Greece Trip (4): Tracing Paul's Second Missionary Journey: Neapolis

Beginning with this post, I will highlight the places we visited in our recent Greece Trip. Essentially, we followed the footsteps of Paul in his Second Missionary Journey as recorded in Acts 15:36-18:22 in which we visited several cities in Greece. I will follow the chronological order as recorded in Acts of the Apostles rather than our actual itinerary, which is in the reversed order.

After Paul received the vision of the Macedonian call in Troas (Acts 16:6-10), he was joined by Timothy, Silas, and Luke, and they set sail to the region of Macedonian (Acts 16:11-12). It is significant that the first person plural pronoun, we, is used in Acts 16:11, possibly indicating that the author of Acts, traditionally acknowledged as Luke, now accompanies Paul in his journey.

Paul first landed in Neapolis, modern Kavala, the principal port of Philippi (Acts 16:11). A visit to modern Kavala shows why this is a natural port for northern Greece. The commanding and strategic location along the sea route from Thessalonica to Asia Minor makes this city an important port. From Neapolis, Paul and his companions would have walked approximately 16km (10 miles) to Philippi, slightly less than a day's journey on foot (Acts 16:12).

There is no mention of missionary activities in Neapolis in Acts. However, its proximity to Philippi and Paul's subsequent travels through this port (cf. Acts 20:1-2; 6) make it likely that some form of missionary work may have been carried out here, either by Paul or his converts. The city of Neapolis was subsequently renamed Christoupolis in later centuries before being burned down by the Normans in 1185.

Unfortunately, there is nothing much left for us to see from the 1st century as any ancient remains, if any, would have lied beneath the modern Kavala.

However, the modern harbour, with its quaint seaside cafes and the gentle hill slopes from the shore , provide sufficient backdrop for one to imagine the setting that would have greeted Paul and his companions as they landed here to launch their missionary work in this region in response to the Macedonian call.