UNESCO inscribed the site in 2016, making official what northern Greek archaeology had long held: this is one of the most significant excavated zones in the region. 41.01°N, 24.29°E — about 15 kilometers inland from the modern Greek city of Kavala, in eastern Macedonia. The city Paul addresses in Philippians is the same city marked by the same archaeological mounds.
A Verse From Prison
Philippians is one of the four prison letters, written by Paul from confinement — most likely Rome, possibly Ephesus or Caesarea. The letter's tone is unusually warm. The Philippian church had sent Paul money in his confinement; he writes back to thank them and to encourage them. The verse most quoted from the letter sits near the end.
The Greek for strengtheneth is endynamoō — to empower, to put strength into. The verse is not a promise that anything is achievable. Paul is, in context, talking about his ability to be content — I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content (4:11). He has learned to be hungry and to be full. The verse names the source of that learned contentment. The verse on the inspirational poster is, in its first hearing, a verse about cells and prison rations.
How the Church Started
Acts 16 records the first Christian baptism on European soil. Paul, traveling overland from Asia Minor, crossed into Macedonia after a vision in Troas and arrived in Philippi. On the Sabbath he and his companions went outside the city gate to a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made (Acts 16:13). A woman named Lydia, a seller of purple cloth from Thyatira, listened. She and her household were baptized. Her house became the city's first church.
The stream at the traditional site is the Zygaktis, which joins the Gangites below the city. Krenides was the town's own older name — and is the name of the village next to the ruins today. The traditional baptism location is marked today by a small Byzantine-era basilica and an octagonal modern memorial. Both Greek Orthodox and Catholic pilgrims visit. Lydia's name is one of the most-remembered names of any layperson in the New Testament.
What's Excavated
The site contains the remains of four early Christian basilicas (4th–6th centuries), the Octagon (a complex church built around an earlier shrine to Paul), the agora, the theater used for both Greek drama and Roman gladiatorial games, the Roman Via Egnatia — the great east-west highway across Macedonia — and a small cell traditionally identified as Paul's prison (Acts 16:23–34). The cell's identification is contested; the date suits the period, but the building has clearly been re-purposed across centuries.
What the Earthquake Did
Acts 16:26 records a midnight earthquake that opened the prison doors. Modern seismologists confirm that this part of Macedonia is, in fact, seismically active to this day. The chains, in the verse's image, fell off. The jailer, in the next verse, was baptized. Acts 16's geography — gate, river, agora, cell — can all still be located within a kilometer or two.
Philippi Today
Kavala, the modern Greek port city 15 kilometers from the site, has about 55,000 residents. The Philippi archaeological zone is open daily. The Zygaktis still runs past Lydia's traditional baptism site. The verse Paul wrote from prison is now printed on more gym walls than cell walls. The first church on European soil began with a riverbank conversation. Both river and verse are still here.
Write It Out
Copy the verse out for yourself, and then copy the line before it. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. By the time you finish both, you notice the second one changes the first. The all things he has in mind is going hungry as easily as going full. He is writing from a cell.
A businesswoman opened her house. A prisoner wrote a letter. The address is unchanged.