Biblical Geography

Greece

Region of city-states, then a Roman province · Old and New Testament · Greece

Scripture first

Acts 16:9-10 · WEBU

Loading the passage…

Read the whole chapter in the reader

The Macedonian call turns Paul westward: come over and help us.

Alexander's conquests spread Greek language and culture across the east two centuries before Christ. The Old Testament was translated into Greek at Alexandria, and the New Testament was written in Greek.

Paul's mission crossed the Aegean into Macedonia and Achaia: Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth. Half the letters of the New Testament answer churches in the Greek world.

The world of the Greek city-states, whose language carried the gospel and whose cities heard Paul.

Biblical names
Greece, Javan (Hebrew), Macedonia and Achaia (its provinces)
Modern identification
Greece · Greece

Identification note. Biblical Macedonia and Achaia lay within modern Greece and North Macedonia.

The Aegean islands and the short sea crossings of -20 explain the pace and order of Paul's movements; the missionary journeys follow the sea.

  • The Macedonian call turns Paul westward: come over and help us.
  • The goat from the west foretells Greece's rise under Alexander
  • Paul at Athens among the philosophers
  • Greeks seek wisdom; Christ crucified is preached
  • Paul's journeys through Macedonia and Greece

What we know

Certain

  • Athens, Corinth, Philippi and Thessalonica are securely identified and excavated.