<p>16:40 <em>And they went out of the prison</em>- Luke, or the inspired companion, was not in the prison with them and may have bravely remained in Philippi to provide support to the fledgling ecclesia.</p><p><i>And entered into the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the believers<em>- </em></i>The New Testament speaks of households run by women: Mary (Acts 12:12), Lydia (Acts 16:14,40); Nympha (Col. 4:15) and Chloe (1 Cor. 1:11). These women were presumably wealthy widows or divorcees who hadn't remarried. We are left to speculate whether they were in some way the 'leaders' of the house churches which met in their homes. Women are described as ruling households in 1 Tim. 5:14; Tit. 2:4,5. The woman of Prov. 31 clearly had autonomy within the private sphere of the household, even though the husband was the public leader. Seeing Christianity was initially a house-church, household religion, we are left to wonder how much women actually led house churches, especially seeing that the majority of early Christian members appear to have been women. The wall paintings frescoes found in the Christian catacombs around Rome are highly significant for our present study. The significant ones for our purposes are the catacombs of Priscilla on the Salaria Nuova, Callixtus on the via Appia Antica, and that of Domitilla on the via Ardeatine. They feature in places scenes of female Christians raising cups, with the inscription&nbsp;agape&nbsp;over them. Some show a woman occupying the central place in the meal, with a large cup in her hand, with the other women looking at it intently. Some of the frescoes there are many of them show women dressed as slaves doing this in what appears to be a wealthy home. These frescoes seem to me indicative of how groups of slave women formed house churches, and faithfully kept the breaking of bread. Some frescoes show the women sharing the bread and wine with children around the table; one shows a woman holding a scroll, as if she is reading Scripture to the others. One fresco features a woman holding a cup of wine inscribed <em>nobis</em>- 'for us'.&nbsp;Some frescoes show men in the group, but the woman in the centre, as if she is leading the meeting, or as the host of the household.</p><p><em>They comforted them and departed- </em>We naturally think that it was Paul and Silas who were in need of comfort, with their lacerated backs and aching muscles after hours in the &quot;stocks&quot;. But here we see Paul's spiritual greatness; <em>he</em> comforted <em>them</em>, probably not least over the material losses they had suffered as a result of the earthquake.</p><p><em><br clear=all /></em></p><p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>