One interesting thing about this rather prosaic passage is that it highlights once more the important leadership and resources offered by women in the early Christian community - and even lets us know her name: Lydia!
Lydia is described as a God-fearer or a worshipper of God. ("God-fearer" should be heard as slangy street language and not as a formal term.) This means she was a Gentile (i.e., non-Jewish) adherent of Judaism. Scholars believe there were a significant number of such God-fearers, and that these were among the first of Paul's Gentile converts to the way of Jesus.
Things I wish I knew about the setting of this passage:
- Why were only women present at the prayer gathering?
- Why were the women meeting by the river instead of in someone's home or a syngogue?
- How would the presence of Paul and his male companions be viewed, at least initially, by the women, and by the community?
- How had Lydia, a woman, come to do what was normally only something a man could do - trade in cloth?
- I understand that purple was an expensive dye in those days, so what does that imply about Lydia's social status and standing in her community?
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