Lydia is the first businesswoman mentioned in the New Testament. Her story never names a husband, so perhaps she was a widow who inherited the business. However it happened, she was a respected woman who sold purple textiles to those who could afford it. Lydia’s purple dye business was probably one of the guilds in Thyatira where she originated. A guild was an organization of artisans, something like a labor union. While her dye business was in Thyatira (in modern-day Tur