Paul and his team set sail northwest from Troas, making a straight line for Samothrace, a mountainous island navigational marker with its 5,577-foot Mount Fengari. About halfway on their voyage they anchor for the night on the north side of the island. They complete their 156-mile journey the next day, landing at Neapolis. Favorable winds have given them "Godspeed," for another time the voyage in the opposite direction will require five days (20:6).

The team now takes the Via Egnatia, the Roman road that stretched from Dyrrhachium and its port city Egnatia on the Adriatic to Neapolis on the Aegean. They proceed nine miles inland over some hills to Philippi, on the central Macedonia plateau.

Philippi's reputation was well deserved from the time the father of Alexander the Great, Philip II of Macedon, renamed it after himself and established it as a commercial center. It dealt in agricultural produce of the rich plain and gold and silver mined from the surrounding mountains. Philippi had been made a Roman colony so it could serve as a home for retired army veterans after the decisive battle of the second civil war (42 B.C.) and the battle of Actium (31 B.C.). Bearing witness in Philippi was the closest thing to preaching in Rome without actually being there. Theophilus and his peers would understand well the Philippians' reactions.

Following his normal "to the Jew first" strategy, Paul seeks out the synagogue on the sabbath (13:14, 46; 14:1). Local reports or his awareness of the Jewish custom of locating synagogues outside the precincts of idolatrous pagan cities but near water (for ritual purification) may lead Paul to suppose the synagogue is outside the city gate by the river (the Gangites, one and one-half miles west of the city; Josephus Jewish Antiquities 14.258; compare Mekilta Pisha 1:64-65; Finegan [1981:103-4] proposes a site outside the east gate marked by a Christian basilica dating from the first half of the fourth century).

What Paul finds, however, is a group of women gathered to worship the God of Israel, probably in the open air. Evidently the Jewish community in Philippi was so small that it did not have the requisite ten men to form a synagogue (m. Sanhedrin 1:6; Pirqe Abot 3:8). As Paul and his team sits down with them, they use the opportunity to speak of the Lord Jesus as the fulfillment of the divine promise of messianic salvation.

Lydia, a God-fearer and wealthy businesswoman—a dealer in expensive purple cloth—from Thyatira, a city in the Lycus Valley in the province of Asia, listens to what Paul is saying (compare Acts 13:50; 17:4, 17; 18:7). The Lord opened her heart to respond (prosecho, better "to pay attention to, give heed to, follow"; compare 8:6; Bauer, Gingrich and Danker 1979:714; Haenchen 1971:495) to Paul's message. Before salvation the heart—the inner life, the center of personality, the seat of spiritual and intellectual life (Sorg 1976:182-83)—is so controlled by sin that it is either slow to believe or actually antagonistic to the gospel (Lk 24:25; Acts 28:27; 7:51, 54). Only if God prepares the heart by opening it—enlightening it to understand the gospel, moving it to desire the salvation blessings (compare 24:32)—and strengthening its will to decide for and endure in the Lord (11:23) will it become the "noble and good heart" that receives salvation (Lk 8:15). What must I do to be saved? Listen to God's Word in such a way that you find him opening your heart to follow it.

Next come Lydia's public profession of her faith in baptism, together with her household (compare Acts 16:33; 18:8), and her exercise of hospitality. In ancient Greco-Roman society the household was the basic social, economic and religious unit. The typical household was large, including nuclear and extended family, slaves and economic retainers. "Roman households were united in a common religious cult (the Lares) irrespective of age or personal beliefs" (Green 1970:210). The conversion of this female head of a household, who was either single or a widow, has necessary religious and spiritual implications for the other members. And today we must be ever mindful of the strategic importance of social networks for the rapid spread of the gospel, for multi-individual household conversions can snowball into people movements (see Hulbert 1978; 1979).

Luke's picture of Lydia's practice of hospitality demonstrates once again that those who experience the saving grace of God become gracious (2:42-47; 10:48; compare Rom 12:13; 1 Tim 3:2; 1 Pet 4:9). Though Paul normally does not accept hospitality and financial support of converts as he is planting a church in their midst (2 Cor 11:7-9; 1 Thess 2:9), he makes an exception here. He permits Lydia to live out the principle of sharing material goods with those who teach the Word (1 Cor 9:11, 14; Gal 6:6). Apparently his normal hesitation is overcome when she will not take no for an answer (persuaded, actually "prevailed"; compare Phil 1:5).