Python

VIEW:23 DATA:01-04-2020
PYTHON.—In Act_16:16 we read of a young girl at Philippi who had ‘a spirit, a Python’ (this is the reading of all the best MSS). Pytho was a district close to Delphi; and Python was the serpent at that place slain by Apollo, who therefore was called ‘the Pythian.’ Hence the priestess at Delphi was called ‘the Pythian.’ This seems to be the connexion of the name with divination. Plutarch says that ventriloquists in his day (1st cent. a.d.) were called ‘Phythons.’ Their powers were considered to be due to spiritual influence, and to include prediction. The girl at Philippi, then, was probably a ventriloquist, who brought her masters gain by sootbsaying. She proclaimed aloud for many days that Paul and his companions were slaves of the Most High God, and the Apostle at last drove out the spirit ‘in the name of Jesus Christ.’ Her masters thereupon, having lost their source of profit, denounced Paul and Silas to the magistrates.
A. J. Maclean.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


pı̄?thon: Occurs only in Act_16:16, where the Revised Version (British and American) reads, ?a certain maid having a spirit of divination (margin ?a spirit, a Python?) met us.? Πύθων, Púthōn, or Πυθώ, Puthṓ, is the oldest name of Delphi (or the country about Delphi), in which was situated the famous Delphic Oracle. Consequently ?Pythian spirit? came to be the generic title of the supposed source of inspiration of diviners, including the slave-girl of the account in Acts. Exactly what facts underlie the narrative it is rather hard to say, but it is evident that the girl was sincere in her conviction that she spoke with Pythian inspiration. Probably she represents some hysterical type, of none too strong mentality, whose confused utterances were taken as coming from some supernatural power. Impressed by Paul's personality, she followed him about, and, when his command came, was in a state of mind that had prepared her to obey it. The narrative, incidentally, gives an interesting sidelight on a society in which a girl with hysteria had a greater commercial value than she had after her cure. See DIVINATION.


International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Python
occurs in the margin of Act_16:16, a spirit of Python, where the text of the A. V. reads a spirit of divination. The word Python (Πύθων in Greek mythology) is the name of a serpent, or dragon slain by Apollo, then transferred to Apollo himself; in later times used for diviners, soothsayers, held to be inspired of the Pythian Apollo (Plutarch, De Delect.; Orac. c. q.). The Pythones, like the obolth, “familiar spirits,” among the idolatrous Hebrews (Lev_19:31; 1Sa_28:3; 1Sa_28:7-9), were called ventriloquists because the god or spirit was supposed to be in them, and to speak from their bellies without any motion of the lips. SEE NECROMANCY.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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