Acts 16:14

Λυδία : she may have taken her name “a solo natali,” as Grotius and others have thought, like many of the libertinae, Afra, Græca, Syra; but the name was a popular one for women, cf. its frequent use in Horace. 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, Nösgen, in loco. 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 considerable 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 endorsing Renan's view that she was his wife, St. Paul, p. 148; see below on Acts 24:26. 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 Θυατείρων 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 οἱ βαφεῖς at Thyatira, cf. Spohn, Miscell. erud. ant., p. 113; Blass in 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, Acts 16:2, describes it as belonging to Lydia. ἤκουεν : imperfect, denoting continuous hearing; the baptism would naturally follow after a period of hearing and instruction, “quod evenit aor [293] διήνοιξεν declaratur” Blass, see also Bengel. διήνοιξε τὴν καρδίαν, cf. Acts 17:3; Ephesians 1:18; in LXX, cf. Hosea 2:15 (17), Malachi 1:4; Malachi 1:4. The verb is frequent in St. Luke, Luke 24:31-32; Luke 24:45, and in Acts 2:23 quotation, Acts 7:56; Acts 17:3; only once elsewhere in N.T., Mark 7:34. “To open is the part of God, to pay attention that of the woman,” Chrysostom: ὥστε καὶ θεῖον καὶ ἀνθρώπινον ἦν. τοῖς λ. ὑπὸ τοῦ Π.: C. and H. see an indication of St. Luke's own modesty: “ we spake” in Acts 16:13, but now only Paul is mentioned.

[293] aorist tense.