Acts 17:1

ἡ omitted before συναγωγὴ with אABD.

1. διοδεύσαντες δέ, and when they had passed through. This verb, of rare occurrence in classical Greek, but common in the LXX. (cf. Genesis 12:6; Psalms 88:40; Bar 4:2, &c.), is found in the N.T. only here and in Luke 8:1. The use of the same words and phrases is a noticeable point in support of the identity of authorship of the two books.

τὴν Ἀμφίπολιν καὶ Ἀπολλωνίαν, Amphipolis and Apollonia. The journey is made to the south and west. Amphipolis was about 33 miles distant from Philippi, along the Egnatian road. It had been a famous place in the time of the Peloponnesian war, and was in St Paul’s time a great Roman military station. Its name was given to it because it was as nearly as possible enclosed by the winding stream of the river Strymon. Apollonia was about 30 miles farther on, in the district of Macedonia known as Mygdonia, and about 37 miles from Thessalonica. The Apostle and his companions appear not to have made any stay in these towns. Chrysostom accounts for their haste thus: πάλιν τὰς μὲν μικρὰς παρατρέχουσι πόλεις, ἐπὶ δὲ τὰς μείζους ἐπείγονται, ἐκεῖθεν καθάπερ ἔκ τινος πηγῆς μέλλοντος τοῦ λόγου διαῤῥέειν εἰς τὰς πλησίον.

Θεσσαλονίκην, Thessalonica, the modern Saloniki, to the Christians of which place St Paul afterwards addressed the two earliest of his extant epistles. From very early times Thessalonica had been a famous place. Its old name was Therma, and it was called Thessalonica after a sister of Alexander the Great. It is now one of the most important towns in European Turkey, and it played a great part in the history of the Middle Ages as the bulwark of Christendom in the East. It was captured by the Saracens A.D. 904, then by the Crusaders in 1184, and lastly by the Turks in 1430. Even now there is a large Christian element among its population, and a still larger number of Jews.

συναγωγὴ τῶν Ἰουδαίων, a synagogue of the Jews. Apparently at Philippi there had been no synagogue. But Thessalonica may have had a larger Jewish population, and numerous enough to provide and support a building for their religious services.