Sunday followers : May is all about great women of the Bible
LYDIA OF THYATIRA: THE FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE PHILIPPIAN CHURCH ( act 11 : 16 -20)
Lydia was a seller of purple, that is, she was a businesswoman who sold luxury textiles dyed purple. It was only the wealthy elite who wore garments dyed purple or trimmed with purple, or had soft furnishings in their homes, such as couch covers, dyed purple. Tyrian purple, a dye derived from marine molluscs, was especially costly.[15] A relatively less expensive and more reddish dye, known today as Turkey red, was extracted from the root of the madder plant (Rubia tinctorum). Thyatira, Lydia’s home town, was well-known for the production of dye from madder roots. However, since she is described literally in Acts 16:14 as a “purple-seller” (porphyropōlis), Lydia probably dealt with Tyrian purple. The expenses involved in her occupation as a merchant of luxury textiles indicates she was a woman of some wealth.
My bible journal highlights Lydia and her purple fabric she dyes.
Lydia : worshiped God
Lydia’s hospitality and her benefaction of Paul and his ministry required courage. Having a group of foreign men stay in her house might potentially cause scandal. Hosting meetings where they worshipped a new Jewish messiah, and not an emperor or any of the ancient and socially-respectable pagan gods, could have ruined her reputation and her business. Receiving Paul and Silas into her home after they were released from prison and asked to leave town was brave.Lydia is identified as a “God-worshipper” (sebomenē ton theon), sometimes translated as “God-fearer”