Acts chapter 16

vs 11

We - including Luke we assume.

vs 12

Later on the Philippians will receive a letter from the crew.

vs 13

No, they were not trying to pick up. Had they given up on Jews now? I don't think so. Perhaps Philippi didn't have a synagogue, and so the Jews would go to a certain place where they would meet for prayer. So why so many women, or perhaps so few men? Not sure.

There is a good reason they are mentioned, besides Luke's typical interest in women (as an author). Apparently, there was a required quorum of 10 Jewish men to start a synagogue, and no amount of women could make up for it. So even though there was a number of Jewish (or perhaps even God fearing) women, they couldn't form a synagogue.

Does this speak volumes about Christianity, being prepared to reach out to these women who have been given the bum steer by Judaism? I don't know for sure, but it could. I mean, even though we are talking about Paul, Luke, and Silas and Timothy here, they are still 1st century men. We do know that churches met in the houses of women. There is evidence of women deacons. However, Paul also instructed Timothy not to let them speak or take leadership, or something, anyway.

So I'm going to assume, a little cynically, that these guys went where they thought they'd get a target audience, rather than going on an affirmative action mission. They left that to the modern church to ignore :P

vs 14

There could have been more responses, but Lydia is an important figure. Purple cloth is expensive.

vs 15

Why they wouldn't go and eat in her house, I have no idea. Perhaps they didn't want to seem as a bunch of kept men to a widowed woman? Anyway, she is a believer, so they go there.

vs 16

So this verse indicates that they visited this place of prayer several times. Let's assume they are in Philippi for weeks, or even months (if they are meeting at this place only on the Sabbath).

It's not every day you hear about someone exploiting a slave's psychic abilities for money. Now some important points. She had 'a spirit', so this is a spiritual thing. She predicted the future, and she is seen as bad. I'll go out on a limb and say that this is a supporting point for my view that predicting the future is not God's will.

vs 17

Wow, that must have been annoying.

vs 18

Can you imagine! Paul, an apostle of Christ and revered in the church as a saintly man, ignored this slave girl for days. And then the only reason he helped her was because she was so annoying! Here we have an exorcism of annoyance! Try quoting Acts 16:18 next time someone is annoying you.

vs 19

How many of you would like to face a lawsuit that you stripped a slave owner of their income by exorcising an evil spirit from one of their slave girls which allowed her to predict the future? I think in a modern court we'd all be safe :P

vs 20

Ahh, so in fact they don't charge them with loss of income. Instead, they charge them with incitement to riot. So remember that next time you're in a protest - you can charge the people who are inciting you to protest even though you're the one protesting. Bah.