damsel. Greek. paidiske. See note on Acts 12:13. read "a spirit,. Python". The Python was. serpent destroyed, according to Greek Mythology, by Apollo, who was hence called Pythius, and the priestess at the famous temple at Delph was called the Pythoness. Through her the oracle was delivered. See an instance of these oracular utterances in Pember's Earth's Earliest Ages, ch. XII. The term Python became equivalent to. soothsaying demon, as in the case of this slave-girl who had an evil spirit as "control". She would be nowadays called. medium. The Lord's commission in Mark 16 was to cast out demons (Acts 16:17). To say that the girl was. ventriloquist, who was disconcerted, and so lost her power, shows what shifts are resorted to in order to get rid of the supernatural.
masters. owners. Greek. kurios. App-98.
gain. Greek. ergasia = work; hence, wages, pay. Only here, Acts 16:19; Acts 19:24; Acts 19:25.Luke 12:58; Ephesians 4:19.
soothsaying. fortune-telling. Greek. manteuomai. Only here. In Septuagint used of false prophets. Deuteronomy 18:10; 1 Samuel 28:8, &c.