Acts 16:16

πνεῦμα πύθωνα with אABCD. Vulg. ‘spiritum pythonem.’

16. πορευομένων ἡμῶν εἰς τὴν προσευχήν, as we were going to the place of prayer (see on Acts 16:13). This verse must refer to a different occasion from that on which Lydia was converted. In the previous παρεβιάσατο it is implied that they consented to her request. Thus they had already taken up their abode in Lydia’s house.

ἔχουσαν πνεῦμα πύθωνα, having a spirit, a Python. According to Plutarch (De def. Orac. 9) those persons who practised ventriloquism, called also ἐγγαστρίμυθοι, were named Pythons. But the damsel in this history clearly laid claim to some prophetic power, and was used as a means of foreknowing the future. So that the word Python is better here referred to the name of Apollo, the heathen god of prophecy, and the A.V. ‘spirit of divination’ gives the correct idea.

ἐργασίαν πολλήν, much gain. ἐργασία means first the ‘work done’ and secondarily the ‘profit from it.’ Cf. Wis 13:19, περὶ δὲ πορισμοῦ καὶ ἐργασίας, ‘and concerning gaining and getting’ (A.V.).

τοῖς κυρίους αὐτῆς, to her masters. Some persons who having found a strange power in the maiden made use of it, as has oft been done, for their own purposes of gain, and persuaded the people to resort unto her with their questions.

μαντευομένη, by soothsaying. This word is found nowhere else in N.T., and wherever it is used in the LXX. it is invariably of the words of lying prophets, or those who used arts for bidden by the Jewish Law. Thus of the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:8) μάντευσαι δή μοι ἐν τῷ ἐγγαστριμύθῳ, and (Ezekiel 13:6) βλέποντες ψευδῆ, μαντευόμενοι μάταια. Cf. also Deuteronomy 18:10; Ezekiel 12:24; Ezekiel 21:29; Ezekiel 22:28; Micah 3:11. Here therefore we must take it in the bad sense, ‘by pretending to foretell the future.’