Ηello Steem people 😀!!!
It was not a long time ago when I made a post about St. Paul and his Steps in Greece.
That was the article https://steemit.com/christianity/@alinak15/the-bema-of-st-paul-in-corinth and it was focused in one of the steps and that was my hometown Corinth.
Today's post is going to be about Thessaloniki!
A little History lesson first 😘
The Bride of the Thermaic Gulf as it is also called, it has a very ancient history that goes back to the Neolithic period!
The first name of the city situated in the same area was called Therme and that's where the whole Gulf took the name from! The first Hellenes arrived here at the time of the Bronze Age.
Later on the King of Macedonia Cassander, united a whole lot of 26 townships that existed on the Thermaic Gulf and named them after his wife, and the half-sister of Alexander the Great, Thessaloniki!!!
The city was then fortified and very soon became a maritime center because of it's Geographical position.
Later in History
Romans took over Thessaloniki in 168 BC and then in 146 BC became the capital of the province of Macedonia! By 42 BC though was declared a free city and the character of the city was more Greek than Roman!!!
So these were the times when the Apostle Paul visited Thessaloniki!
Thessaloniki back at those times, had a large number of immigrants and among those immigrants was a large Jewish community where Paul addressed himself initially. Through his preaching, the new religion of Christianity was spread in the city!
Paul the Apostle
As I mentioned above, St. Paul initially contacted the Jewish community by attending the Synagogue meetings in the Sabbaths!
All three weeks he spent in Thassaloniki, were pretty rough, since he was constantly arguing with them! He was preaching them how the Messiah suffered and was risen from the dead!!
Only a few of them though were convinced and joined Paul and Sila but the majority would not.
His staying in Thessaloniki, according to Acts of the Apostles, was a period of three weeks as I mentioned above. However, according to the first letter to the Thessalonians, his staying was longer, because it suggested his need to work there: " You remember, my friends, our toil and drugery; night and day we worked for a living, rather than be a burden to any of you while we proclaimed to you the good news of God" (1 Thess. 2,9).
Also, the Epistle to the Philippians states that while Paul was at Thessaloniki aid was sent to him twice (Phil. 4, 16). This for sure, would have taken more time, than the period of three weeks, in order to happen!
It is not known for a fact where that synagogue was situated, so there is a variety of locations today that claim the exact location.
One is near Agia Sophia that you see in the two photos bellow:
Image source
The Church of St. Demetrius is another that you see in the two photos bellow:
Image source
The Vlatades Monastery is also one of those places that claim to be the place where Paul preached! The two photos bellow are from there!
Image source
There is though, a church built in his honor that is named after him and that you can see in the photo bellow!
Image source
From the Epistles, we can understand that many converted to Christianity in Thessaloniki but he got persecutated from his fellow Jewish citizens:
"The Jews in their jealousy recruited some ruffians from the dregs of society to gather a mob. They put the city in an uproar, and made for Jason's house with the intention of bringing Paul and Silas before the town assembly! Failing to find them, they dragged Jason himself and some members of the congregation before the Magistrates, shouting: "The men who have made trouble the whole world over, have now come here, and Jason has harboured them! All of them flout the Emperor's laws, and assert there is a rival king, Jesus"!!!
The charges made by the Jews against Paul and Silas were similar to the accusations against them in Philippi!
- Paul later on, when he visited Athens, he sent Timothy to Thessaloniki, to seek information on how the Christians were.
- By the time he was in Corinth he also wrote two letters to the Thessalonians, in order to encourage them through their difficulties and their continuous persecution by the Jews.
Paul returned to the city of Thassaloniki, for his second and third journey later on, before his return to Asia Minor!
I hope you did enjoy this post today and 😀 .........
Until next time,keep shining and keep smiling my beautiful people 💗 💗 💗 💗 💗 💗 💗💗 💗 💗 💗💗