the city to whom Paul wrote two letters. The archaeological remains in Thessaloniki are relatively modest, and relatively recently uncovered. The Roman Forum, for example, which dates to the 2nd century AD, was uncovered in 1963 when ground was broken for new law courts.

A couple of the larger remains in the pictures are things that the Roman emporer Galerius built. In the late 3rd and early 4th centuries, the Roman empire had already been spilt into eastern and western administative halves. Galerius ruled the eastern part and made Thessaloniki his capital. Galerius, like Diocletian before him, vigorously persecuted Christians, and in fact, made practicing Christianity in Thessaloniki a capital offense. In about 304 AD, a Roman soldier named Demetrius was caught secretly preaching to a group of Christians. He was subsequently jailed and executed by being speared to death. A large church in Thessaloniki, named St. Demetrius, is built over the site of his imprisonment and his body is buried in the church.

Today, Thessaloniki is Greece's second largest city. To reinforce that if you're ever here, rent a car inside the city and then fight your way out to the Thessaloniki beltway -- which is what I did on Sunday when I drove out to see Philippi. Philippi was the site of Paul's first mission work in Europe. Although today Philippi is just ruins (there is no modern Philippi), the remains are quite extensive. However, Philippi continued to be a major city through at least the 7th century, so there are remains of several eras on top of one another. Of particular interest is the Octagon Church, with it's really well preserved 4th century floor mosaics and cruciform baptismal font. Like many Greek cities, there's a high hill with defensible fortress on top (acropolis), which I climbed to get a great view and great photos.

On the way back to Thessaloniki, I also stopped briefly at Amphipolis (mentioned only in passing in Acts 17:1). The site was closed in spite of the fact that the sign said it was supposed to be open at that time. But, I did get a chance to view the area a bit (and there's one photo). All of these towns were connected by a major trading road called the Via Egnatia, which is what made them commerically well off and strategically important to many successive empires.

Traveling between these places is, of course, much easier today than in Paul's day. However, in Paul's day it was possible to travel between what is today Turkey and northern Greece. Early in my travel planning, I discovered that it's very difficult today. There's one train which runs daily between Thessaloniki and Istanbul, which I had been planning to take. However, the masssive rains that Istanbul received about 2 weeks ago have apparently damaged the bridges and so the trains aren't running. Everyone says that there are busses still running, but every bus official I talk to to claims that they don't go there. So, tomorrow morning, I'm taking the train back to Athens and flying to Istanbul from there. Oddly, that trip will take less time than the bus would have!