What is a python spirit?

In the Acts we find a damsel possessed with a spirit of divination, or of Python. This was the prophetic oracle at Delphi, held to be the centre and focus of Gentile divination. An evil spirit connected with that oracle possessed this young woman. The testimony of the evil spirit to the servants of the most high God is remarkable: it may have been compelled to speak thus when brought face to face with the power of God (as the demons owned Christ): but the apostle could not tolerate commendation from such a source — the spirit was cast out by a superior power. Her soothsaying or divination was stopped, and her master lost the source of his evil gains Acts 16:16-19.

[71] "Python was the prophetic serpent at Delphi, the centre and focus of Gentile divination. He gave his name and place to the prophetic Deity of the Gentile world; the successor of the serpent at Delphi was the Pythian Phobus, or Apollo. And from him all who claimed the powers of divination received their title, and were called Pythons." - Wordsworth on Acts, 28.

And now I read, "And it came to pass, as we went to prayer" — the prayer-meeting was kept up — "a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying; the same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show to us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour" (vers. 16- 18). Why did the apostle Paul do that? may I ask. Why does he refuse the testimony of this deluded girl? She was simply a servant of the devil: she was possessed by the spirit of Python. Satan was governing her absolutely, although she went after them day by day, crying, "These men are the servants of the most high God, which show to us the way of salvation!" Why would Paul not accept this testimony? The fact was simply this; he was spiritual enough to recognise that this was the devil trying to get his hand into the work of God; the devil, in plain language, was going to patronise the work of Christ, and that would not do at all.

I daresay, some of us, had we been followed about by that girl, crying, "These are servants of the most high God," might have thought that we were doing pretty well; and we would have been tempted to accept her help. But the devil can never help the work of God. Satan wanted to get his hand in, so that he might frustrate the work of the Spirit of God. Paul, however, says to the spirit, "Come out of her." It was Satan in his deadly opposition to the gospel, endeavouring to spoil the work. There are two principles you find all through Scripture — they are corruption and violence. In the garden of Eden the devil corrupts Eve; and what is the next thing? Cain slays Abel, i.e., violence. It is the same in the scene before us. Satan tries to corrupt God's work, before Paul develops it. When Paul refuses the devil's help, note the change in his tactics. Satan tries to crush the servants of God, and violence comes out.

"And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the market-place to the rulers" (ver. 19). The fact is, if you want to touch a man of the world most effectually, the spot to touch is his pocket. There is scarce a man here tonight, but can be touched through his pocket. These men were touched there, for when Paul commanded the spirit, he came out of the girl. She was, in fact, delivered from the power of the devil, and that is what you want, my friend. I do not say you want to be delivered in exactly the same way. You may say you have no spirit of divination, which I quite admit, but nevertheless it is a solemn truth that the man who is not under the power of the gospel, is under the power of Satan. When Paul was converted, the Lord commanded him to go to the Gentiles, "to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me" (Acts 26:18). Therefore you see that, until you and I are brought to Jesus, we are in Satan's power. I frankly admit that men do not like to own it. I know I did not care to own it, nor would I have owned it when I was unconverted, but I own now where I was till Christ delivered me.

These spirits then are not the spirits of departed human beings. Are there any other kind of spirits? Yes, there are fallen angels, demons, spoken of in the Old Testament as "familiar spirits." When our Lord Jesus Christ was here, there were many who were possessed and oppressed by them. He came into contact with these, and in His mighty power delivered them from this terrible oppression. The Acts of the Apostles tells us of Simon the sorcerer (chapter 8), of Elymas the sorcerer (chapter 13), men who had communication with spirits. And in chapter 16 Paul and Silas, on the arrival to Europe with the gospel, were followed by a girl who had a spirit of python. She was a spirtualistic medium, and she followed Paul and Silas crying out, "These men are the servants of the Most High God who show to us the way of salvation." It is very remarkable that the first manifestation of spiritistic power in opposition to the gospel of God on its arrival in Europe should take on a religious turn, and that is the guise it is putting on today. It would have been of small matter if it had not put on this guise, but it is putting on a religious guise, and claiming to be able to help Christianity. Let us test it. The Scriptures tell us how to test it. We are to test it, not by the phenomena of the rapping tables and planchettes, but by the doctrines that it brings. Sir A. Conan Doyle tells us that these phenomena, which in themselves seem so puerile, are but the ringing of the telephone bell, and that is just the one sentence in all he has written and spoken in which I am in heartiest agreement with him. These things are the ringing of the telephone bell, and when it rings you enquire, Who is there? That is the question. Who is there that wants to communicate with us? The test is, What kind of doctrines do they bring? "Every spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God," and they do not confess Jesus Christ COME IN FLESH. They say, He is a spirit, and He said, "A spirit has not flesh and bones as ye see me have." Nothing arouses the spiritist more than to insist upon this fact, that Christ is the risen Man in the glory of God. They deny Christ come in the flesh. They deny His deity; they deny His holy, spotless humanity. Sir A. Conan Doyle has the audacity to blaspheme the name of our holy, adorable Lord and Saviour in words like these, "He was a broad-minded man who was always open to new ideas, but he often lost his temper," and I know not whether the faint praise or the censure is the worst blasphemy. His holy, spotless humanity is denied; His sacrificial death is denied; His resurrection is denied. There is no resurrection in the spiritist doctrine, hence there is no true hope, for there is no victory over death apart from resurrection. The doctrines they bring disclose from whence they come. They are not from God; they are not from above. They come from Satan; these spirits are emissaries of Satan; their influence is satanic. Their doctrines strike at the very foundations of Christianity, their purpose is to overthrow the faith. The two things cannot run together. Make no mistake about that. They are in deadly conflict. The gospel of the grace of God concerning Christ has come from God. This is from Satan. One is light, the other is darkness.

“Seek me a woman that has a spirit of Python, that I may go to her and inquire of her” (v. 7). Christendom in our day is no different, about to be “spewed out” of the Lord's mouth. It is calling up spirits and indulging herself with satanic illusions, for at one and the same time there is frightening reality and shameful illusion in these practices. The reality is that a demon puts itself at the disposal of the Pythoness; the illusion is that she is able to call up the dead. The demon only clothes itself with a shadowy appearance, for Jesus holds the keys of death and of Hades and no power but His own is able to open its doors. Satan himself cannot call up the dead. Those who have not believed and who have died are and remain “the spirits in prison.” God alone by making an exception can permit Samuel to come forth from the realm of the invisible and appear.

We can come to no other conclusion than that the prophetess spoke either as simply dictated by her own sense, or by judging of the wishes of the questioner; or by the direct agency of Satan himself. In the case recorded in the Acts, there can be no question that the damsel was possessed by a demon; and when he was cast out, all her powers of soothsaying came to nothing, as her owners soon saw. And again, the apostle Paul declares that the things the Gentiles offered they sacrificed to demons, and not to God. So there can be little doubt but that the oracles, where there was anything more than the cunning craftiness of man, were under the immediate control of Satan.

At the same time Satan was already working to hinder the work. First, there was a demon-possessed slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. People were very interested in oracles and prophecies, hence the girl earned income for her owners. She cried out, ‘These men are bondmen of the Most High God, who announce to you the way of salvation’ (v. 17). There was some truth in it, but Paul was greatly disturbed. The gospel could not be furthered by witnesses from the darkness. Presumably, Paul was also irritated at the wild and distracting way the girl carried on. Her manner would repel rather than attract people.

It is the practice in some quarters to mock at Satan's power, and to ignore his presence in the world; and, still more, to reject the thought of a multitude of wicked spirits; and yet we cannot read the Gospels without realizing that our Lord recognized them fully, and that their power in His day was widespread and great. In some cases the satanic power seemed simply to manifest itself in inflicting personal injury upon the possessed one. They would be dumb, or subject to spasms, or the mouthpiece for unclean and blasphemous language. So much did these afflictions resemble insanity, that the two have been confounded. But the damsel with a spirit of divination at Philippi was not merely possessed in this way, but gave professed revelations, evidently of a satanic character. All through the centuries the arts of divination have been practiced, in so-called Christian as well as heathen countries; and it is most significant that in these last days, when so much light and truth abound, there has been a revival, under the modern spiritualistic cult, of the witchcraft of former days. Truly man, however cultured and apparently moral, as was king Saul in many ways, is no better than his fathers. The flesh remains unchanged, and will seek those who "peep and mutter" now as well as then.

The enemy does not begin, however, with an open attack — far from it: he announces himself in the first place as himself a witness to the message that Paul brings! A female slave, having a spirit of Python (supposed to be inspired by Apollo) and who brought her masters much gain by her divinations, followed Paul and his companions on their way to the place of prayer, and day after day cried out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who show you the way of salvation." It was an astonishing testimony from one accredited by the multitude as a true prophetess, but whose whole condition spoke to those who could discern the truth of dreadful bondage to an evil spirit! Yet it was in this case a true testimony, and which from such lips would naturally bring the attention of many to the truth. Nor had those accredited by it any responsibility apparently in the matter. Why should they not even accept such homage to the truth forced from the mouth of a demon? So had the evil spirits in the Lord's time owned Him as the Holy One of God whom men scoffed at as the Nazarene. But He had silenced them, and cast them out; and now also there could be no alliance between the awful power that held the world captive and Him who is its Deliverer. Satan, if he will testify, shall testify in being cast out; and the apostle, though for a time simply ignoring his effort to attach himself as a parasite to the tree of life, at last brings to bear on him the power of the Name of Jesus Christ, and his captive is set free.

'And it came to pass as we were going to prayer [or, the place of prayer], that a certain maid haying a spirit of Python met us, who brought her masters much gain by divinations. She, having followed Paul and us, cried, saying, These men are bondmen of the Most High God who announce to you [or, us] salvation's way. And this she did for many days. But Paul, being distressed, turned and said to the spirit, I charge thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out the same hour' (vers. 16-18).

As the better authorities (ℵ ABCE, et al.) insert the article with 'prayer' in verse 16, it is allowed that 'the place of prayer' is the more likely meaning. But if so here, it would go far to commend the same sense in verse 13, the article being there properly absent as it was a previously unknown and unmentioned place. The incident recorded was weighty in itself and in its consequences. Satan essayed a new means of mischief, not assailing the gospel but patronizing it and this for many days. Distressed thereby the apostle at length turned and enjoined the evil spirit to leave her, which came to pass in the name of Jesus.