Berea, Vergina, & Thessaloniki
A full day… so bear with us!
Left Meteora early and in the rain which cleared as we neared Berea (modern day Veroia ) It was a beautiful drive through every kind of terrain.
Berea has a mosaic monument to St Paul and his time spent in Berea after having to hastily leave Thessaloniki when the Jews there were determined to do him harm. Acts 18:10 records that Paul went to the Jewish synagogue in Berea and reasoned with them showing from scripture how Jesus is the Messiah. It says that many believed including not a few Greek women and men of high standing. The steps of the monument are said to be steps from the original synagogue on which Paul stood and taught - we don’t really know that for sure. Veroia still has a small synagogue with ties to that early Jewish community. Sadly in 1943, the community had 850 members, of whom 680 were killed by the Germans in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Today only two Jewish families live in Veroia.
We also went to a Byzantine Museum in Berea specializing in Greek Orthodox iconography and mosaics from the Berea area.
Near Berea is Vergina - the site of the tomb of King Philip II of Macedonia ( father of Alexander the Great ). This tomb site was discovered in 1977. 336 BC is when Philip II was assassinated at Aigai ( first capital of Macedonia which turns out to be here in little Vergina). The tombs here were intact and the finds are incredible. The museum was built around the tombs - so you enter into the side of the tumulus (burial mound) and walk down into the tomb.
The rest of the day was spent in Thessaloniki, where Paul was persecuted by the Jews who were afraid that Paul’s preaching would endanger their favored status with Rome. First we saw the Roman forum, which was built after Paul’s time, around 2nd century AD, but built essentially on top of the Greek agora of Paul’s time. The museum holds many artifacts that would be contemporary with Paul. In Thessaloniki you can walk the ancient Roman road the via Egnatia which Paul would have walked from his first landing in Macedonia at Neopolis all the way to Thessaloniki. The Galarius arch, commissioned by emperor Galerius in the 4th century AD is placed over the via Egnatia . A colonnaded pathway led to the rotunda which may have been intended to serve as his mausoleum. The rotunda has incredible acoustics. It has been used over the centuries as a basilica, a mosque in the time of the Ottoman rule, and a church again. There are still parts of colorful frescos and mosaics visible.
We stopped into several Greek Orthodox Cathedrals and I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves!
The catacombs of St John the Baptist were closed, but from the street we could look down into the courtyard where a Roman nymphanium (baths) were converted into an area of mass baptisms. The church is underneath the current cathedral Hagia Sophia as are the catacombs.
One major reason for this trip was to obtain drone footage of the forum for our friends Jim and Beni and their biblical visual archive project. That was a success!! At the end of the day we discovered that our hotel room balcony looks out over the forum.
The driving and parking in Thessaloniki is absolutely bananas! There is no consideration of lanes / pedestrians/ traffic signs (which seem to be only vague suggestions). Here’s hoping we find our car again in the morning and that no one has triple parked next to it!!
Reading Acts 18, it may seem that Paul’s time in Thessaloniki was a bit of a failure. But the fact that today every block has an active church, many small chapels and prayer booths and the country side is dotted everywhere with monasteries bears testament to the truth of Gods promise that his word will not return empty but will succeed in the thing for which he sent it (Is 55:11).
