Lydda is now ' a flourishing little town, em- bosomed in noble orchards of olive, fig, pomegran- ate, mulberry, sycamore, and other trees, and sur- rounded every way by a very fertile neighbourhood.' The ruins of the Crusaders' Church of St. George, have ' a certain air of grandeur ' (W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, 1910, p. 523). The town has a station on the Jafi'a- Jerusalem Railway.
LiTERATDRE. — E. RobinsoH, Biblical Researches, 1841, iii. 49- 55 ; C. Clermoat-Ganneau, Horua et Saint Gemges, 1S77 ; G. A. Smith, HGHL, 1897, p. 160 £. JaMES STRAHAN.
LYDIA. — The woman who bears this name in Ac 161^' is described as * a seller of purple, of the city of Thj-atira, one who worshipped God.' The implication is that Lydia was more or less closely
LYDIA
LYIXG
attached to the Jewish religion— a 'proselyte of the gate,' in later Eabbinic phraseology. We are told that she was found by St. Paul on his visit to Philippi at a small JeAvish meeting for prayer held at the river-side on the Sabbath day. On hearing the message of the Apostle, she was converted and baptized along with the members of her household, and thereupon entreated the missionary to lodge in her house during his stay in the town. As a seller of purple garments — among the most expen- sive articles of ancient commerce — Lydia was no doubt a woman of considerable wealth. Probably she was a widow carrying on the business of her dead husband, and her position at the head of a wealthy establishment shows the comparative free- dom enjoyed by women both in Asia Minor and in Macedonia. Her generous disposition, manifested in her pressing ofier of hospitality to the Apostle, may perliaps be reflected in the frequency and liberality with which the Philippian Church contri- buted to"^ the Apostle's wants (Ph 4^^ i«). She holds the distinction of being the first convert to Chris- tianity in Europe, and her household formed the nucleus of the Church of Philippi, to which St. Paul addressed the most affectionate and joyous of all his Epistles.
The fact that the Apostle Paul does not mention her by name in the Epistle has given rise to two different suggestions. Some have thought that shortly after her conversion Lydia may have eitlier died or returned to her home in Thyatira (as Milligan in HDB, art. * Lydia '). Others have put forward the idea that Lydia was not the personal name of the convert, but a description of her nationality as a native of Thyatira in the province of Lydia — 'the Lydian'; and further, that the Apostle may refer to her either as Euodia or Syntache (Ph 4^). Renan takes this latter view of the name, and suggests also that Lydia became the wife of the Apostle and bore the expenses of his trial in Philipjn (St. Paul, p. 148). Ramsay {HDB, art. ' Lydia '] regards the name as a familiar name (nickname), used instead of the personal proper name and meaning ' the Lvdian ' (so Zahn, Introd. to NT, Eng. tr., 1909, i. o33). Others, however, point to the frequency with which the name is found applied to women in Horace [Od. L 8, iii. 9, iv. 30), and regard it as a proper name.
LiTERATrRE.— E. Renan, St. Paul, 1869, p. 143 ; HDB, art. 'Lydia'; R.J. Viaovfliag, EGT, ' Acts," 1900, p. 345 ; Com- mentaries of Holtzmann and Zeller in loe.
W. F. Boyd. LYDIA (Ai'Sta). — Lydia, the fairest and richest country of western Asia Minor, was bounded by Mysia in the N., Phrygia in the E., Caria in the S., and the ^gean Sea in the W. Long mountain chains, extending westward from the central plateau, divided it into broad alluvial valleys. The regions between the ranges of Messogis, Tmolus, and Temnus, watered by the Cayster and the Hermus, were among the most fertile in the world. The trade and commerce of Lydia con- tributed more to its immense wealth than the mines of Tmolus or the golden sand of Pactolus. In the time of Alyattes and Croesus, who reigned in splendour at Sardis, the kingdom of Lydia em- braced almost the whole of Asia Minor west of the Halys, but Cyrus subdued it about 546 B.C., and a succession of satraps did their best to crush the spirit of the race. After the triumphal progress of Alexander the Great, Lydia M-as held for a time by Antigonus, and then by the Seleucids. After MagTiesia (190 B.C.) the Romans presented it to their ally Eumenes, king of Pergamos (1 Mac 8**). From 133 onwards it formed part of the Roman province of Asia. Before the time of Strabo (XIII. iv. 17) the Lydian language had been entirely dis- placed by the Greek.
The religion of the Lydians — the cult of Cybele — was a sensuous Nature-worship, perhaps origin- ally Hittite ; their music — ' soft Lydian airs ' — was voluptuous ; and the prostitution at their temples, whereby their daughters obtained dowries (Herod, i. 93), made 'Lydian' a term of contempt among the Greeks. Many Jewish families were settled in Lydia (Jos. Ant. XJI. iii. 4), and it is probable that in the great centres of population not a few Gentiles turned to them in search of a higher faith and a purer morality. Among these was the purple-seller of Thyatira, who was St. Paul's first convert in Europe (Ac 16"-^). ' Lydia' was most probably not her real name, but a familiar ethnic appellation. She was 'the Lydian' to all her Philippian friends (E. Renan, "St. Paul, 1869, p. 146 ; T. Zahn, Introd. to the NT, Eng. tr., 1909, i. 523, 533). See preceding article.