Lydia, the seller of purple Sermon shared by Mike Truman
Summary: What does it mean to say that Lydia was a seller of
purple, and what did their first meeting mean to Paul? Audience:
Believer adults The seller of purple We heard in the second
lesson about the meeting between Paul and a woman called Lydia
in the city of Philippi. And we were told that Lydia was a
dealer in purple cloth. Now, on the whole I prefer modern
translations of the Bible, but they let us down a bit here. The
old Authorized Version, sticking closely to the Greek, says that
she’s a seller of purple. Just that. A seller of purple. What
does purple mean to you? What does it say? Maybe it makes you
think of the first line from that poem by Jenny Joseph - "when I
am an old woman I shall wear purple, with a red hat, which
doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me". A dramatic colour, but a
dangerous colour. Easy to go a bit over the top. It’s that
moment in every episode of Changing Rooms where the designer
prises open the lids of the paint tins and th