Lydia was not only a personal name, but it was also the name of a region in the western part of the Roman province of Asia where the city of Thyatira was located. Since purple goods were luxury materials worn by the rich, it is thought by many that Lydia herself must have been well off. In order to indicate that purple goods were a luxury item, some translators have employed “expensive purple cloth.” The goods in this particular instance refers obviously to cloth.

By the statement that she was a woman who worshiped God, Luke indicates that she was a Gentile participant in Jewish worship. In Jewish thought the heart is looked upon as the center of one’s intellectual activities; therefore, the Good News Translation has translated the literal expression “opened her heart” by opened her mind. In translating opened her mind, one may employ some such phrase as “caused her to be receptive,” “caused her to accept,” or even “caused her to understand.”

The verb translated pay attention to (used also in 8.6) is taken by some in the sense of “to believe” or “to accept” (see Jerusalem Bible). In some languages it is important to combine opened her mind with the phrase pay attention to as being two subsequent actions—for example, “caused her to be receptive to what Paul was saying and to believe it.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .