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“The Lord Opened her Heart:”1

Lydia as a Example of Early

Christian Ministry By V.K. McCarty

Introduction: Not a few Leading Women2

NE OF THE HAPPY SURPRISES of the seminary experience has been

discovering that the Apostle Paul, who is often criticized in the experience of

parish life for his attitude toward women, is actually revealed in Luke’s narrative

describing him, and in his own writings, to be significantly appreciative of the

contribution to his ministry made by the women co-workers in his life. Several of these

women were collaborative associates with him, and their lives in their own right affected

the shaping of early Christianity.3 Their contribution was made possible, to some extent,

by the expansion of the gospel within the environment of the first-century family home

and workshop, arenas where women could operate without violating societal norms for

1 Acts 16:14. This paper is part of a larger work, Prominently Receptive to the Spirit: Lydia, Prisca and

Phoebe in the Ministry of Paul, available from: http://gts.academia.edu/VKMcCarty. Unless otherwise

noted, all scripture is quoted in the NRSV; The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard

Version: with the Apocrypha; 4th edition/ Michael D. Coogan, ed. (Oxford; New York: Oxford University

Press, 2010). 2 Acts 17:4b.

3 Florence M. Gillman, Women who Knew Paul (Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1992), pg. 12.

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proper behavior. By the example of Lydia, this study examines the contribution and

nature of women’s leadership in the ministry of Paul.

The story of Lydia in Acts 16 reflects an affirmation of divine power: she is

witnessed at the very moment of conversion. As an early believer in the emerging church,

she demonstrates a powerful exercise of the charismata4 Paul describes in Rom. 12:6-8,

namely generosity and leadership. Additionally, Lydia stands at the threshold between

two periods of the primitive church: an earlier time when devotion to Jewish practice still

influenced the lives of the believers and the continuing development, “under divine

pressure,” of the gentile church.5

The author of Luke/Acts appears to have made a special point of celebrating the

ministry of women throughout his two-volume work, and “of hearing and recording also

treble voices.”6 In fact, even the scant verses describing Lydia create a helpful lens

through which to examine Luke's understanding of the place of women in the emerging

church. The Spirit-driven progress of the Gospel message can be seen here, with the sort

of erratic, synergistic detail often characterizing the gift of human growth. Acts was

written bearing witness to “an age in which the church possessed the Spirit and was

triumphantly engaging in a world mission to the gentiles;”7 and Paul as well

acknowledges a “genuine pneumatic endowment” in the women with whom he is

reported interacting.8

In a patriarchal culture, where it was often assumed that women were properly to be

considered an invisible component of society and therefore under-reported,9 it is

remarkable that Luke chooses to include so many details involving women. Especially in

a document crafted to please his patron Theophilus,10

the interwoven appearances of so

many women in Luke/Acts, sometimes serving in leading roles, creates a fascinating

witness, and shows them making distinct contributions during the early centuries of

Christianity. By the very fact that Luke portrays women exercising a variety of

responsibilities, “he shows how the Gospel liberates and creates new possibilities for

women.”11

4 The Greek term for “a gift of grace,” meaning the blessings bestowed on every Christian for the

fulfillment of vocation. 5 Robert Jewett, A Chronology of Paul’s Life (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979), pg. 9.

6 Jaroslav Pelikan, Acts (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brazos, 2005), pg. 205.

7 Jewett, A Chronology of Paul’s Life, pg. 8.

8 Albrecht Oepke, ThDNT, v.1, pg. 787.

9 John Anthony McGuckin, The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology (Louisville, Ky.:

Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), pg. 365-366. 10

See Lk. 1:1. 11

Ben Witherington, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich.:

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), pg. 156

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The development of the church made possible new roles for women, some with

leadership responsibilities.12

For example, women could function as missionaries and

ministers, and the hospitality which they offered in their homes made possible the

development of house churches as an early environment for the church at a time when the

structure of table fellowship celebrated in the Spirit of Jesus Christ was in its earliest

stages of formation. Indeed, Jaroslav Pelikan has pointed out that “it is unavoidably clear,

both from the original words in the second chapter of Joel and from quotation of them in

the sermon of Peter at Pentecost that it was to be ‘sons and daughters,’ both men and

women on whom God ‘will pour out my Spirit’ and who ‘shall prophesy’ (Acts 2:17-

18).”13

Luke, using the high Hellenistic phrase, notes that “not a few leading women”

were brought to belief in Jesus Christ and responded in faith with generosity and

missionary fervor (Acts 17:3,12). The verses of scripture describing Lydia (Acts 16:14-

15, 40) provide evidence that the spread of the gospel embraced men and women alike,

crossing boundaries of status and social class. The witness of Lydia helps to illustrate the

vision of the Christian community for Paul and what might comprise women’s roles

within it.

HE STORY RECORDED IN ACTS 16 takes place during the principle period of

Paul’s apostolic work, his Aegean Mission, one which has arguably made “the

most lasting impact on Christian development and thought.”14

Both Paul and

Luke portray women during this time as prominently receptive to the Gospel and among

the earliest of those baptized in Europe. They were inspired by the Spirit of God to open

their homes, facilitating the creation of house churches. Women like Lydia are

remembered as people giving collaborative support to Paul in his evangelistic work.15

“In both his letters and in Acts, the support of women is integral to the expansion of

Paul’s mission.”16

Furthermore, Luke and Paul both offer a picture of men and women contributing to

the expansion of early Christianity by working in partnership. Of course, these very

partnerships put the women at risk, however, for this was a time when “childbirth took as

many women’s lives as the battlefield took soldiers.”17

One-third of those surviving

infancy were dead by age six, and half of children died by age ten. Over half of these

12

“No less than nine women were at one time or other members of what we might call Paul’s mission

team—that is nearly twenty percent, a notable statistic in a male-dominated society.” James D. G. Dunn,

Beginning from Jerusalem (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2009), pg. 634. 13

Pelikan, Acts, pg. 206. 14 James D. G. Dunn, The Acts of the Apostles (Valley Forge, Penn.: Trinity Press International, 1996), pg.

213. 15

Albrecht Oepke, ThDNT, v. 1, pg. 787. 16

Margaret Y. MacDonald, “Rereading Paul: Early Interpreters of Paul on Women and Gender,” in Women

and Christian Origins, Ross Shepherd Kraemer, Mary Rose D’Angelo, eds. (New York: Oxford University

Press, 1999), pg. 237. 17

Lynn H. Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians: Illuminating Ancient Ways of Life

(Grand Rapids. Mich.: Baker Academic, 2009), pg. 160.

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survivors died by age sixteen and by age twenty-six three-quarters of them had

perished.18

If they managed to survive the perils of childbirth, many young brides

outlived their older husbands and became widows at an early age. It is plausible that

Lydia was married at some time in their life; it is also possible she could have borne

children; the fact that none are named might indicate that they did not survive until the

time of Paul’s missionary work.

While Lydia is a remarkable New Testament character, she is nevertheless in some

ways emblematic of the situation of the early church, especially with regard to the

evidence of her mobility, her conversion experience and the possibility of new roles for

women. The scriptural witness clearly implies that Lydia, being from Thyatira,

experienced considerable travel in her lifetime, reflective of the particular mobility

characteristic among early Christians. The spread of the early Church, like that of Greek

culture, was made possible in part by the excellent system of Roman roads throughout the

empire, so that travel within the Roman Empire, whether for business or ministry, could

be contemplated and accomplished with a confidence and certainty which were unknown

in the centuries after.19

This dynamic mobility of people, enabling them to move from

one location to another, is clearly attested in Paul’s letters.

Epictetus boasted that “Caesar has obtained for us a profound peace. There are

neither wars nor battles, nor great robberies nor piracies, but we may travel at all hours,

and sail from east to west.”20

While the Roman Empire’s excellent road-works made

travel possible for both Paul and Lydia, the available night-time accommodations were

dismal and dangerous places to seek rest, many being nothing more than brothels. “The

moral dangers at the inns made hospitality an important virtue in early Christianity.”21

Therefore, from the earliest development of the church, the spread of the Gospel was

intimately dependent on the faithful offer of a safe resting place and refreshment and, as a

result, a valued role traditionally connected with women.

Paul is described accepting lodging and table fellowship from those who came to the

faith from his teaching as a regular aspect of his ministry. Luke often focuses on new

believers who were relatively wealthy and inspired by the message of the Spirit to finance

the cause, some by providing hospitality in their residential estates, so that itinerant

preachers could be sent out from a stable missionary home base. These benefactors

included women who were attested as heads of households, and Lydia is among them

(Acts 16:14-15). “The home was the basic cell of organization in the Pauline mission; it

was the arena of celebration, teaching, and probably often of conversion.”22

Hospitality

18

Richard S. Ascough, Lydia: Paul’s Cosmopolitan Hostess (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2008),

pg. 44. 19

Abraham J. Malherbe, Social Aspects of Early Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), pg. 63. 20

Discourses 3.13.9; Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity (Grand Rapids, Mich.:

Eerdmans, 2003), pg. 86. Epictetus Discourses 3 in translation available at:

http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.3.three.html 21

Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, pg. 89. 22

MacDonald, “Rereading Paul: Early Interpreters of Paul on Women and Gender,” pg. 241.

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was key to the mission, based as it was on an extensive network of households which

supported the “sending” (propempein) and “receiving” (prosdechesthai) of co-workers. It

is good, then, to be mindful that any description of itinerant evangelists presupposes an

equal complement of householders opening their homes to the progress of the Gospel.

Luke appears to take special care to demonstrate to his audience that where the

Gospel went, women, often prominent, were “some of the first, foremost, and most

faithful converts to the Christian faith, and that their conversion led to their assuming

new roles in the service of the Gospel.”23

Women are attested in scripture serving the

early communities of believers through responsibilities that normally would not have

been available to them. “Luke stresses the viability of women performing various tasks of

ministry for the community.”24

These household missionary leaders may represent part of

Luke’s own analysis of how the phenomenon of house churches came into being. After

all, as Paul himself preached to the Galatians, in the new religion, “There is no longer

male and female; for all of you are one in Jesus Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). When the work

of the Holy Spirit is discerned and faithfully described, both men and women are called

to action. Not surprisingly then, an acknowledged and necessary component of sending

out preachers for the progress of the gospel is providing hospitality for their needs.

OTICE that the ministry of hospitality offered by women is reflected in the life

of Jesus as well; the itinerant ministry of Christ is described in connection with

the generosity of believers around him. Prominent among them were Mary and

her sister Martha, whose determined style of hospitality was incorporated into one of his

familiar teachings (Lk. 10: 38-42). Luke describes women who were present with “the

twelve” as they were “proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God”

(Lk. 8:1-3). Four are specifically named with several others cited, and they are

acknowledged as offering Jesus and the apostles hospitality; they were women “who

provided for them out of their resources.” Some or all of them may have been women of

means, especially Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward, and Susanna.

This foundational basis for ministry is established as the preparation for Jesus

teaching a parable, indicating parameters of support needed for his catechetical ministry.

The missionary charge of Jesus in his teaching, imploring the apostles to rely on

hospitality freely given (Lk. 9:2-5, 10:1-16), establishes the practice from which the

“house church” emerged. Luke demonstrates that women in the memory of the early

church who offered the hospitality of their home aided both the intensity and the

extensive growth of the Christian community. This “explains why prominent women are

mentioned whenever house churches are mentioned in the New Testament.”25

23 Ben Witherington, Women in the Earliest Churches (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pg.

157. 24

Ibid. 25

Witherington, Women in the Earliest Churches, pg. 145.

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One challenge in the study of biblical characters attested in the emerging church is

the tension which exists between Acts and the letters of Paul as sources for historical

events. Although many commentators date Acts to the late first century, some more

recent scholars suggest that Acts was probably written early in the second century, two

generations after Paul’s letters.26

Although it remains challenging to interpret how the

chapter from Acts describing Lydia in Philippi meshes with the chronology presented in

Paul’s letters, it is possible to conjecture that the part of Paul’s life described in Acts 16

took place sometime after his writing of the impassioned Letter to the Galatians and

perhaps before the Corinthian correspondence.27

It is challenging, however, to determine

with any robust degree of reliability the existence of Lydia as an historical character,

since she is attested in scripture only in Acts.

Even though Acts was written in narrative form, the sense of Lydia’s historicity is

nevertheless heightened by her story being embedded in the first “we” section with its

sense of eye-witness immediacy (Acts 16:10-17). While there is an “undifferentiated

skepticism regarding the usability of the Book of Acts in historical reconstructions,”28

other comparisons with Synoptic details bear witness to the broad outline of Acts as in

many ways reliable.29

One can conjecture that Lydia was a real person, although it

remains challenging to establish this with certainty since Lydia’s story cannot be

contextualized by comparing it with another source. Still, the Acts of the Apostles

functions as an effective window illuminating the action of the Holy Spirit as it guided

the early church.

Contrasting with Paul’s own letters, which naturally offer a more diffused,

impressionistic picture of what happened, Luke presents an active narrative in the Acts of

the Apostles, sometimes rich with vivid details. He may have had theological motivations

for idealizing the early church, intending to picture a time when the Spirit of the Lord

was remembered as active and contributing in a variety of ways to the growth of the

primitive community and its expansion westward from Jerusalem across Europe toward

Rome. Luke indicates clearly that the work of God in the Holy Spirit empowers men and

women alike.

T MAY BE USEFUL here to reflect on Luke’s description in Acts 2:42-47 for its

demonstration of the action of the Spirit at work in the lives of the early believers,

when they were still also observant members of the synagogue community. The

verses offer a rich glimpse into the lives of those responding to the action of God with

awe, praise and acts of generosity. Here divine support for the growth of new members

26

“Acts was written c. 115…this date is close to the end of the second generation of Deutero-Pauline

activity.” Richard I. Pervo, Acts: A Commentary (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2009), pg. 5. 27

Robert Jewett, “Graph of Dates and Time-Spans,” in A Chronology of Paul’s Life (Philadelphia: Fortress

Press, 1979). 28

Jewett, A Chronology of Paul’s Life, pg. 7. 29

Dunn, Acts of the Apostles, pg. xvi.

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“who were being saved” is met with cooperative poolings of resources and acts of

hospitality which further inspire “glad and generous hearts” during table fellowship.

The link between leadership and household probably had a special significance for

the roles of women. The fact that the seminal groups of believers functioned in much the

same way as an extended household, the domain traditionally associated with women

undoubtedly facilitated the involvement of women in Pauline Christianity. Since much of

their leadership would have been exercised in a household setting, “the house base of the

movement may have enabled women to turn community leadership into an extension of

their roles as household managers.”30

The private home offered a place of privacy,

intimacy and stability, providing an economic infrastructure for the early Christian

community, “a platform for missionary work, a framework for leadership and authority,

and probably a definite role for women.”31

A connection can be identified between the environment and the ideology of the

early church, since the home environment of the community of believers influenced their

understanding of themselves before the time when codified rituals of the liturgy came to

be more highly developed. The dining room (triclinium) provided a setting reflecting the

environment of Jesus at the Last Supper, and the emphasis he made on familial ties

among believers “corresponded remarkably with the Christians’ earliest self-

identification.”32

Thus, the house church functioned as the locus of the Christian

community. “Luke has presented the house church as the creative hub of God’s

redemptive work…these churches are banquet communities, celebrating the abundance of

God in Christ which is continually opening up doors for repentance.”33

The individual

house church as well as the whole church (ekklesia) in a town “counted women as well as

men, persons of high and low social status, and persons of different nationalities among

its membership and leadership. Those who joined the early Christian missionary

movement joined it as equals.”34

The very fact, then, that women, “that is, half the human race,” are absent from so

many historical narrations in scripture demonstrates that “both the ancient literary sources

and contemporary historiography are not the mirrors or windows they claim to be.”35

Historians of early Christianity are gaining a greater appreciation of how the simple

30

Margaret Y. MacDonald, “Reading Real Women through the Undisputed Letters of Paul,” in Women and

Christian Origins, Ross Shepherd Kraemer, Mary Rose D’Angelo, eds. (New York: Oxford University

Press, 1999), pg. 203. 31

Vincent Branick, The House Church in the Writings of Paul (Wilmington, Del.: Michael Glazier, 1989),

pg. 15. 32

Ibid. 33

John Koenig, New Testament Hospitality: Partnership with Strangers as Promise and Mission

(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), pg. 106. 34

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, “Missionaries, Apostles, Coworkers: Romans 16 and the Reconstruction of

Women’s Early Christian History,” Word & World 6:4 (1986), pg. 432. 35

Bernadette J. Brooten, “Early Christian Women and their Cultural Context: Issues of Method in

Historical Reconstruction,” in Feminist Perspectives on Biblical Scholarship, Adele Yarbro Collins, ed.

(Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1985), pg. 68.

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arrangements and primary functions of everyday life in the home and workshop would

have been quite significant for the expansion of the movement.36

ITHOUT LUKE’S NARRATIVE IN ACTS, nothing would be known about

Lydia, so the access offered by the scriptural text which does exist is

singularly important. Lydia, the seller of purple goods occupies “a pivotal

position in the discernment of women’s work in the history of interpretation.”37

Schottroff has observed that there is a tendency in biblical texts for the women who are

present to be invisible as women, partly because the work women accomplish is not

regarded as an object of theological reflection. By looking at “what the New Testament

has to say about women’s work, in terms of how it has been interpreted historically, one

can measure the extent of the invisibility of women’s work in the world of theological

tradition.” A complementary approach would be to maintain, with Schottroff, that “what

God’s actions mean becomes visible in the work a woman does to keep life going.”38

This study of the brief texts which preserve the memory of Lydia is offered in the hope of

shedding fresh light on the lives of these women at work in the Pauline ministry.

Encountering Lydia by the River

T IS FASCINATING to ponder what it must have been like for the apostle Paul, with

his pious background as a Jewish Pharisee, to encounter Lydia among the women of

Philippi gathered by the river. Was his first impression of this colorful character as

someone startlingly different than the women familiar to him from his home synagogue

36

MacDonald, “Reading Real Women through the Undisputed Letters of Paul,” pg. 203. 37

Luise Schottroff, Lydia’s Impatient Sisters: A Feminist History of Early Christianity (Louisville, Ky.:

Westminster John Knox Press, 1995), pg. 88. 38

Ibid., pg. 86.

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family? Considering Lydia’s cultural background, her level of independence and her

occupation, how might she have been dressed and groomed? Before speaking to her, did

Paul hear her offer prayer, perhaps leading other Macedonian women in their Sabbath

day devotions?

Lydia is known to us from three verses narrated by Luke in Acts 16:14-15, 40. From

that scant reference, we know that she owned a house in Philippi, over which she was

householder; that she was a substantial businesswoman in the market for purple-dyed

textiles, and originally from Thyatira in Asia Minor--and that she was a worshipper of

God. When “the Lord opened her heart” to receive Paul’s gospel and she was baptized,

she responded eagerly, generously opening her house to the Pauline missionaries as their

home base. She became the first person recorded in scripture to support Paul with

hospitality. Although it may have been unusual for first-century women to be

householders on their own, and therefore to carry on financial transactions, it is not

without precedent. New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity offers several

examples of papyrus evidence indicating women as homeowners independently

conducting business.39

Additionally, it is generally recognized among New Testament scholars that

Macedonian women from the Hellenistic period onward were known for greater

independence and more visibility and influence in public affairs. This can be seen in the

prominence which they exercised in the leadership of the Philippian church, both in

Lydia’s story and also as evidenced in Paul’s letter to the Philippians (4:2-3).40

Cities

were named after wives, female money-earners funded tomb-building, women were

permitted to join their husbands at table fellowship and in other activities, and there are

examples in inscriptions of women’s names where “a metronymic takes the place of the

usual patronymic.”41

So, although most women probably continued in their traditional

roles without the benefit of education or mobility, “at least the door was opened in

Macedonia, and this had a great affect on Asia Minor,” especially as Hellenization spread

across the east. It would be a natural choice, then, for Luke to report that Macedonian

women were among those who became believers in Jesus Christ (Acts 16:13-15, 40;

17:4, 12) and assumed important roles in the burgeoning community of believers.42

The

fact that women may have taken on leadership roles in the early church in Philippi is

demonstrated by the reference to the dispute between Euodia and Syntyche in Phil. 4:2.

39

New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity: A Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Papyri, G.H.R.

Horsley, S.R. Llewelyn, eds. (North Ryde, N.S.W.: Ancient History Documentary Research Centre,

Macquarie University, 1981-95), v.2, pg. 28. 40 Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans

Publishing Company, 2003), pg. 78. 41

Ben Witherington, Women in the Earliest Churches (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pg.

12. Both types of names convey lineage: a patronymic is based on the name of the bearer’s father or an

earlier make descendent; more unusual is a metronymic which is derived from the bearer’s mother or

another female ancestor. 42

Ibid., pg. 147.

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In any case, under Roman law, “women enjoyed far more freedom and privileges

than traditionally has been supposed.”43

“Free marriage” had in some cases dissolved the

restraints of manu mariti, where a woman’s rights passed “into the hands of her husband”

from the hands of her father. In sine manu, women were on an equal par with their

spouses in terms of rights of ownership. Furthermore, ius trium liberorum, the law of

three children, exempted freeborn women with three children or freed women with four

children from the necessity of employing a guardian or tutor to transact business.44

Some

women were therefore free to dispose of their own property as they saw fit,45

and the

widow could stand in the place of her deceased husband for execution of household

business activities. Thus, Lydia’s position as the head of a household was not uncommon

for widows.46

“In short, women had in their power various means to acquire wealth and

freely dispose of it.”47

The character Lydia who greeted Paul at Philippi, then, might have

been a well-born and prosperous commercial trader; the fact that she had a home large

enough to accommodate Paul and his group, as well as the finances to care for their

needs, suggests that she was to some extent wealthy.48

She might have gained a share of

economic freedom by an inheritance from the estate of her father or her husband, or even

from manumission.49

The various aspects of her life referenced in scripture--purple-

dealing, autonomy, heading a household, showing hospitality, and traveling--each

contribute to a picture of some wealth.50

Since Lydia’s offer of hospitality may well mean that she became host to one of the

original core groups of the primitive church,51

it is curious that she is not mentioned in

the letter of Paul sent to Philippi, the city where she first came to believe in Jesus Christ.

Moreover, there are very few later traditions about Lydia; yet “she was the nexus for the

network of Jesus believers in and around Philippi,”52

a vibrant and flourishing

community that filled Paul with pride and joy (Phil.1:3-4). In fact, archeological evidence

has been found which supports the existence of people similar to Lydia, but not Lydia

herself. An inscription has been uncovered in Thessalonica, for example, which cites a

43

Caroline Whelan, “Amica Pauli: The Role of Phoebe in the Early Church,” Journal for the Study of the

New Testament 49 (1993), pg. 73. 44

Among the Oxyrynchus archeological documents recovered is a third century request “applying to the

prefect’s office for the right of ius liberorum, ‘so that I may henceforth be able to conduct my affairs

without any impediment.’ P.Oxy XII.1467. 45 Vincent Branick, The House Church in the Writings of Paul (Wilmington, Del.: Michael Glazier, 1989),

pg. 21. 46

Lynn H. Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians: Illuminating Ancient Ways of Life

(Grand Rapids. Mich.: Baker Academic, 2009), pg. 188. 47 Vincent Branick, The House Church in the Writings of Paul, pg. 21. 48

Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians, pg. 190. 49

“Many slaves were granted substantial bequests along with manumission at the death of their master.”

Richard S. Ascough, Lydia: Paul’s Cosmopolitan Hostess (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2008), pg.

51. 50

Ibid., pg. 50. 51

James D.G. Dunn, Beginning from Jerusalem (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.,

2009), pg. 671. 52

Ascough, Lydia, pg. 1.

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purple dealer named Menippus from Thyatira;53

and not far from Lydia’s home city of

Thyatira, due north in the city of Aphrodisias a stele was found with an inscription

naming benefactors to the synagogue. Almost half were labeled theosebeis or God-

fearers, and among them was also a dealer in purple cloth. The Aphrodisias inscription

“supports the literary evidence that at least some wealthy gentiles gave gifts to the

synagogue and were publicly recognized for their generosity.”54

UR OWN ENCOUNTER with Lydia, then, as contemporary followers of the

Acts of the Apostles, stands in the tension between its single biblical source and

the theological intentions of its author. Luke’s text chooses what Witherington

calls “representative examples” of new believers in the emerging church and in Acts 16

focuses upon how one woman and one man came to faith in Jesus Christ by the power of

the Spirit; by this the author is able “to stress the quality of man and woman in God’s

plan of salvation, and their equal importance to the new community.”55

Considering the

author’s possible agenda, “mining the data for information on historical women is fraught

with difficulties,”56

especially since in the case of Lydia there is no confirmation of her

presence in the letters of Paul.

Thus, Luke’s narration of the development of the primitive church in Acts, with its

detail-rich storyline, offers a different type of resource than the more impressionistic

evidence provided in the letters of Paul; “[Luke] is a painter rather than a

photographer.”57

Of course, the contemporary reader is also separated from Luke’s story

by the imperfect lens of translation, editorial redaction and human error over the

centuries. Nevertheless, at its heart Acts reflects some grounding in reliable historical

events. To its credit, the text demonstrates the accomplished treatment and theology of an

author who may have been significantly close to the story, and it should not be

discounted merely because of the expansive style of its narrative literary genre.

Furthermore, the Acts of the Apostles serves as an important bridge to the next

generations of recorded memory at a time when the primitive church and its theology

were still coming into being and the author may even have been an eyewitness to some of

the events. The fact that the style of the text of Acts is narrative does not need to

diminish its relationship to actual events or its significance as a record of the history of

salvation; it was simply written in a genre distinct from an epistle. Nor does the story of

Lydia give any cause to suspect that this is an example where “pious imagination has

simply conjured up a romance.”58

53

Ibid., pg. 18. 54

Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians, pg. 308. 55

Ben Witherington, Women in the Earliest Churches , pg. 148. 56

Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christian, pg. 159. 57

Richard Pervo, Acts: A Commentary (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2009), pg. 9. 58

Ernst Haenchen, The Acts of the Apostles: A Commentary (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1971), pg.

502.

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While it is possible that Luke’s characterization of a person like Lydia, one who is

not corroborated in Paul’s letters, could have been creatively influenced by the author in

some measure, even modeled on the memory of more than one conversion experience of

a woman in the missionary field, Raymond Brown estimates that Luke has recorded the

Lydia story from “the fabric of genuine local tradition…She is an exemplary case of the

success of the early Christian household mission.”59

And after all, as he observes, “there

is no reason to think that the tracing of everything carefully from the beginning promised

by Luke 1:3 stopped with the Gospel.”60

While there are certainly commentators who do

not support the idea of Lydia as a real historical person,61

several commentators--Brown,

Witherington and Cohick among them--maintain the basic assumption that the story of

Lydia reflects an actual person. “She was not invented by Luke to serve his theological

agenda.”62

Yet, it may also be true that Luke has used his source material concerning the

traditions about Lydia in the service of his overall story about the reception of the gospel

as it spread throughout the Roman Empire. With Lydia especially, “we must hold these

two—historical detail and theological emphasis—in creative tension,”63

and evaluate

historical probability with caution.64

S PAUL MAKES HIS WAY from Asia Minor across the Aegean Sea toward

Philippi, “a leading city in the district of Macedonia”(Acts 16:12), Luke is able

to portray his encounter with Lydia and other characters there in compelling

detail, but a glance at the parsing of the verbs may indicate a tantalizing hint as to why.

Abruptly, without explanation, the text shifts from third-person plural into first-person

plural for eight verses (16:10-17), which creates a distinct “we” section. The majority of

Acts gives no indication of an author’s point of view, and indeed “from the biblical

tradition comes the technique of omniscient narration and its companion, anonymous

authorship,”65

melding humility with expertise for the sake of authority. Nevertheless, it

is a fascinating notion to consider whether the evangelist Luke, in these startlingly

intimate-sounding “we” sections, is writing himself into the missionary picture alongside

the apostle Paul.

59

The New Jerome Bible Commentary, Raymond E. Brown et al, eds. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice

Hall, 1990), pg. 753. 60

Brown, Raymond E., An Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Doubleday, 1997), pg. 316. 61

“The greatest difficulties in correlating the story in Acts with the archeological data arise in connection

with the occasion of Paul’s encounter with the ‘God-fearer’ Lydia.” L Michael White, “Visualizing the

‘Real’ World of Acts 16: Toward Construction of a Social Index.” in The Social World of the First

Christians: Essays in Honor of Wayne A. Meeks (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1995.), pg. 246. See

also Matthews, First Converts (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2001), pg. 93. 62

Lynn H. Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians: Illuminating Ancient Ways of Life, pg.

188. See also Witherington, Women in the Earliest Churches, pg. 147-149. 63

Ibid. 64

“Judgment about the historical accuracy of particular passages and statements depends on the results of

historical criticism, which can often do no more, when external confirmation or disproof is lacking, than

identify varying degrees of probability.” Richard A. Pervo, Acts: A Commentary, pg. 15. 65

Pervo, Acts: A Commentary, pg. 15.

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We can imagine the missionary band coming to town and sweeping up the young

physician Luke in their evangelistic fervor, so that he is proud to incorporate himself into

his description of their group and to identify himself with their ministry. In fact,

Witherington suggests that Philippi, with its famous school of medicine, may have been

the hometown of the physician/evangelist Luke, who was “still based in Philippi at a later

time when that epistle was written, somewhere between 60-62 CE.”66

Unfortunately, this

view is highly inconclusive and it is just as likely that here, as in three other places in

Acts (20:5-16; 21:1-18; 27:1-28:16), Luke has incorporated an eye-witness testimony

known to him as a source or is simply including Paul in the narrator’s point of view.67

Yet, whatever the relationship is between the author of Acts and Paul’s eye-witness

companion, it adds to the reliability of the story of Lydia in Acts 16 that it is contained in

one of the “we” sections.68

Named after the father of Alexander the Great, Philippi was located on the eastern

border of the Roman province of Macedonia. Since it was only ten miles inland from the

Aegean Sea, it was a busy port of call along the first-century trading route. As a Roman

colony, Philippi was granted the honor of the “Italian law” (ius italicum), which meant

that the town was to be treated as if it were located on Italian soil and given equal status

with other Roman cities, governed by collegiate magistrates under Roman law and kept

free from direct taxation. This is demonstrated in scripture by the mention of the

technical Roman job title, stragtegoi, in Acts 16:35-38.69

HILIPPI was the gateway into the rest of Macedonia and what is today northern

Greece. One of the significant accomplishments of the Roman Empire, and of

particular benefit to Philippi, was the building of the Via Egnatia, a major 500-

mile road, which stretched across Macedonia from the Adriatic coast to the Aegean Sea

and ran through the center of town. Between the well-constructed road running through

Philippi and the busy seafaring enterprise nearby, it was possible that Lydia’s purple-

dealing business involved the import of goods from Asia Minor via the trade routes by

either land or across the sea.

When he arrived in Philippi, Paul set out to follow the usual mode of operation for

mission he had been using since his commissioning by the Holy Spirit (13:2). As he had

done in Salamis on Cyprus (13:5), and in Antioch of Pisidia (13:14), and also in Iconium

(14:1), Paul embarked on the Sabbath day to find a gathering of Jewish worshippers in

order to proclaim the gospel to them first. He and his group proceeded outside the gate by

66 Ben Witherington, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, Mich.:

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), pg. 490. 67

This issue is helpfully explained in Richard Pervo’s excellent “Excursus: ‘We’ in Acts,” in Acts: A

Commentary, pg. 392-396. 68

Raymond E. Brown, Introduction to the New Testament, pg. 317. And interestingly, the story of Lydia

proves the exception to V.K. Robbins’ theory that the “we” sections are “simply a literary convention in

shipboard journeys.” Brown, pg. 322. 69

Ascough, Lydia: Paul’s Cosmopolitan Hostess, pg. 19-21.

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a river,70

where they supposed there was a “place of prayer” (proseuche), sometimes

translated as a “Jewish assembly.”71

“And we sat down and spoke to the women there”

(16:13). This is fascinating to ponder on many levels!

Were men there as well, faithfully occupied in liturgical affairs, while Paul

meanwhile engaged in conversation with the women present? Perhaps Paul’s group had

been unable to find any local Jewish assembly yet in Philippi; if indeed there was one, it

may not have met formally in a designated synagogue building. Given the possibilities of

women gathering for religious rites, it is not impossible that certain women from the

synagogue group, including interested gentiles, met on the Sabbath without men.72

Perhaps Luke would not share this reader’s surprise that the Jewish prayer gathering

which was found by Paul and his co-workers seems to have consisted of women and that

Paul approached them and even sat down among them like a rabbi to teach the Gospel

message.73

This story might indicate a different kind of assumed Jewish ritual setting than can

be expected in a contemporary situation today where liturgical and study activities take

place in the synagogue, but ritual cleansings are done elsewhere. Perhaps, as well, this

might have been the women’s part of the group, or this could have been the special day or

time when the women rather than the men met for prayer, and perhaps at a location

convenient for cleansing rituals as well. Nevertheless, it is fascinating that, for whatever

reason, this group at this time seems to have consisted of women. Moreover, it is most

interesting to note that Luke doesn’t describe this as in any way unusual, though it seems

astonishing to our ears.

70

Richard Ascough conjectures that, on the Sabbath day when Paul encountered Lydia, he may have gone

outside the Krenides Gate by the river where the Via Egnatia intersected Philippi on the western side.

Ascough, Lydia: Paul’s Cosmopolitan Hostess, pg. 23. 71

James D. G. Dunn, Beginning from Jerusalem (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.,

2009, pg. 670. 72

Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians, pg. 188. 73

Since it is unusual because of the gender of the recipients, this episode seems to echo the story of the

twelve-year-old Jesus teaching in the Temple, where the story is radically unusual because of the age of the

“rabbi”(Lk. 2:41-52). Luke appears to be authenticating the apostleship of Paul by imbuing him with

Christ-like characteristics; here Luke has Paul turning expectations upside down and in later episodes, after

Paul is beaten, he offers himself while incarcerated in self-emptying service for the love of God.

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Lydia as God-Fearer and Purple-Dealer

ERE, THEN, BY THE RIVER, we are introduced to Lydia, one of the

remarkable characters witnessed in Luke’s story. She has a name well-known

from Horace’s Odes;74

yet since most Roman women were usually called by

their family name, Lydia’s name, with its likely geographic reference to the region of

Lydia, might mean that she was of Greek descent or a freed slave.75

She may have gained

some economic advantage by an inheritance from the estate of her father or her husband--

or from manumission.76

It is probably significant that Luke calls her by name. Although

the name Lydia has sometimes been interpreted as an ethnic nickname, implying “the

Lydian,” or as an ethnic slave name, there are also examples from inscription evidence

citing women named Lydia who were of higher status. This makes the assumption of

former slave status less likely.77

Lydia is described as a “worshipper of God” (sebomene ton Theon), probably

meaning someone familiar with and sympathetic to Jewish religious practice. She is also

a “dealer in purple cloth” (porphuropolis) from Thyatira, a city on the mainland of Asia

Minor. Purple dye in antiquity was extracted principally from mollusk shells. Purple

fabric was considered so luxurious that it was often monopolized by the imperial family,

to the extent that those engaged in the production and sale of it were sometimes referred

to as “Caesar’s household.”78

It so typified glamorous adornment that Luke, perhaps

influenced by the moralizing reaction against purple,79

characterized the rich man, in the

parable with Lazarus, as being clothed in it (Lk. 16:19). Luke also shows that in the

Roman provinces, particularly in Macedonia, businesswomen of means who owned large

estates were not uncommon.

74 Odes 1.8. Hans Conzelmann, Acts of the Apostles: A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles;

(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987), pg. 130. Odes 1.8 available in translation at:

http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/HoraceOdesBkI.htm#_Toc39402014 75 “A number of inscriptions suggesting that several people involved in the purple trade were ex-slaves

might imply that she was herself a freed slave.” Richard S. Ascough, Lydia: Paul’s Cosmopolitan Hostess

(Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2008, pg. 7. See also Richard I. Pervo, A Commentary, pg. 403. 76

“Many slaves were granted substantial bequests along with manumission at the death of their master.”

Ascough, Lydia: Paul’s Cosmopolitan Hostess, pg. 51. 77

New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity: A Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Papyri, v.3, pg.

54. 78

Examples of fragmentary inscription evidence of purple dealers in similar circumstances suggest,

although unpersuasively, that one might “identify Lydia more exactly, as being a member of ‘Caesar’s

household.’” New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity, v.2, pg. 28. See also Ben Witherington, The

Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, pg. 492. This leads to the fascinating, though

unlikely, possibility that Paul may be sending greetings from Lydia’s house-church community in Phil.

4:22, “All the saints greet you, especially those of the emperor’s household.” 79

New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity, v.2, pg. 25.

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HE LORD OPENED HER HEART to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul”

(16:14). This fulsome description of one woman’s divinely inspired response to

Paul’s teaching of the gospel leads her as well as her entire household to be

baptized; she becomes the first convert in Europe. But what does it mean for the Lord to

have “opened her heart?” It is an intriguing possibility to contemplate. It seems likely that

“the Lord” here indicates the Spirit of Jesus in action by the riverside. Luke might have

considered Lydia among those who respond to the Word of God with “a good heart and

bear fruit with patient endurance,” (Lk. 8:15) as Jesus taught. Lydia’s spiritual openness

also has echoes of the skilled women in Exodus whose hearts were moved by the Lord

(Ex. 35:25-26) to a generous enterprise. By her conversion, it may be that, like them, she

has “now come face to face with God’s incredible graciousness and willingness to begin

again.”80

In Paul's own case, his conversion took place in a blinding visionary incident

on the road to Damascus; but those to whom Paul ministered experienced his persuasive

preaching from a scripture-based teaching, a type of conversion perhaps familiar to Luke

himself. Like Paul, Lydia's conversion is unique in actually taking place within the scope

of the scriptural text (Acts 16:13-15). Yet even here, it is described from the point of

view of the missionaries.

Had the narrative been told from the point of view of Lydia, as it is with Paul earlier

in Acts (9:1-19), a vision of the Lord Jesus opening her heart might have been more fully

described. Who knows how compelling it may have been experiencing the action of the

Spirit as it stopped a successful God-fearing businesswoman in her tracks and opened her

heart to faith in the crucified Messiah, even as she prayed by the river on the Sabbath?

Like other conversions, this one was life-changing and the reader hears the outcome

in Lydia’s faithful action. The real heart of Lydia's story, though, the action of the Spirit

of the Lord, is left undescribed and tantalizingly ethereal. At least with Lydia, in contrast

to other characters attested in scripture, the reader glimpses the evangelizing moment,

even if it is told from the point of view of Paul's disciples.

HE SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME of Lydia’s evangelization along with her

household is demonstrated by the fact that, by the time Paul and Silas depart from

Philippi, they have won over enough people that Paul is reported to have

encouraged the brethren (tous adelphous). This could indicate the development of a

group of believers meeting in Lydia’s home, which had become a house church. Her

story is significant in illustrating how the house church came to be developed. Further

growth might be indicated by the fact that Paul’s letter to the Philippians assumes a wider

audience than could even be contained in Lydia’s house, although it is possible that she

might have moved on by that time. Earlier in Acts (10:48), the conversion of Cornelius’s

household is the first of the examples of an entire household being baptized in Acts.

80

Walter Brueggemann, “The Book of Exodus: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” The New

Interpreters Bible, v.1 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), pg. 961.

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Other examples include those cited at 11:14 and 18:8. In considering what the baptism of

Lydia and her household might have looked like, the Cornelius story may provide a good

exemplar for the pattern of early Baptism: according to this account, Cornelius “feared

God” (10:2), heard Peter’s message (10:33, 44), and believed (10:43); he received the

Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues (10:46), and extolled God (10:46).81

Mediterranean

households in the ancient world usually practiced the religion of the head of the

household; and as with Cornelius, Lydia’s household probably all followed her

devotional practices. Of course, “religion was a regular part of the Hellenistic household

long before Christians met in a house church.”82

For the pre-Christian pagan household,

the cult of the house would become an explicit expression of religiosity in the home, and

this cultic practice may very well have “marked the daily life of individuals far more than

did any public cult. The household cult sets in place a background for the destination of

the early church via the social network of the household.”83

The make-up of Lydia’s household is not specified, but it might have consisted of

other women employed by her for the purple-textile business and her slaves, or freed

servants--and “even some of the urban poor, for whom Lydia may have been a patron.”84

Only women are indicated in scripture, though, so if there were other males in her family

and household in general, they were probably not present at the river for prayer on the

day of Sabbath. Nevertheless, in contrast to the next baptism described in the story,

which takes place “without delay” (16:33), it seems possible in the case of Lydia’s

household that the conjunctive phrase (hos de) in 16:15, which the NRSV translates as

“when,” might indicate some passage of time. Then, in the natural course of events, the

group Baptism of Lydia’s household might have taken place directly but not

immediately, with an opportunity for the entire group to come along, including men and

children, if any. For Luke, “this notable success would have been an important

vindication of their coming to such an unpromising location as Philippi.”85

APTISM is attested in Acts as administered in the name of Jesus Christ. Lydia’s

Baptism could have included a confession of faith in Him. As in other accounts

in Acts, such as that of the Ethiopian eunuch (8:26-40), her Baptism follows a

transformational hearing of the spoken message (16:13-14). Baptism was viewed as “both

a human act and an act in which God was at work.”86

The coming of the Holy Spirit is

suggested by the fruit of Lydia’s faithful commitment in generously opening her home to

Paul and his band of missionaries, and it is notable that her invitation of hospitality is

81 Pace Everett Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five

Centuries (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2009), pg. 178. 82

Branick, The House Church in the Writings of Paul, pg. 43. 83

Ibid., pg. 44. 84

Ascough, Lydia: Paul’s Cosmopolitan Hostess, pg. 32. 85

James D. G. Dunn, The Acts of the Apostles (Peterborough: Epworth Press, 1996), pg. 219. 86

Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries, pg.

184.

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recorded as a remembered quotation: “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord,

come and stay at my home.”

Luke shows God working through the new faith of Lydia by interacting with the faith

of Paul, challenging him to accept hospitality from a new believer who was in all

likelihood radically different from him: a non-Jewish woman, from a different culture,

operating without the guardianship of a man. Here is a case where “a woman’s customary

role of providing hospitality to visiting guests became a means by which they could

support and sustain the church.”87

Lydia’s statement appears to reflects hesitancy of some

sort of Paul’s part, perhaps a normal aspect of polite conversation, but more likely it is an

honorable acknowledgment of their differences.88

Details we cannot know regarding her

dress, vocabulary, posture, makeup and jewelry--even her facial affect--signs which

indicated her status as a woman working outside the domain of the household in the

realm of men, may have contributed to Paul’s initial hesitancy to accept her invitation to

stay at her house. Showing sensitivity to the dangerous circumstances facing itinerant

Jewish preachers in the Roman Empire, Lydia offers him hospitality, “as had the

disciples from Emmaus to the itinerant Jesus whom they did not recognize (Lk. 24:29).”89

Lydia prevailed, or perhaps the Spirit working in her effectively prevailed. As often

recorded in stories about Jesus, both host and guest show generosity in engaging with one

another in this exchange, and from this acceptance of hospitality, the church in Philippi

began to grow.

FTER THE EXPERIENCE of encountering women at the Philippian “place of

prayer” outside the city gates, and even settling into the residential hospitality of

Lydia’s house, it is interesting to note that the text describes Paul and his band

of missionaries returning to the riverside “place of prayer” again in Acts 16:16. While it

is plausible that this is a mere stylistic place-holder to mark the beginning of a new story

in the same narration, it may indicate as well that Luke’s “eyewitness” source knew that

Paul repeatedly returned to preach the gospel among the group of women praying by the

river.

While Luke mentions an earlier house church back in Jerusalem where many had

gathered in prayer and fellowship “in the house of Mary, the mother of John” (Acts

12:12), the story of Lydia’s conversion in Philippi signals another important shift from a

Jewish place of prayer to a believer’s home as the missionary base. This becomes

increasingly a pattern in the emerging church and in the continuing story of Acts as it

unfolds. Thus, as Witherington observes, it is probably not accidental that “at the only

two points in Acts (12:12, 16:40) where Luke clearly tells us of a church meeting in a

87

Witherington, Women in the Earliest Churches, pg. 145. 88

Ascough, Lydia, pg. 5, 13. 89 Luise Schottroff, Lydia’s Impatient Sisters: A Feminist History of Early Christianity (Louisville, Ky.:

Westminster John Knox Press, 1995), pg. 110.

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particular person’s home, not just a place of lodging or hospitality, it is the home of a

woman.”90

Lydia’s portrayal in the role of co-worker to the apostle seems courageous

considering the cultural context of the first century and shows Luke, and often Paul

himself, to be open and receptive to the inclusive generosity of the Holy Spirit. As

Schüssler Fiorenza maintains, the house church, by virtue of its location, was able to

provide “equal opportunities for women, because traditionally the house was considered

women’s proper sphere, and women were not excluded from activities in it.”91

And

through the lens of this passage can be seen an important way that residential believers,

including women, could function as missionaries.

Three centuries later in his commentary on Philemon, St. Jerome described

hospitality to Paul as participating in Paul’s apostleship. “When Paul would arrive at a

new city to preach the crucified one…he needed before anything an appropriate place in

the city where all could gather, a place without disturbances, large in order to receive

many listeners, not near the places of spectacles with disturbing neighbors.”92

Jerome

reflects a church memory which made a significant connection between early Christian

hospitality and effective missionary work. Not only is the peripatetic preaching disciple

necessary for the progress of the gospel, but also the ministry of the host in whose

household the missionary is welcomed and given provisions. “The home was thus

something a follower of Jesus either leaves behind or opens for the use of the Gospel.”93

HE NEXT EPISODE in Philippi brings into view a provocative slave girl

flaunted by unscrupulous owners as an occasion to focus on the power of the

name of Jesus over local pagan magic. Using the verb kradzo (to cry out), which

is appropriate to spirit possessions, Luke patterns a story in some ways similar to the

exorcism stories of Jesus in Mk. 1:24 and Lk. 4:4, and it is easy to imagine the little

fortune-teller trailing Paul around and taunting him in nagging sing-song. One of the

ways Luke may be expressing Lydia’s character is by contrasting it with the Philippian

slave girl, for “while the slave girl is possessed and mantic, Lydia presents a decorum

matching the proper role of Roman matrons.”94

Luke has created a useful foil to the

newly baptized Lydia by his portrait of the pagan fortune-teller wandering the streets of

Philippi, contrasting the one who uses the spirit to take profit and the one who responds

to the Spirit by giving abundantly. This slave girl may be intentionally differentiated from

90

Witherington, Women in the Earliest Churches, pg. 146. 91

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian

Origins (New York: Crossroad, 1992), pg. 176. 92

V. 22; PL 26/616; St. Jerome’s Commentaries on Galatians, Titus, and Philemon, Thomas P. Scheck,

trans. (Notre Dame, Ind.: The University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), pg. 377. 93

Branick, The House Church in the Writings of Paul, pg. 20. 94

Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians, pg. 191.

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the well-to-do Lydia; and “like the maidservant who troubled Peter in Caiaphas’ palace,

she was to be the involuntary cause of much pain to St. Paul.”95

After an ordeal of persecution, imprisonment, and miraculous manumission by the

work of the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:19-26), Paul and Silas retire again to the comfort and

mission fellowship of Lydia’s house (16:40), even though they had actually been asked to

leave town (16:39). Acts 16:40 acknowledges the hospitality of Lydia’s home in the

formation of the Philippian group, since it is there that Paul and Silas encourage the

brethren before leaving the city, demonstrating that her house had become the meeting

place for the early believers in Philippi. In this, “Luke wishes us to understand that what

began as a lodging for missionaries became the home of the embryonic church in

Philippi.”96

Furthermore, the fact that Paul and Silas retreated to the encouraging

atmosphere of Lydia’s house after being instructed to leave town may indicate the

possible danger inherent for Lydia and her household, as indeed is the case for Paul’s

host, Jason, in

Acts 17:5-9. It must have been courageous hospitality for her to harbor the recently

incarcerated pair.

Did the men simply turn up at her door? Or did Lydia seek out Paul while he and

Silas were in prison? There may have been some risk involved in visiting Paul, perhaps in

bringing him necessary food provisions and offering hospitality for the day when he

might be freed from prison. These may have been dangerous actions on the part of Lydia.

Although Luke doesn’t describe them, it cannot be assumed that there were no further

negative consequences for Lydia and her household. Even if we do not know the specific

circumstances, like her fellow believer Prisca cited in Rom. 16:4, Lydia may have “risked

her neck” on the behalf of Paul. And she is, after all, never heard of again.

Looking back over the shape of Acts 16, we can see that Luke has crafted a parallel

male-female arrangement, telling the story of two households in Philippi which were

brought to faith by the conversion of the heads of the house. It is interesting to note as

well that Lydia’s story, which sets in place the development of the early Christian house

church, is positioned before the male story paralleling it, and in fact with the added

reference in 16:40, encloses the other. These two important conversions are “the pillars

on which the narrative--and the Philippian community--are erected.”97

The first recorded

Baptisms on the continent of Europe, initiated by female and male leaders of large

households, are presented by Luke as balancing and complementing each other.

Although it may not seem as startling now as it might have been in an earlier age,

Luke’s original audience may have been surprised to hear about the strong presence of

women functioning alongside the apostle Paul. The fact that we still have the women’s

stories in the text demonstrates that their remembered presence has remained strong.

95

Quote from Richard B. Rackham in Pervo, Acts, pg. 404. 96

Witherington, Women in the Earliest Churches, pg. 149. 97

Pervo, Acts: A Commentary, pg. 400.

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They were less underreported than might be expected in the record of history in scripture.

The persistence of the memory of their contribution has won out over the natural

tendency, especially throughout the early centuries, to editorially diminish or to even

delete entirely female presence in the processes of redaction. “Luke expresses by this

arrangement that man and woman stand together and side by side before God. They are

equal in honor and grace; they are endowed with the gifts and have the same

responsibilities.”98

As Paul and Silas move on to embark on mission work in Thessalonica, and after

experiencing opposition again in Beroea, the church is described as continuing to grow;

and the attested presence of females throughout the story99

demonstrates that “the

strength of Christianity’s appeal to women was a function from the first.”100

Luke makes

a point of stressing the number of women who became believers, and their socio-

economic prominence. Possibly this is to show how the emerging church was dependent

on its female benefactors, like Lydia, for their philanthropic ability to seed the growth of

house churches, and perhaps indirectly to witness to the women’s leadership in the

earliest faith communities. It is also noteworthy in the verse adjacent that the prominent

women who came to belief were probably among those observed having the intellectual

capacity and spiritual awareness to examine the scriptures daily “to see whether these

things were so” (17:11).

Although Luke’s narrative emphasizes the fact that several prominent and wealthy

Greco-Roman women were attracted to the early Christian movement, Schüssler Fiorenza

takes Luke to task for his portrayal of women’s involvement in the early missionary

movement, since by stressing their status as prominent and wealthy, “the author neglects

their contribution as missionaries and leaders of churches in their own right.”101

The

verses in scripture do not specify whether Lydia served as a leader of the group of

believers which gathered at her house, yet first-century hearers of the Acts of the

Apostles may have assumed that she did. “Lydia’s status as Paul’s benefactor would

make a leadership role in the church likely.”102

As we have seen, it is not only itinerant

preachers but also residential believers providing hospitality, perhaps often women, who

were a necessary component of missionary teams in the development of the primitive

church, and this form of participation may not have survived in the biblical story as

consistently as the rest. In considering the historical record on women’s involvement in

the early Christian missionary movement, the scriptural text, “therefore, must not be

taken as fully descriptive of the actual situation.”103

98

Quoting H. Flender, Witherington, Women in the Earliest Churches, pg. 129. 99

“Not a few of the leading women” (17:4), “including not a few Greek women and men of high standing”

(17:12). 100 Dunn, The Acts of the Apostles, pg. 227. 101

Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, pg.

167. 102

Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians, pg. 307. 103

Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her, pg. 168.

22

Be that as it may, Dunn suggests that the witness of “not a few women of high

standing” contributes to an overall picture of converts being added to the growing

community of believers from both Jews and Gentiles.104

The character of Lydia stands

out among them, however, as a purple-dealer and also as a God-fearer whose heart was

opened by the Lord.

EGARDING the root term from which porphuropolis derives, “It is uncertain

whether we are to translate this word as ‘trader in’ or ‘maker of purple,’ perhaps

‘purple dealer.’”105

Epigraphical evidence indicates the importance of the purple

trade in Tyre and in the provinces of Lydia and Phrygia, and also in Macedonian cities

such as Philippi and Thessalonika. In fact, in Tyre, Christian purple dyers have been

attested in archeological inscriptions.106

Purple-dyeing in the Lydia region can be traced

back as far as the Iliad.107

It is also possible that the purple which Lydia was selling was

not the imperial Tyrian murex extracted from shellfish, but a less luxurious dye from the

roots of the madder plant (rubia), which was generically called “turkey red,”108

“an

industry that is well-known in association with Tyratira.”109

If this were the case, then it

would be less likely that Lydia had connections with the imperial household. Outside of

royal circles, though, there was a vigorous market for desirable goods; togas, for

example, garments which could only be worn by Roman citizens, often featured a purple-

dyed border.

Pliny the Elder described how purple fabric could be double-dyed to achieve a

greater depth and consistency of purple, but that double-dying also raised the price.110

He

104 Dunn, The Acts of the Apostles, pg. 229. 105

New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity: A Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Papyri, V.2, pg.

26. 106

Ibid., pg. 25. 107

Homer, The Iliad, 4.141-42. Available at: http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.4.iv.html 108

New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity: A Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Papyri, v. 3, pg.

53. 109

De Vos, Craig Steven De Vos, Church and Community Conflicts: The Relationships of the

Thessalonian, Corinthian, and Philippian Churches with their Wider Civic Communities (Atlanta, Geo.:

Scholars Press, 1999), pg. 257. 110

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, 9.125-34.

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23

also expressed the commonly regarded criticism of the purple.111

Therefore, it is possible

that in choosing Lydia’s faith journey to describe, Luke is making special use of a

character known from the treasury of local memory of the early church, especially

because she was a member of a culturally marginalized group.

YDIA is also identified as a “worshipper of God” (seboumene ton Theon). Luke

uses two different expressions in Greek to convey this category, “God-fearer”

(phoboumenos ton Theon) in Acts 10:2, 22, 35; 13:26 and “God-worshiper”

(seboumenos ton Theon) or simply “worshipper” in Acts 13:43, 50; 16:40; 17:4, 17; 18:7,

“perhaps reflecting a difference between a terminology influenced by the Old Testament

and that which was more Hellenized but without difference in meaning.”112

The

Septuagint speaks of God-fearers in Ps. 119:9-11 and Ps. 135:19-20, so Luke in Acts may

“have adapted this phrase to give a description of Gentile sympathizers with Jesus.”113

Gentile men and women who were identified as God-fearers stood on the boundary

between Judaism and paganism--and often Christianity as well. It is probable that they

were attracted to Judaism but had not become proselytes, not yet having taken the radical

step of circumcision in the case of men. God-fearers represent an important Christian

category. “Given that women are generally underrepresented in our sources,” it is

surprising to discover from analyzing epigraphic evidence that over 75% of God-fearers

may have been women.114

Lydia is a prominent example of a God-fearer.

It is interesting to note that on either side of the story of Lydia and Paul in Acts, Luke

has placed stories of two men (Cornelius, Acts 10:2; Titius Justus, 18:7) who are each

designated as “fearer of God” and “worshiper of God” and home-owners as well. One

interpretation of Lydia as a “God-fearer” is that it is only through Jesus Christ, as

presented by Paul, that Lydia “comes to see how she can fully accept the Jewish God

without the trappings of Judaism.”115

Lydia presents an intriguing character, not only

with regard to her role as a businesswoman in the market for purple fabric goods, but also

as one of Paul’s God-fearing benefactors. Luke understands her to be making a

significant contribution as “a patron of the seminal Jesus group in Philippi.”116

111 “There are other plants also, which are but little known to any but the herd of the sordid and avaricious,

and this because of the large profits that are derived from them. The first of these is madder, the

employment of which is necessary in dyeing wool and leather…The stem is prickly, and articulated, with

five leaves arranged round each joint: the seed is red.” Pliny the Elder, The Natural History 19:17 (London:

Taylor and Francis, 1855). (Available at:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D19%3Ach

apter%3D17. Accessed 10/1/2010). 112

Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, pg. 550. 113

Ibid., pg. 546. 114

Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians, pg. 187. 115

Ascough, Lydia, pg. 84. 116

Ibid., pg. 53.

L

24

N HIS OWN WRITING, Paul offers a glimpse, both in 2 Cor. 8:1-5 and Phil. 4:14-

18, of his gratitude for the abundant hospitality he received from men and women in

the young churches of Macedonia “in the early days of the gospel.” He acknowledges

the dire level of their poverty as well, contrasted with the generosity of their financial

contribution to his ongoing missionary work. He assures his readers that their hospitality

to the gospel and to his little band of missioners is earning them bountiful grace from

God. Thus, “the generous openness and support of Lydia, a gentile devotee of Jewish

worship, is a model for the Christian household.”117

The foundation for the ministry of the benefactor offering hospitality as a necessary

component of missionary work is laid down in the gospel. Not only the itinerant ministry

of Paul, but also that of Jesus himself, is described as dependant on the supportive

generosity of women who followed Christ along with the twelve through the cities and

villages as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God; and the women

provided for his needs from their own means (Lk. 8:1-3). In his letters, Paul

acknowledges that the generosity of the giver fulfills one of the divine attributes God

lives out in the work of the Spirit through God’s people. “In Rom.12:8 this liberal giving

of money is understood as a charisma; 2 Cor. 9:6ff. makes the additional point that the

gift may not be consciously experienced as one’s own until one actually practices it.

Sometimes, Paul says, we must act out of a conviction that God is magnanimous, even

though we do not feel particularly gifted.”118

Although Lydia is not specifically identified as a church leader by Paul, it must be

acknowledged that leadership and benefaction went hand in hand in the Greco-Roman

world, so Lydia was probably the leader of the group of believers that continued to gather

in her house. “Lydia is portrayed as a benefactor, a very privileged position in the

Hellenistic world (including Judaism).”119

While it could be argued that Lydia might not have existed because Paul does not

mention her in the Letter to the Philippians, Cohick postulates that since Paul wrote his

letter about a decade after visiting Philippi, it is possible that Lydia might have already

died. “This argument from silence is not strong enough to erase a real person from

history, [so] we can be reasonably confident that Lydia was an actual person described by

Luke, who molded her story to reinforce theological points recurrent in Luke-Acts.”120

Although it is disappointing that Lydia is not attested in Paul’s letters, an intriguing

suggestion has been posed that Paul might have cited her by her formal name in the

Letter to the Philippians, which could have been either Euodia or Syntyche.121

The

117

Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, pg. 310. 118

John Koenig, Charismata: God’s Gifts for God’s People (Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1978),

pg. 118. 119

Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians, pg. 190. 120

Ibid., pg. 190. 121

Ibid., pg. 189.

I

25

reliability of Lydia’s story is also enhanced by being contained within the first “we”

section, which confirms its “eyewitness pedigree.”122

Ultimately, the story of Lydia’s faith journey and her connection to Paul’s ministry

are significant to the development of the early church, whether or not the historicity of

Lydia can be reliably proved. Her colorful lifestyle and eager response to the Lord’s

opening of her heart are remembered as a contribution to the origin of the primitive

church in Philippi.

V.K. McCarty, is a 2011 graduate cum laude of The General Theological Seminary where she serves as

Acquisitions Librarian. Recent published papers include: “Wisdom from the Desert for Spiritual Directors,”

in Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction v.18, no.3 (2012); “Prisca: Fellow Tent-maker

and Fellow Missionary of Paul,” in The International Congregational Journal v. 11, no. 2 (2012); and

“Beauty for the Rest of Us: Re-considering Gregory of Nyssa’s On Virginity” in the Sophia Institute’s

proceedings volume, The Concept of Beauty in Patristic and Byzantine Theology, J. A. McGuckin, ed.

(Theotokos Press, 2012), and “Anna Komnene’s Alexiad: Legacy from the Good Daughter(Kale Thugater)

in Love, Marriage, and Family in Eastern Orthodoxy (New York: Theotokos Press, 2013. She has served as

Sub-deacon, precentor, litanist, and chief master of ceremonies at the Church of St. Ignatius of Antioch; as

Director of Christian Formation at St. Paul’s, Chatham; as hospital chaplain at St. Luke’s/Roosevelt Health

Center; and as preacher at: St. Matthew’s, Paramas; St. Martin’s, Maywood; St. Peter’s, Rochelle Park;

Church of the Atonement, Fairlawn; St. Philip’s, Harlem; St. Andrew & Holy Communion, South Orange;

and at the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, New York City. McCarty@gts.edu

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