A Python of Prophesy Stalking Paul in Philippi

Who is this soothsaying python of Philippi?

Luke mentions this woman in Acts 16 who follows Paul, Silas and Timothy around as they frequent a place of prayer down by the river.

She may not have had such a nickname but her presence foretells the inevitable upcoming skirmishes between good and evil in Europe.

Acts of the apostles 16:16

As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out,

“These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”

She’s right!

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Who is this girl?

Why is a slave girl following these apostles sent out by the Holy Spirit of the Most High God?

Luke continues by telling the reader:

¹⁸ And this she kept doing for many days. 

This Philippian slave girl continually followed them back and forth between the wall of Philippi and their place of prayer down by the Krenides River near town.

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Mythical and 1st c. Greece

Many first century cultural subtleties escape our 21st century eyes. This is especially true of 1st century Greece.

Paul understands the people of Macedonia much more than we will.

Luke reveals more about Paul’s challenge ahead in this first European missionary battle about to take place in Philippi between good and evil.

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Philippi is an important Roman city unlike the small mountainous towns we just left. This incident is central to events about to take place.

This girl is a slave. In the Roman empire her role is ordinary where more than one in ten people (perhaps more than 10% in Philippi) are slaves owned by and performing their labors for someone in town.

Roman men, their families and slaves settled here in Macedonia live their everyday lives steeped in the myths and idolatries of a Hellenist lifestyle foreign to our 21st century cultural-inclusiveness and geometrically opposed to the Lord God and Christ Jesus.

Mysteries of a higher and spiritual plane impact men and women in unknown and partially evident ways.

Certain messengers of darkness, seers of the divine such as this young girl, become actors of revelation in the unseen battles between good and evil. These diviners of the oracles of darkness typically shun exposure to the Very Light of The Most High God.

pneuma python – the spirit of divination

Luke’s account of Acts begins with the power of the HOLY SPIRIT, of course — and therein lies the battle in the heavenly places between that which is HOLY [hagios] and that which is unholy.

“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.”

Acts of the apostles 16:17b Legacy Standard Bible

Since as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve we have partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what conclusion must we draw from the source of her magical insight?

Paul understood her evil and super-natural source of knowledge. He may have been familiar with Greek mythology of the Oracle of Delphi (as are some of us).

The Apostle certainly knew Scriptural instances of such knowledge, even one by his Hebrew namesake.

The Witch at Endor

1 Samuel 28:

³ Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land…

⁶ And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. ⁷ Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.”

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Previously, on Cypress

And Paul was more recently familiar with encountering such spiritual battles as the Apostle engaged a Jewish magician on Cypress.

Elymas the magician, AKA Bar-Jesus

But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said,

“You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.”

Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand..

Acts of the Apostles 13:9-11a

Opposed to the Gospel at the Gate: Bar-Jesus

READ more about this earlier incident above.

THESE Biblical encounters challenge the 21st century view of all mystery being explainable by science and logic. Even Christians struggle to image the higher reality of powers and principalities of the heavenly places.

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More of Greek Myths & false gods

The world famous Oracle of Delphi played an influential role in ancient history. For fourteen centuries it helped determine the course of empires. The prophesying was abolished in the 4th century as it conflicted with Christian beliefs that were at that time being embraced by Rome.

Preston Chesser, Professor Dept of History, The Ohio State University

A booming industry grew up around the Oracle. Temples were built and rebuilt, priests were trained, rituals evolved and sacrifices were performed. Priests interpreted the incoherent utterances of the Pythia. Presents were brought to both placate the deity and in the hope of influencing a positive prophesy. The Delphic temple itself became one of the largest “banks” in the world. Delphi became a center for banking and commerce.

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oracle, (Latin oraculum from orare, “to pray,” or “to speak”) – source Britannica.com

DO NOT MISS THIS! Paul, Silas, Timothy and others have gone down to the river to pray. 
So has the young slave girl who speaks revelation of the identity of these apostles of God. 

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The most famous ancient oracle was that of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mt. Parnassus above the Corinthian Gulf. Traditionally, the oracle first belonged to Mother Earth (Gaea) but later was either given to or stolen by Apollo.

Oracles delivered through incubation were believed to come from chthonian (underworld) powers..

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A cultural ACT against idolatry.

¹⁸ And this she kept doing for many days.

Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, 

“I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”
And it came out that very hour.

Acts of the Apostle Paul [16:18b ESV]

SO WHAT HAPPENS when a soul is freed from an evil spirit who has given mysterious knowledge by the powers hidden in the recesses of life’s light?

The slave girl no longer posses the power that has possessed her and therefore can no longer give oracles of value to her owner.

You don't believe in such power beyond your 21st century scientifically enlightened knowledge, do you? 

I have encountered such evil attached to a place or person. 
Perhaps you have as well, yet were deceived by angels (messengers) of darkness in the unseen places or even the pulpit of false teaching.

Jesus and the Apostles warned the Church against such evil. Paul acted against it by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

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¹⁹ But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 

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ACTS of the apostles Paul and Silas — To Be Continued — in the town square of Philippi…