Vincent's NT Word Studies
4. Consorted with (proseklhrwqhsan). Only here in New Testament.More strictly, "were added or allotted to."
Chief women. The position of women in Macedonia seems to have been exceptional. Popular prejudice, and the verdict of Grecian wisdom in its best age, asserted her natural inferiority. The Athenian law provided that everything which a man might do by the counsel or request of a woman should be null in law. She was little better than a slave. To educate her was to advertise her as a harlot. Her companions were principally children and slaves. In Macedonia, however, monuments were erected to women by public bodies; and records of male proper names are found, in Macedonian inscriptions, formed on the mother's name instead of on the father's. Macedonian women were permitted to hold property, and were treated as mistresses of the house. These facts are born out by the account of Paul's labors in Macedonia. In Thessalonica, Beroea, and Philippi we note additions of women of rank to the church; and their prominence in church affairs is indicated by Paul's special appeal to two ladies in the church at Philippi to reconcile their differences, which had caused disturbance in the church, and by his commending them to his colleagues as women who had labored with him in the Lord (Philip. iv. 2, 3).
Robertson's NT Word Studies
17:4 {Some of them} (tines ex autwn). That is of the Jews who were evidently largely afraid of the rabbis. Still "some" were persuaded (epeisqesan, effective first aorist passive indicative) and "consorted with" (proseklerwqesan). this latter verb is also first aorist passive indicative of prosklerow, a common verb in late Greek (Plutarch, Lucian), but only here in the N.T., from pros and kleros, to assign by lot. So qen this small group of Jews were given Paul and Silas by God's grace. {And of the devout Greeks a great multitude} (twn te sebomenwn hellenwn pleqos polu). These "God-fearers" among the Gentiles were less under the control of the jealous rabbis and so responded more readily to Paul's appeal. In #1Th 1:9 Paul expressly says that they had "turned to God from idols," proof that this church was mainly Gentile (cf. also #1Th 2:14). {And of the chief women not a few} (gunaikwn te twn prwtwn ouk oligai). Literally, "And of women the first not a few." That is, a large number of women of the very first rank in the city, probably devout women also like the men just before and like those in #13:50 in Antioch in Pisidia who along with "the first men of the city" were stirred up against Paul. Here these women were openly friendly to Paul's message, whether convert or Gentiles or Jewish wives of Gentiles as Hort holds. It is noteworthy that here, as in Philippi, leading women take a bold stand for Christ. In Macedonia women had more freedom than elsewhere. It is not to be inferred that all those converted belonged to the higher classes, for the industrial element was clearly large (#1Th 4:11). In #2Co 8:2 Paul speaks of the deep poverty of the Macedonian churches, but with Philippi mainly in mind. Ramsay thinks that Paul won many of the heathen not affiliated at all with the synagogue. Certain it is that we must allow a considerable interval of time between verses #4,5 to understand what Paul says in his Thessalonian Epistles.
