AD 49

Philippi

Paul's Philippi mission and evidence of Christ-related conflict at Rome

The first named convert in the Philippi story is Lydia, a travelling purple-cloth merchant who turns her own house into the missionaries' base.

Two separate things, both filed under 49

The 49 on this entry is not one datable event. It bundles Paul's mission at Philippi together with evidence that a Christ-related movement already existed at Rome around the time of Claudius's expulsion order.

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites dates Paul's arrival at Philippi specifically to autumn or winter 49 CE. Other chronologies place it in 49–50 or later, spanning roughly 48 to 50.

Beside a river, then in a cell

Acts reports that Paul's party crossed from Troas through Samothrace and Neapolis to the Roman colony of Philippi, where Paul spoke to women gathered for prayer beside a river.

Lydia, a purple-cloth dealer from Thyatira, was baptized there with her household and then hosted the missionaries in her home.

Acts says Paul and Silas were beaten and imprisoned after a slave girl's owners lost income from her fortune-telling. On release they encouraged the believers gathered at Lydia's house and left the city.

"Chrestus" and an expulsion at Rome

Suetonius says Claudius expelled Jews from Rome because of recurring disturbances associated with "Chrestus." Acts independently reports that Aquila and Priscilla had recently left Rome because Claudius ordered Jews to depart.

Many scholars read "Chrestus" as a garbled reference to Christ, but the identification is contested, and the expulsion has been dated to 41, to 49, or to 49–50 — one study argues Claudius may have ordered more than one.

What the episode supports is that Christ-related disputes may already have existed at Rome; it is not evidence that Paul founded the Roman church in 49.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

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Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~0049.

What the sources leave uncertain

No ancient source supplies a day or securely synchronizes the Philippi mission with the Roman expulsion.
Philippi chronologies range approximately from 48 to 50 CE; the precise autumn–winter 49 date is a scholarly reconstruction.
The Claudian expulsion has been dated to 41, 49, or 49–50 CE, and one study argues that Claudius may have ordered more than one expulsion.
Suetonius’s “Chrestus” is often interpreted as a confused reference to Christ, but neither that identification nor the exact participants in the disturbances is certain.