LYDIA. A seller of purple-dyed garments at Philippi, probably a widow and a ‘proselyte of the gate’ (see art. Nicolas), whom St. Paul converted on his first visit to that city, together with her household, and with whom he and his companions lodged ( Acts 16:14 f., Acts 16:40 ). She was of Thyatira in the district of Lydia, the W. central portion of the province Asia, a district famed for its purple dyes; but was doubtless staying at Philippi for the purpose of her trade. She was apparently prosperous, dealing as she did in very fine wares. It has been held that Lydia is the proper name of this woman; but it seems more likely that it merely means ‘the Lydian,’ and that it was the designation by which she was ordinarily known at Philippi. She is not mentioned (at least, by that name) in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians, and unless we identify her with Euodia or Syntyche, she had probably left the city when the Apostle wrote; for a conjecture of Renan’s, see art. Synzygus. The incident in Acts 16:1-40 is one example out of many of the comparatively Independent position of women in Asia Minor and Macedonia.
A. J. Maclean.