To study the book of Philippians, we first should understand the planting and context of the Philippian church. For that, we look to the book of Acts. In Acts 16:7-34, we can see some of what was going on at that time.
The servant girl in v. 16 had significance to not just her masters, but to the whole region. To understand why, we need to have another (brief) history lesson. In the Macedonian region sometime within a couple of centuries before Christ, there was a king named Croatias (I think that's the spelling). This king wanted to know who the most reliable oracle (pagan version of prophet) was. To determine who was the most reliable, he devised a test. He kept a "day planner" and wrote down what he was doing at regular intervals during the day. Meanwhile, he had messengers visit the top seven oracles and ask them what the king was doing was at that moment in time. The messengers would then report to the king and tell him when the oracle had answered and what they had said. The king would check his planner and compare with what the oracle said.
Well, one of the messengers went to the oracle of Delphi (proper, del-phee'; common, del-phai'), and when she answered, she told the messenger where the king was, what he was doing and what he was using. From then on for about 1000 years, every major Greek and Roman leader consulted the Oracle of Delphi (which, if my understanding is correct, was later renamed by Alexander the Great to Philippi, in honor of his father). Not until Emperor Constantine declared the Roman Empire a "Christian" empire, did she meet her demise.
The Oracle of Delphi lived in a room in the southwest corner of a temple built to Apollo (a mythological Greek god). The temple was built in in Delphi at the intersection of two fault lines in the earth's crust. Within the temple, there was a cap over the intersection. Whenever the oracle was going to give her answer, they would take off the cap and a noxious concoction of gasses (methane and such) would come up out of the earth. She would inhale this stuff and then give her answer.
The Oracle of Delphi had servants who would also prophecy (in the Greek, they were called "pythia"). Well, this servant girl was one of the pythia. Paul knew when he cast out the spirit (demon), that it would likely cause trouble, but where it says "Most High God," in the Greek, it's twisted to mean "Zeus," and Paul was not going to stand for that.
When he cast out the demon, he and Silas were taken to the magistrates (in an open air court kind of thing), beat up with some sticks (probably no more than an inch in diameter); then in a condition worthy of the ER, they were cast into a pit in the floor of the basement of a stone dungeon with no plumbing (stinky), likely, several rodents of unusual size, and then sealed into it with a big rock, not to mention they were chained to the wall. In light of this, they were singing hymns! Then, suddenly, there was a great earthquake. Freeze! Hold that thought!
At an intersection of two fault lines, where four tectonic plates meet, there was a great earthquake? Skeptics beware! That seems scientifically accurate. That is plausible. I believe it happened since God said it did.
Under these circumstances, the Philippian church was born. Not only born, but it thrived as we will see in a future part of this series.
