Shechem, an ancient city in Samaria, holds significant biblical importance as a site of God’s promise to Abram, a place of covenant renewal under Joshua, and the location of Jacob’s Well, pivotal in Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman.
Thessalonica (now Thessaloniki) was an ancient city in Macedonia, northern Greece, significant in the New Testament for its early Christian community. Founded around 315 BC by King Cassander and named after his wife Thessalonike, it was a key harbor and trade center in the Roman Empire. During Paul’s second missionary journey around AD 50-51, he founded a Christian community there, as described in Acts 17. The city, a cultural hub with Greek, Roman, and Jewish populations, faced persecution, which Paul addressed in his Epistles of First and Second Thessalonians. Today, Thessaloniki is a major Greek city with rich archaeological sites.
