Were going to the place of prayer for went to prayer, A.V. and T.R.; that a certain maid for a certain damsel, A.V.; having for possessed with, A.V. The place of prayer. The ἡ προσευχή of the R.T. undoubtedly means "the place of prayer," the proseuchē.
They went there, doubtless, every sabbath. What follows happened on one occasion after Lydia's baptism. A spirit of divination ( πνεῦμα πύθωνος, A.V.; πύθωνα, R.T.). " πύθων denotat quemlibet ex quo πύθωσθαι datur," "any one of whom inquiry may be made" (Bengel).
It was a name of Apollo in his character of a giver of oracles. Delphi itself, where his chief oracle was, was sometimes called Pytho (Schleusner, s.v.), and Pythius was a common epithet of Apollo. The name Python came thence to be applied to a ventriloquist (Hebrew בוֹ)), or to the spirit that was conceived to dwell in ventriloquists and to speak by them, just as in Hebrew the ventriloquist was sometimes called בוֹא לעַבְ (or תלַעֻבַ if a woman), the owner of a spirit of divination, or simply בוֹ), a diviner (see 1 Samuel 28:7 (twice) for the first use, and Le 1 Samuel 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:11; 1 Samuel 28:3; for the second).
In some passages, as 1 Kings 28:6 and Isaiah 29:4, it is doubtful whether בוֹ) means the ventriloquist or the spirit. The feminine plural תוֹבוֹ) (Le 19:31; Isaiah 20:6; 1 Samuel 28:3, 1 Samuel 28:9; Isaiah 8:19) seems always to denote the women, who, like the damsel in the text, practiced the art of ventriloquistic necromancy, whether really possessed by a spirit or feigning to be so.
The word πύθων is only found here in the New Testament. The LXX. usually render תוֹבוֹ) by ἐγγαστρίμυθος. Gain ( ἐργασία), literally, work, craft, or trade; then, by metonymy, the gain proceeding from such trade (Acts 19:24, Acts 19:25).
By soothsaying ( μαντευομένη). So one name of these ventriloquists was ἐγγαστρίμαντις.