Acts 16:16

If we add the article τὴν, see critical note: “to the place of prayer,” R.V. πνεῦμα Πυθῶνος : in R.V., accusative, see critical note, “a spirit, a Python,” margin, i.e., a ventriloquist (Ramsay). The passage most frequently quoted in illustration is Plutarch, De defectu Orac., ix., from which it appears that ventriloquists who formerly took their name from Εὐρυκλῆς a famous ventriloquist (cf. Arist., Vesp., 1019) were called Πύθωνες. The word ἐγγαστρίμυθος, ventriloquist (Hebrew אוֹב), of which Πύθων is thus used as an equivalent, is the term employed in the LXX, Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus 20:6; Leviticus 20:27; 1 Samuel 28:7, etc., for those that have a familiar spirit (cf. also the use of the two words ἐγγαστρ. and Πύθων amongt the Rabbis, R. Salomo on Deuteronomy 18:11, and instances in Wetstein), i.e., a man or a woman in whom is the spirit of divination; Gesenius uses אוֹב for the divining spirit, the python, supposed to be present in the body of a sorcerer or conjurer, and illustrates from this passage in Acts, and adds that the LXX usually render אֹבוֹת correctly by ἐγγαστρίμυθοι, ventriloquists, since amongst the ancients this power of ventriloquism was often misused for the purposes of magic. But in addition to ventriloquism, it would certainly seem from the narrative in Acts that some prophetic power was claimed for the maiden, μαντευομένη, so Blass in describing the ἐγγαστρ. “credebatur dæmon e ventre illorum loqui et vaticinari,” cf. τὴν Εὐρυκλέους μαντείαν, Arist., u. s.); so too Suidas explains Πύθων as δαιμόνιον μαντικόν, connecting the word directly with the Pythian serpent or dragon, the reputed guardian of the oracle at Delphi, slain by Apollo, the successor to the serpent's oracular power. If therefore the girl was regarded as inspired by the Pythian Apollo, the expression in T.R. simply expresses the current pagan estimate of her state; this is the more probable as the physicians of the time, e.g., Hippocrates, spoke of the way in which some symptoms of epilepsy were popularly attributed to Apollo, Neptune, etc.; article “Divination,” B.D. 2, i., 490; C. and H., p. 231, smaller edition; Lightfoot, Phil., p. 54; Plumptre and Wendt, in loco, and Page on the derivation of the word. ἐργασίαν : only in Luke and Paul; A. and R.V. “gain,” although primarily the word denotes work done, so Rendall, “business”; Wis 13:19 well illustrates its use here. The word is used of gain (quæstus), Xen., Mem., iii., 10, 1. τοῖς κυρίοις αὐτῆς, Acts 16:19, seems to imply not successive but joint owners (on the plural in Luke see Friedrich, p. 21). μαντευ.: if Luke had believed in her power he would more probably have used προφητεύειν. μαντευ. used only here in N.T., but it is significant that in LXX it is always employed of lying prophets or of divination contrary to the law, e.g., Deuteronomy 18:10; 1 Samuel 28:8 (9), Ezekiel 13:6; Ezekiel 21:29 (34), Micah 3:11, etc. The Greeks themselves distinguished between the two verbs and recognised the superior dignity of προφητεύειν; e.g., Plato contrasts the μάντις who more or less rages (cf. derivation μανία, μαίνομαι, thus fitly used of Pythonesses, Sibyls, and the like) with the προφήτης, Timæus, 71 E, 72 A,, Trench, Synonyms, i., 26.