12---14.
γυναιξί.
345
14. Kai τις γυνὴ ὀνόματι Λυδία, πορφυρόπωλις πόλεως
Θυατείρων, σεβοµένη τὸν Θεόν, ἤκουεν' ἧς 6 Κύριος διήνοιξε τὴν
1 ηκονεν, D*E, Vulg., Chrys. read ηκουσεν; Blass rejects.
‘“‘where there was according to custom a place for prayer”. The R.V. reads οὗ ἐνομίζομεν προσευχὴν εἶναι, ‘ where we supposed there was a place of prayer”. There is very good authority for rendering προσευχή, “a place of prayer,” cf. 3 Macc. vii. 20; Philo, In Flacc., 6; Jos., Vita, 54, cf. also Juvenal, iii., 295, and Tertullian, Adv. Nat., i., 13, etc. To these instances we may add a striking use of the word in aa Egyptian inscription, possibly of the third century B.c., Deissmann, Neue Bibelstudien, pp. 49, 50, see also Curtius, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, ii. 542. No doubt the word occurs also in heathen worship for a place of prayer, Schiirer, Fewish People, div. ii., vol. ii., p. 69, E.T., cf. also Ken- nedy, Sources of N. T. Greek, p. 214. Where there were no synagogues, owing perhaps to the smallness of the Jewish believers or proselytes, there may well have been a προσευχή, and St. Luke may have wished to mark this by the expression he chooses (in xvii. 1 he speaks of a συναγωγή at Thessalonica), although on the other hand it must not be forgotten that προσευχή might be used of a large building capable of hold- ing a considerable crowd (Jos., u. 5.), and we cannot with certainty distinguish between the two buildings, Schiirer, 1. S., Pp. 72, 73. That the river side (not the Strymon, but a stream, the Gangas or Gangites, which flows into the larger tiver) should be chosen as the place of resort was very natural for the purpose of the Levitical washings, cf. also Juvenal, Sat., iii., 11, and long before Tertullian’s day the Decree of Halicarnassus, Jos., Ant., xiv., 10, 23, cf. Ps. cxxxvii. 1, Ezra vill. 15, 21, of. Plumptre’s note on Luke vi, 12.---ταῖς συνελθούσαις γυν.: “ which were come together,” R.V., i.e., on this particular occasion; A.V. ‘‘resorted’’. It is noticeable that in the three Mace- donian towns, Philippi, Thessalonica, Bercea, women are specially mentioned as influenced by the Apostle’s labours, and, as in the case of Lydia, it is evident that the women of Philippi occupied a position of considerable freedom and social influence. See this picture fully borne out by extant Macedonian in- scriptions, which assign to women a higher social position in Macedonia
-cf. its frequent use in Horace.
than was the case for instance in Athens, Lightfoot, Philippians, pp. 55, 56; Ram- say, St. Paul, pp. 224, 227, 252. In this lies an answer to the strictures of Hilgen- feld, who regards the whole of ver. 13 as an interpolation of the ‘‘ author to Theo- philus,” and so also the expression πορ. ἡμῶν els τὴν προσευχήν, whereas it was quite natural that Paul should go fre- quently to the Jewish house of prayer. Ver. 14. Λνδία: she may have taken her name ‘‘a solo natali,”” as Grotius and others have thought, like many of the libertinae, Afra, ἄταοα, Syra; but the name was a popular one for women, Renan takes it as meaning “the Lydian,” and compares Κορινθία in inscriptions, St. Paul, p. 116, cf. also Zahn, Einleitung, i., 375, but on the other hand, Nésgen, in ἴορο.---πορφυρόπωλις: a seller of purple at Philippi of the purple dyed garments from Thyatira, which formed the finest class of her wares. It is evident that she must have possessed a consider- able amount of capital to carry on this trade, and we may note that she was thus in a position to help Paul in the expenses connected with his trial, without endors- ing Renan’s view that she was his wife, St. Paul, p. 148; see below on xxiv. 26. The expression σεβ. τὸν Θεόν shows that she was ‘‘a proselyte of the gate”; she could easily have gained her knowledge of the Jewish religion as she was πόλεως Ovateipwy where a Jewish colony had been planted, and there is reason to believe that the Jews were specially devoted to the dyeing industry for which Thyatira and the Lydian land in general were noted. Thus the inscriptions make it certain that there was a guild of dyers ot βαφεῖς at Thyatira, cf. Spohn, Miscell. erud. ant., p. 113; Blassin loco; Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i., p. 145; Renan, St. Paul, p. 146, note; Zahn, Einleitung, i., p. 376. According to Strabo, Thyatira was a Mysian town,, but Ptolemy, v. 2, describes it as belong- ing to Ἰγάϊα.-- ἤκουεν: imperfect, de- noting continuous hearing; the baptism would naturally follow after a period of hearing and instruction, “quod evenit aor. διήνοιξεν declaratur” Blass, see also Bengel.—8ijvorge τὴν καρδίαν, cf. xvii. 3, Eph. i. 18; in LXX, cf. Hos. ii.