Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 16:33
And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed [their] stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
33. the same hour of the night ] It was midnight, see Act 16:25. But a new day, a birthday, had already begun for him and it must be kept as a feast, and he does his utmost to shew his rejoicing by care for those who had caused it.
washed their stripes ] An act of attendance that had not been bestowed before. They were thrust into the inner prison, with all their wounds bleeding and uncared for.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And he took them – To a convenient place for washing. It is evident from this that, though the apostles had the gift of miracles, they did not exercise it in regard to their own sufferings or to heal their own wounds. They restored others to health, not themselves.
And washed their stripes – The wounds which had been inflicted by the severe scourging which they had received the night before. We have here a remarkable instance of the effect of religion in producing humanity and tenderness. This same man, a few hours before, had thrust them into the inner prison, and made them fast in the stocks. He evidently had then no concern about their stripes or their wounds. But no sooner was he converted than one of his first acts was an act of humanity. He saw them suffering; he pitied them, and hastened to minister to them and to heal their wounds. Until the time of Christianity there never had been a hospital or an almshouse. Nearly all the hospitals for the sick since have been reared by Christians. They who are most ready to minister to the sick and dying are Christians. They who are most willing to encounter the pestilential damps of dungeons to aid the prisoner are, like Howard, Christians. Who ever saw an infidel attending a dying bed if he could help it? and where has infidelity ever reared a hospital or an almshouse, or made provision for the widow and the fatherless? Often one of the most striking changes that occurs in conversion is seen in the disposition to be kind and humane to the suffering. Compare Jam 1:27.
And was baptized – This was done straightway; that is, immediately. As it is altogether improbable that either in his house or in the prison there would be water sufficient for immersing them, there is every reason to suppose that this was performed in some other mode. All the circumstances lead us to suppose that it was not by immersion. It was at the dead of night; in a prison; amidst much agitation; and was evidently performed in haste.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 33. Washed their stripes] , He washed from the stripes: i.e. he washed the blood from the wounds; and this would not require putting them into a pool, or bath, as some have ridiculously imagined.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The same hour of the night; he did not delay to show forth the fruits of his faith, and real conversion.
And washed their stripes; which his stripes had made, using such means as might assuage their pain, and heal their wounds.
He and all his: See Poole on “Act 16:15“, See Poole on “Act 16:32“. Of baptism administered without any delay, upon their profession of faith in Christ, we have had examples, Act 8:38; 10:47, and in Act 16:15.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
33. And he took themthe wordimplies change of place.
the same hour of the night,and washed their stripesin the well orfountain which was within or near the precincts of the prison[HOWSON]. The mention of”the same hour of the night” seems to imply that they hadto go forth into the open air, which, unseasonable as the hour was,they did. These bleeding wounds had never been thought of by theindifferent jailer. But now, when his whole heart was opened to hisspiritual benefactors, he cannot rest until he has done all in hispower for their bodily relief.
and was baptized, he and allhis, straightwayprobably at the same fountain, since it tookplace “straightway”; the one washing on his part beingimmediately succeeded by the other on theirs.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he took them the same hour of the night,…. After they had done preaching to him, and to his family:
and washed their stripes; which were very many and heavy, and whereby they were covered with blood; and which by this time began to fester, and to produce corrupt matter; and all this in a pool, which Grotius supposes was within the bounds of the prison, he washed off from them: his faith worked by love, and showed itself in fruits of charity and righteousness, and in obedience to Christ, and submission to his ordinance, as follows:
and was baptized, he and all his, straightway; by immersion, that being the only way in which baptism was administered, or can be, so as to be called a baptism: and which might be administered, either in the pool, which Grotius supposes to have been in the prison; or in the river near the city, where the oratory was, Ac 16:13 and it is no unreasonable thought to suppose, that they might go out of the prison thither, and administer the ordinance, and return to the prison again before morning unobserved by any; and after that, enter into the jailer’s house and be refreshed, as in the following verse; and as this instance does not at all help the cause of sprinkling, so neither the baptism of infants; for as the jailer’s family were baptized as well as he, so they had the word of the Lord spoken to them as well as he, and believed as well as he, and rejoiced as he did; all which cannot be said of infants; and besides, it must be proved that he had infants in his house, and that these were taken out of their beds in the middle of the night, and baptized by Paul, ere the instance can be thought to be of any service to infant baptism.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Washed their stripes ( ). Deissmann (Bible Studies, p. 227) cites an inscription of Pergamum with this very construction of and the ablative, to wash off, though it is an old verb. This first aorist active indicative of , to bathe, succinctly shows what the jailor did to remove the stains left by the rods of the lictors (verse 22). was used for washing parts of the body.
And was baptized, he and all his, immediately ( ). The verb is in the singular agreeing with , but it is to be supplied with , and it was done at once.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
He took [] . Strictly, “took them along with [] him :” to some other part of the prison.
Washed their stripes [ ] . Properly, “washed them from [] their stripes.” The verb louein expresses the bathing of the entire body (Heb 10:23; Act 9:37; 2Pe 2:22); while niptein commonly means the washing of a part of the body (Mt 6:17; Mr 8:3; Joh 13:5). The jailer bathed them; cleansing them from the blood with which they were besprinkled from the stripes.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And he took them,” (kai paralabon autous) “And taking them,” the jailer accompanied them, Paul and Silas, he went along with them; the term suggests to another place, perhaps a short way to the same river where prayer was wont to be made and Lydia had been baptized, Act 16:13-15.
2) “The same hour of the night,”(en ekeine te hora tes nuktos) “in that same hour of the night,” a post midnight hour, after the earthquake tremor had gone, and the prisoners were all quieted in their cells.
3) “And washed their stripes,” (elousen apoten plegon) “He washed (blood) from their stripes,” where they had been cruelly beaten the day before; How tender the hardened jailer suddenly became, thru his new birth experience. Such is evidence of genuine repentance toward God and faith in Jesus, which Paul preached, Act 10:21; Mat 25:40.
4) “And was baptized,” (kai ebaptisthe) “And he was baptized, immersed, or submerged, like Jesus was, Mat 3:15-16, as the Eunuch was, Act 8:36-39, as Cornelius and his household were, Act 10:47-48.
5) “He and all his, straightaway.” (autos kai hoi autou hapantes parachrema) “He and each or all of his household, at one time,” all who like he, had believed on the Lord Jesus, as instructed by Paul and Silas, and as Cornelius, Act 10:47-48.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
−
33. He was baptized, and all his household. Luke doth again commend the godly zeal of the keeper, that he did consecrate all his whole house to the Lord; wherein doth also appear the grace of God, in that he brought all his whole family unto a godly consent. And we must also note the notable exchange: he was of late about to murder himself, because he thought that Paul and the rest were escaped; but now laying aside all fear, he bringeth them home. − (223) So that we see how faith doth animate and encourage those to behave themselves stoutly who before had no heart. And surely, when we droop − (224) through fear and doubtfulness, there is no better matter of boldness than to be able to cast all our cares into God’s bosom; that no danger may terrify us from doing our duty, whilst that we look for an end at God’s hand, such as he shall see to be most profitable. −
(223) −
“
Sponte,” of his own accord.
(224) −
“
Torpeamus,” become torpid.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(33) He . . . washed their stripes; and was baptized . . .The two-fold washings, that which testified of the repentance of the gaoler and his kindly reverence for his prisoners, and that which they administered to him as the washing of regeneration, are placed in suggestive juxtaposition. He, too, was cleansed from wounds which were worse than those inflicted by the rods of the Roman lictors. No certain answer can be given to the question whether the baptism was by immersion or affusion. A public prison was likely enough to contain a bath or pool of some kind, where the former would be feasible. What has been said above (see Note on Act. 16:15) as to the bearing of these narratives on the question of infant baptism applies here also, with the additional fact that those who are said to have been baptised are obviously identical with those whom St. Paul addressed (the word all is used in each case), and must, therefore, have been of an age to receive instruction together with the gaoler himself.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
33. He took them From among the cells, as we conceive, into the court, where the well or fountain often was.
The same hour of the night Unseasonable as it may have seemed.
Washed their stripes The word probably signifies a plentiful application of water in successive parts to their entire persons. The vessels in the vestibules of the ancient churches for washing hands were called ; the water in pitchers for purifying brides by sprinkling was called ; the boy who brought it was called ? and a bath wash-basin is called a , pp. 208-211. In all these cases signifies the application of water to the person.
Baptized It can hardly be supposed that so many persons should be successively immersed at midnight in the same well, fountain, or tank. Nor could they all have gone down to the river, for Paul’s message to the magistrates (Act 16:37) clearly implies that he had not left the prison limits. Smith’s “Dictionary of Classical Antiquities.” p. 148, has the following words: “The word baptisterium is not a bath sufficiently large to immerse the whole body, but a vessel or labrum containing cold water for pouring over the head,” p. 336. As this present baptism was performed by one Roman citizen upon another, the passage is in point. There is the purifying of the body and the purifying of the soul reciprocally applied.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptised, he and all his, immediately.’
Meanwhile the jailer had taken them immediately from the prison and washed their wounds. He was a changed man. We are probably to see that he did the washing himself. Unbeknown to him he was following in the footsteps of a Greater than he (Joh 13:1-5). This would presumably be done at a well in the courtyard of the house, and having heard more of ‘the word’ he and all his family and servants were baptised. ‘Immediately’ means that there was no delay. It does not mean that they were not instructed first.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 16:33. And he took them the same hour, &c. It appears from this circumstance of the gaoler’s washing their stripes, that the apostles had not a power of working miraculous cures whenever they pleased, either on their own bodies, or those of their dearest friends. Had they possessed such a power, it would have been their duty to have used it, unless they had a discovery of the divine will, that in such and such instances the use of it should be waved. The continual use of such a power would certainly have frustrated many of those noble purposes in providence, which their sufferings answered, and would have introduced many inconveniencies. The gaoler, in proof of his altered sentiments and genuine sincerity, not only washed the stripes, and took care of the apostles, but was baptized, he and his house, immediately, as the converts to Christianity commonly were in the apostolic age; for that had been the way by which the Jews used to receive whole families of the Heathens, when they became full proselytes to the Jewish religion; and our Saviour had appointed it as the way of initiating persons into the Christian church. The Jews would naturally have inquired of John the Baptist what the meaning of baptism was, and not why he baptized, though he professed he was not the Messiah, if it had not been a rite which theythemselves made use of when they received proselytes into the church; and our Saviour, in like manner, would not have commanded his apostles, Go, and baptize all nations, without explaining what he meant by baptizing them, unless it had been a thing well known, and which they had no need to have explained to them. It is very remarkable, that we have two instances in this one chapter of whole households being in this manner, and at once, received into the Christian Church; and such expressions as Lydia’s being baptized and her house, and the gaoler and all his family, cannot be understood with their proper emphasis, unless we suppose them to be allusions to such a remarkable and well-known custom. We may just observe, that the practice of Abraham, with respect to the initiating rite of circumcision, was agreeable to this. See Gen 17:26-27.
But I feel myself obliged in dutyto consider further the argument which this passage affords us in favour of infant baptism. There is no room to doubt, considering Abraham’s character, but that when God first made his covenant with him and his seed, and ordered every male in his house to be circumcised, all the adult males of his family were instructed in the knowledge of God, and of his covenant, in order to their having the token of it applied to them, as well as to the children and himself, according to God’s appointment: (Gen 17:7-14; Gen 18:19) And the same may be said in respect to the Jewish proselytes and their families; since, as to this point, there was one law to the Israelites and the strangers: (Exo 12:48-49.) and therefore its being said, that Paul and Silas spoke the word of the Lord to the gaoler and all that were in his house, Act 16:32 when the gospel seal of the covenant was to be applied to him and all his, is no more an argument against his having children baptized, than it is that there were no male infants in Abraham’s family to be circumcised, nor any infants in the families of proselytes to be baptized as well as circumcised; because the adult persons in both were to be instructed, before either of those rites was to be applied to them; as the adult persons in the gaoler’s house were first to be taught, that they might be baptized upon their own personal profession of faith, and by their own consent. And if any suppose that there were no children in his house, nor in Lydia’s, Act 16:15 they take that for granted, which it isimpossible to prove: but it is certain, that the terms household and a man’s house, all along in the Old Testament, generally include the children of the family: and if, as it is asserted by many great writers, it was a well-known and long-continued custom among the Jews, to admit proselytes into the church of Israel, by baptizing them and their whole families, inclusive of their infants, (see Lightfoot’s Harm. on Joh 1:25.) there is a plain reference to that custom, when in this chapter it is said, that Lydia and her house, and the gaoler and all his, were baptized: and it is very remarkable, in my judgment, that in this history of the acts of the apostles, God’s covenant with his people and their seed, and the application of the New Testament seal of it to children as well as adult persons, is strongly intimated, first with respect to the converted Jews, afterwards to the Proselytes of the gate, and then again to the idolatrous Gentiles, in some of the first openings of the gospel dispensation among them respectively. As to the Jews, St. Peter called them to repent and be baptized, because the promise was to them and to their children, and ran in the like strain to such as should be called from among the Gentiles: Act 2:38-39. As to the Proselytes of the gate, Lydia and her household, Act 16:15 or, as the Syriac has it, the children of her house, were baptized; which shews at least, that, in those early times, children were deemed such parts of the household as were baptized. As to idolatrous Gentiles, the gaoler and all his were baptized. And it seems highly improbable, that the gaoler and his house were baptized by immersion; since, as far as appears, that ordinance was all on a sudden administered to them severally, while they were in the prison; and since the mangled condition of Paul and Silas’s bodies, by means of their being severely scourged the day before, made it very improper, not to say unsafe, for them to go at midnight into the water so deep, as that mode of baptizing would oblige them to do.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Act 16:33-34 . . ] he took and washed them . Vividness of delineation. Probably he led them to a neighbouring water, perhaps in the court of the house, in which his baptism and that of his household was immediately completed. [60]
] a pregnant expression: so that they were cleansed from the stripes (from the blood of the inflicted wounds, Act 16:22 f.). See Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 276 f. [E. T. 322].
] the adverb emphatically placed at the end; comp. on Mat 2:10 , and Khner, 863. 1.
] We are to think of the official dwelling of the jailor as being built above the prison-cells; comp. Act 9:39 ; Luk 4:5 ; Luk 22:67 .
] quite the Latin apposuit mensam , i.e. he gave a repast; to be explained from the custom of setting out the table before those who were to be entertained, Hom. Od. v. 92, xxi. 29; Polyb. xxxix. 2. 11.
] , Phavorinus. It belongs to . A more classical form (yet see Plat. Eryx. p. 392 C), according to the Atticists, would have been or , Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 514 ff. See examples from Philo in Loesner, p. 208.
] because he had become and was a believer on God (perfect). He, the Gentile, now believed the divine promises of salvation announced to him by Paul and Silas (Act 16:32 ); comp. Act 16:15 ; Act 18:8 . That this his was definitely Christian faith, and accordingly equivalent to , was self-evident to the reader; see also Act 16:32 .
That, after Act 16:34 , Paul and Silas had returned to prison, follows from Act 16:36-40 .
[60] This is confirmed by the fact that baptism took place by complete immersion, in opposition to Baumgarten, p. 515, who, transferring the performance of baptism to the house, finds here “an approximation to the later custom of simplifying the ceremony,” according to which complete immersion did not take place. Immersion was, in fact, quite an essential part of the symbolism of baptism (Rom 6 ).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Chapter 58
Prayer
Almighty God, our mouth is full of hymns and psalms and spiritual songs, for thou hast done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Thou hast done all these things in Christ Jesus thy Son. He is the Head over all, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, without whom there is nothing that is good and beautiful and strong. Bring us all into Christ as the branches are in the vine. May we know that we have no life in ourselves, but only in Christ the Living One! He is come that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly; yea, like wave upon wave of life, until we are no longer in the little stream of time, but in the infinite ocean of his own eternity. His grace is our hope. To Moses we dare not speak, for the law is in his right hand and in his left, in two tables of hard stone; but to the Lamb we may come. He died for us: he tasted death for every man; he came to take away the sin of the world; Jesus Christ is the great burden-bearer; he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. We repent and cry out aloud for mercy, and we flee away from justice and the flaming sword, to find in the compassion of God our forgiveness and our rest. We love to think of the cross, because of what it is and because of what it will be. It will be a tree more beautiful than any oak in Bashan, or any cedar in Lebanon; the leaves of it shall be for the healing of the nations, and the fruit of it shall take away the world’s hunger for ev. Hallelujah! Glory and honour and majesty and dominion and all riches be unto the Lamb that was slain! Enable us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we drink into his Spirit; for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. May we be filled with his Spirit, and show it by our love of purity, truth, nobleness, and charity! May we be so filled with the love of Christ that night shall bring no darkness, winter no storm, and the Cross itself no hopeless death! We would triumph in Christ. By the power of the Spirit of Christ we would set our foot upon the whole earth, and keep it there in sign of spiritual mastery over all its temptations. Wilt thou not come to us through the gate of our necessity, and leave great riches behind thee, so that we shall forget our poverty, and be glad as those who enter into the joy of Christian festival? We are in great sorrow, but thou canst dry our tears, and make the grave the beginning of new joys, and find in our hearts new springs of sacred strength and joy. Hear thy servants who say, “The Lord’s hand has been heavy upon us,” and “The Lord hath passed by the house and left a great cloud behind.” Show them that thy mercy endureth for ever; that all things work together for good to them that love God; and may their sorrow but subdue their song and chasten it into a tenderer music. O thou who art the Resurrection and the Life, visit our bereaved ones this very day, and turn the hour of death into the hour of birth. If thy children have joy, they found it in heaven. Where there is gladness of soul may there be brightness of wisdom, breadth of character, solidity of conviction, so that the joy may not be for a moment, but for the whole space of life. We pray every day for comfort because we need it. We have to fight the world, the flesh, and the devil. They never sleep, they never tire, they are always able; and we, but for thyself, would be crushed before them with ease. Thank God! with God we have omnipotence. We can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us; so that we, who are feeble in ourselves, are strong as angels in the force and comfort of truth Divine. Let thy ministry in this house be full of grace and truth bright, tender, loving, human touching life at every point, and bringing thy Gospel to bear upon the whole scope and pain and agony of this present existence. The Lord make our weakness strength, turn our ignorance into wisdom, and make the water of our feebleness into the wine of thine own almightiness; and at the last, may the old man be as the young child, and the young child a radiant angel in the heaven-house. There, in the sinless heaven, may we work without weariness, expect and receive the fulness of thy wisdom and the riches of thy grace; and through the long nightless day of eternity may we know one another better, and thyself more fully, and rejoice in widening spheres of activity. Then shall the sin and pain of earth be forgotten but for the Cross that made even them occasions of new light from heaven. Amen.
Act 16:33-40
33. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, immediately.
34. And he brought them up into his house [the baptism being coupled with the washing before the meal is decisive against immersion. Nothing corresponding even to a modern bath in which persons can lie or sit was used by the Greeks, but always a round or oval basin, by the side of which the persons washing stood ] and set meat before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his house, having believed in God [in the Divine Lord Jesus, whose grace produced this love and joy].
35. But when it was day, the magistrates [prtors] sent the sergeants [lictors], saying, Let those men go.
36. And the jailer reported the words to Paul, saying, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore, come forth, and go in peace [this “secret escape” with the night’s imprisonment, and, under the circumstances, even the scourging, was the praetors’ rough mode of saving the Apostles, and themselves also, from the excited mob. Paul acquiesced to go, Mat 10:23 , but not secretly, Mat 10:14 , lest the Gospel be despised, and converts be scandalized].
37. But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us publicly uncondemned, men that are Romans [see Act 16:20 , and ch. 22. Tarsus, made by Augustus a “free city” (commercially), could not, however, confer upon Paul the Roman citizenship. The father or earlier ancestor of Paul must have acquired this as a reward of merit (magistracy) or by purchase], and have cast us into prison; and do they now cast us out privily? nay, verily, but let them come themselves and bring us out.
38. And the sergeants reported these words unto the [Roman] magistrates. And they feared when they heard that they were Romans [“It is a misdemeanour to bind a Roman citizen, a crime to beat him, almost parricide to kill him.” Cic. The Lex Valeria of b.c. 508, and the Lex Porcia of b.c. 300, had been violated by these prtors];
39. And they came and besought [G. “gave fair words to,” 1Co 4:13 ] them; and when they had brought them out, they asked them to go away from the city.
40. And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of [the Philippian church, fairest and strongest of all in Paul’s memory, Phi 1:3 , etc., was only a weak “church in the house of”] Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed [Luke re. mained behind, and perhaps Timothy also].
Christianity Self-illustrated
THIS is another vivid and happy illustration of Christianity producing its inevitable and invariable results. The old cause produces the old effect. Analyze the instance, and see if this be not so. Here is a man converted, and he instantly seeks to do all that lies in his power to make up for the past. Wonderful industry touched with infinite pathos, this! “He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, … and brought them unto his house and set meat before them.” What did it all mean? Exactly what our own repentance and consequent desire of amendment must do. He tried to rub out yesterday’s injury. It was yesterday that troubled him. Christianity always drives men back upon their yesterdays. The Christian can never do enough to show the reality and the inspiration of his repentance. He says, “I must pay the money that I am owing. I know that the Statute of Limitations would excuse me, but there is no statute of limitations in the regenerated and inspired heart.” The penitent says, “I must find out the life that I once bruised and crushed, and I must wash it with my tears, and caress it and help to lift it up by the almightiness of love. That life is in the forest, in the far-away backwood nay, that life is no longer on the earth; but there must be some descendants, even some far-off relatives; I will find them, and for David’s sake I will love Mephibosheth.” The religion that does this proves its own inspiration. It does not need our eloquence, nor does it ask for the exercise of our intellectual patronage. It simply asks to be allowed to illustrate itself by itself, and its proud challenge is: The God that answereth by fire, let him be God! Why will not Christians write the evidence of Christianity, not in eloquent books, but in eloquent lives? Christianity always concerns itself with the past. As soon as Zacchus felt the power of Christ in his heart, he said, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” That is the kind of man which Christianity makes. If any other kind of man has come under your notice professing to be a Christian, he is a false spirit; he is not of Christ, and therefore you are entitled to reject his testimony. Wherever you see a man wanting to pay up his arrears, washing the wounds he inflicted, drying the tears he caused to start, you find a man who has been with Christ. He may be a poor theologian, but he is a very angel of a saint, and character is better than acquisition. We must stand upon this today. Any argument in words may provoke a more or less felicitous retort in words; but a jailer washing stripes undeserved, feeding hunger unmerited, comforting hearts plunged into hopeless disconsolateness by the intention of man, and only saved from it by the grace of God, will carry the day. You cannot answer the argument of that man’s noble service; he is fighting a battle which cannot be lost. Let us not ask ourselves what we now believe, and muddle our heads with arguments we can never master; but do let us wash the stripes we have cruelly inflicted; do let us get people into the house and feed them, and comfort them, and turn night into day, if we would prove that our theology is Divine. This must not be regarded merely as an incident in the story, but as a necessary effect of the operation of Christianity upon the human heart. You must not forget the men you have smitten, the lives you have injured, the robberies you have committed, the lies you have told, the graves you have dug. If you cannot work resurrection of the dead, you can love and pity and help the living, and ask the injured man’s poor son to take full half your loaf, and tell him it is given not of charity, but of right. When the Christian professor does this Judas will fall backward in any Gethsemane where he may seek the modern representative of Christ. Your argument will but amuse, or at best perplex, but your self-sacrifice will persuade and win and heal, and cause Christ great joy in heaven.
The second natural result of receiving Christ into the heart is the experience of unutterable joy. This you find in the thirty-fourth verse: the jailer “rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.” Christianity never brings gloom; it is a religion of light, morning, summer, fragrant flowers, singing birds, and ineffable delights of every noble name. There are three possible views of God. There is the view which afflicts the soul with a sense of terror. In that view we see God as holy, just, righteous, always judging the sons of men, seated upon a throne high and lifted up, and trying every act of human life by the essential light of his own holiness. Before that view criminal man must cower in abject shame and fear. There is another view, partaking of this nature but much modified a view which elevates veneration without touching emotion. That is a view which shows God to be very great, illustrious, magnificent, grand; a Being before whom the head is to be uncovered, a noble Deity, a transcendent Power. The third view of God is the Christian one, and that always brings with it joy; the fruit of the Spirit is joy. “Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, rejoice.” “The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice.” Have we entered into this spirit of joy now, or are we only going to enter into it when we die? Have we now to walk through a narrow and dark tunnel, cheering ourselves with the imperfect and uncertain comfort that we will at the end of the tunnel enter into green meadows and places of summer beauty? We ought to enter into joy now; if we have not joy, we have not the Spirit; for where the Spirit of God is there is no bondage, there is no fear, and in the absence of bondage and of fear the soul must not be merely in a negative condition; it must be full of rapture, gladness, and sacred enthusiasm. Do not let us chide ourselves too severely upon this point, because of the diversity of temperament, and because of the complexity of physical circumstances, which operate in a subtle and often un-traceable manner upon our intellectual and spiritual constitution. If we can acknowledge with the consent of reason and heart that Christianity does bring joy, that is the next thing to our having the experience of the joy itself. Some of us seem born to be gloomy. Were some of us caught in an enthusiastic state, our friends would be alarmed, for we are not born to rapture; we speak in a low tone, in a feeble and uncertain manner; our very speech is a kind of groping in the dark. We want fulness and emphasis of utterance; we have a genius for doubting; we have a kind of inspiration for objecting; we do not throw ourselves with unconstrained confidence into the very arms of Omnipotence. In estimating ourselves and one another, therefore, we must take into account all these subtle and unique circumstances, and we need not afflict our souls with a double judgment if we cannot get so high up into the blue morning as bird-like souls can fly who seem to have some right and title to sit and sing at heaven’s gate.
These are not the only results of Christianity; for there are results on the other side; hence we find that the magistrates were afraid; they sent a message announcing their willingness that Paul and Silas should leave the city. The bad man has a ghost on the right hand and on the left, in front, behind, and many a spectral presence between. We know it to be true. There are “earthquakes” representing all kinds of physical difficulty; motions we cannot account for; lightning at unexpected times; rain when not wanted; storms howling down the black chimney in the blacker midnight; hands shaking the window frames; strange occurrences in the field in withering roots or blighted blossoms, or harvests half-grown and damned in their youth. So the bad man has physical difficulties, material alarms and afflictions. Following these came the discovery that the Apostles claimed the protection of the Roman law. So the magistrates were frightened from the side of natural rights. The stars in their courses fought against the magistrates, and natural rights upon the earth fought against the same mean judges. The bad man has no peace. The very law which he attempted to lift like a rod turned to a serpent in his grip and stung his arm. The bad man is always getting hold of the wrong end; always mistaking the case; always prosecuting the wrong party; always flying past, saying, “I have touched fire; O, forgive me if you can! and say nothing about it, for I have burned every finger of the ten!” Poor bad man! The earth will give him no rest; it shakes under his feet, and makes him totter as if he were drunk, but not with wine. He lays his hand, as it were, judicially upon a victim, and the victim turns out to be an accuser! Then to earthquakes and to natural rights add all the fears which come from spiritual doctrine deep, mysterious, far-reaching, all-involving doctrine with the heavens above it, hell below it, an untouchable horizon round about it flaming, shaking, glaring; and the bad man has a poor time of it! The earth was not made for bad men. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” No line in all the universe was laid for the comfort of evil. Wherever you find the bad man you find him in controversy with the earth, with the heavens, with the laws of nature, with the laws of society, with the mystic elements and forces which are called Christian doctrine; and the man is in hell already, and lifting up his eyes, being in torment, he would beg water of a beggar if he dare. “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” If they say, “Let us all have one purse,” cast not in thy lot with them. Their way is a darkening road into sevenfold midnight. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from thee.” There is no peace but in goodness; there is no rest but in righteousness. If thou hast turned away from thy Father in heaven, “acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace.”
This incident throws some light upon the character of Paul. He did not tell at first that he was a Roman citizen; why did he keep back that fact? He kept it back until he could use it with the happiest effect. Paul was probably the only Roman citizen in the little band, and was Paul a man to get off and let the others go to prison? Suppose Silas and Luke had been put in prison alone; why, it would have been like putting a man’s coat in jail and letting the man himself go free! As long as Paul was out, what mattered it who was in prison? So Paul said, “We are all together; come weal, come woe, step for step, shoulder to shoulder, we go together”; and then when a time came that he could smite the magistrates as with a fist of iron, he said, “They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison.” He knew how that message would bite all the soul such men had left. This is the way we should stand by one another; not running away upon the ground of individual exemption, but entering into the spirit of the unity of the kingdom of Christ, and the strong man making the weak man welcome to his power. Mark the dignity of his innocence. Paul said he would be “fetched out”; in effect he said, “Let the gentlemen themselves come down. As for you sergeants, we are much obliged to you for your message and civility, but let the gentlemen themselves put on their boots this cold morning and come down.” Christianity can be haughty; O, but she can be very dainty! So the magistrates, what with earthquakes, and Roman citizenships, and converted jailers, and one thing added to another, came down and said in effect, “If you will be so kind, gentlemen, as to go, we shall be very deeply obliged to you.” “The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth, but the righteous is bold as a lion.” In former days they besought Christ himself to depart out of their coasts, did the bad people; and the bad world is always asking Christianity if it will be so kind as to leave the world. It will interfere with the world’s scales and weights and measures; with life at home and life in the market-place; with dress and speech, and with honesty of heart. It will meddle with all these things; so the wicked world says to it, “If you would but be so kind as to go away.” Sooner would the rising sun go at the bidding of some poor insect, or the rising tide retire before the waving hand of some impotent Canute.
Being liberated, the Apostles did not take the shortest way out of Philippi; they said, “We must go and see our friends now,” so “they entered into the house of Lydia”; they called the brethren together and “comforted them.” The sufferer comforting those who have not suffered! The dying man praying himself that his survivors may not feel his death too much, or be swallowed up of overmuch sorrow! So having entered into the house of Lydia and seen the brethren and comforted their drooping hearts, they departed with the ineffable dignity of Christian uprightness.
So the Church of Christ was first established in Europe at Philippi see what a hold Christianity has of Europe today. The beginning of that hold is in this very visit of Paul and Silas and their companions to the city of Philippi. I am aware of the perversions and corruptions of Christianity, but underneath all these will be found the truth, that the Christian idea has been the mightiest force in European civilization and progress. With the exception of one or two kingdoms, the nations of Europe are Christian nations. Take out of European cities the buildings which Christianity has put up, and those cities would in many instances lose their only fame. What is Cologne but the foreground of its infinite cathedral? Whose house is that? What would Milan be but for its august and overwhelming church the very gate of a celestial empire? Take away St. Peter’s from Rome and Notre Dame from Paris, take away the edifices which Christianity has erected in every Christian kingdom, and see how frightful a mutilation would be made in the map of European grandeur. If you tell me that the great galleries of art would still be left, I would ask you to take away every Christian picture and every Christian statue, and then call for your estimate of the boundless cavity. If you tell me that the great centres of music will still remain, I would ask you to take away the productions of the Christian poets and musicians; and after you have removed Beethoven and Handel, Mendelssohn and Haydn, and all the stars amid which they shone like central suns, I will ask you to state in figures the stupendous and irreparable loss. When you call these things to mind, and then remember that Paul planted the first Christian Church at Philippi, you will see how important are the incidents recorded in the chapter, which is little better than an amplified index. We cannot tell what we are doing. He who plants a tree cannot forecast the issue of his planting. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which is the least among all seeds; but when it is grown it is a tree in the branches of which the birds build a great tree. The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. So we cannot tell what we are doing. The penny you gave to the little poor boy may be the seed of great fortunes. The love grasp you gave the orphan’s cold hand may be the beginning of an animation lasting as immortality. Let us old men, business men, young men be associated with the planting of Christian seed, which shall be like a handful of corn on the top of the mountains today, but in due time the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon. Do not associate yourselves with decaying causes, with institutions that have the condemnation of death written upon them, but with a kingdom that must swallow up every other kingdom, and with a music which must gather all other music into its infinite Hallelujah!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
Ver. 33. He and all his straightway ] God’s work is of great importance, and must be presently done, whatever else is left undone. “If ye will inquire, inquire, return, come,” Isa 21:12 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
33. ] A pregnant construction: ‘washed them, so that they were purified from the blood occasioned by their stripes:’ see reff. This is much more natural than to take (as in (ch. Act 12:14 ) and the like) as signifying ‘on account of’ (see Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 225).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 16:33 . , cf. Act 16:18 , “at that hour of the night”; the jailor will not delay for a moment his first Christian duty, Mat 25:36 . : “and washed them of their stripes,” Ramsay; i.e. , the stains of the wounds caused by the lictors (for similar construction of see Deissmann, Neue Bibelstudien , p. 54). Hobart, p. 112, compares Galen’s words, . : for the bearing of the words on Infant Baptism, see on Act 16:15 . It may of course be said that the expression evidently implies the same persons who are instructed in Act 16:32 , but it cannot be said that the phrase may not include any other members of the household. The two washings are put in striking juxtaposition: the waters of baptism washed the jailor from deeper stains and more grievous wounds than those of the lictors’ rods, Chrys., Hom. , xxxvi. , emphatic, see above on p. 106.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
the same = in (Greek. en. App-104.) the same.
washed = bathed them. Greek. louo. App-136.
their stripes = from (Greek. apo. App-104.) their wounds.
straightway. Greek. parachrema. Same as immediately (V. 26). See note on Act 3:7.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
33. ] A pregnant construction: washed them, so that they were purified from the blood occasioned by their stripes: see reff. This is much more natural than to take (as in (ch. Act 12:14) and the like) as signifying on account of (see Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 225).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 16:33. , washed: , he was baptized) A beautiful interchange (correspondence) of offices of love.-, straightway) A wonderful turning-point of time (momentum).
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
washed: Act 16:23, Pro 16:7, Isa 11:6-9, Mat 25:35-40, Luk 10:33, Luk 10:34, Gal 5:6, Gal 5:13
and was: Act 16:15, Luk 19:9, 1Co 1:16
Reciprocal: 2Co 11:25 – I beaten Heb 6:2 – the doctrine
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
4
Act 16:33-34. Here was a situation similar to that in chapter 8:35, 36. In one verse Philip preached Jesus and in the next the eunuch asked to be baptized. In our present case the preachers spoke the word of the Lord, then the hearer arranged to be baptized. All of this shows that “the word of the Lord” means the commandments of the Lord including baptism. Act 16:30 says the jailor brought them out, and then verse 34 says he brought them into his house. The baptizing took place between the two movements, which is explained by the act of immersion which requires their going to some place where there was plenty of water. Washed their stripes means the jailor bathed the wounds that the magistrates had inflicted on Paul and Silas, as a means of giving them some relief from their injuries. After the baptism the jailor served food to the preachers, while he and his household rejoiced in their newly-found religion.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 16:33. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. Most likely in that rectangular reservoir or basin called the impluvium, which was usually enclosed in the houses of that period. This tank received the rain-water which flowed from a slightly inclined roof. Other expositors suggest that allusion is made to a swimming bath which was then no uncommon appurtenance to the public buildings. It is possible that such a bath existed in the prison of Philippi, which was a noted military centre. It is more likely, however, to have been an impluvium. Chrysostom comments thus:The jailor washed them, and he was washed himself. He washed them from their stripes, and he in his turn was washed from his sins. This same Greek father conjectures that Stephanas (1Co 1:16; 1Co 16:15-17) was identical with this Philippian jailor.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Behold how sudden and strange a change was wrought in this gaoler. Before his conversion he was cruel, barbarous, and hard-hearted; now he is meek, merciful, and compassionate. He that before had beaten, imprisoned, and hurt the holy apostles’ feet in the stocks, now pities them, mourns over them, and washes their stripes.
Learn thence, That religion, and the grace of God, soften and mollify the hardest hearts, sweeten the sourest natures, and change the most barbarous and bloody dispositions. Behold this gaoler, before his conversion, a savage persecutor, a tiger, and a vulture, like the demoniac in the gospel, exceeding fierce: but now dispossessed of his fury, and by grace turned into a lamb for meekness, and a dove for innocency.
Observe, 2. How the gaoler believing, he and all his house were baptized. The apostle denied not baptism to the gaoler’s household, upon the gaoler’s sincere profession of the Christian faith; yet no doubt he promised to use his utmost endeavours to bring them to the knowledge and obedience of Jesus Christ.
Observe, lastly, How improbable it is that the gaoler and his household were baptized by dipping. We do not deny the lawfulness of baptizing by immersion; but we cannot assert the absolute and indispensable necessity of it. St. Paul, who was newly washed, and his sores dress, occasioned by stripes, cannot be supposed either to go out himself, or to carry the gaoler and all his family, in the dead of the night, to the river or a pond to baptize them; neither is it in the least probable, that St. Paul himself was baptized by dipping. He arose, and was baptized; and when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Act 9:18-19
The context may convince us, that he was baptized in his lodgings, being sick and weak, having fasted three days, and being in a very low condition, partly by his miraculous vision, and partly by his extraordinary fasting: it was no ways probable that Ananias should carry him out to a river in that condition, to plunge him in cold water. Dipping, then surely, cannot be so essential unto baptism, as for want of it to pronounce the baptism of all the reformed churches throughout the world to be null and void, as some amongst us do.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
33, 34. The preaching, as would be expected under circumstances so favorable, had the desired effect both upon the jailer and his household. (33) “And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was immersed, he and all his, immediately. (34) And having led them into his house, he set food before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.”
Those pedobaptist writers who claim the example of the apostles in favor of affusion and infant baptism attempt to find support for these practices in this case of conversion. Their argument for affusion depends entirely upon the assumption that the baptism was performed within the prison. If this assumption were admitted, it would prove nothing in favor of affusion so long as it is possible that there were conveniences for immersion within the prison. But the assumption is in direct conflict with the facts in the case. The facts are briefly as follows: First, When the jailer was about to commit suicide, Paul saw him, which shows that he was then outside of his dungeon, in the more part of the prison. Second, Hearing Paul’s voice, the jailer sprang into the prison, and “led them out”-not dungeon, but out of the prison. Third, Being now out of the prison, “they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” While speaking, then, they were in the house, and not in the prison. Fourth, “He took them and washed their stripes, and was baptized.” The verb took, in this connection, implies the removal of the parties to some other spot for the washing and baptizing. Whether to some other part of the house, or out of the house, it does not determine. But, fifth, when the baptizing was concluded, “he led them into his house,” which shows that, before it was done, he had taken them out of the house. Between the moment at which he took them out of the house and the moment he brought them into it, the baptizing was done. But they would not, at this hour of the night, have gone out, unless there was some necessity for it, which the demands of affusion could not supply. The circumstances, though not in itself a proof of immersion, afford strong circumstantial evidence in its favor, and is suggestive of that river on the banks of which Lydia first heard the gospel, and in which she was immersed.
It has been suggested that the party could not have passed through the gates of the city at this hour of the night; but there is no evidence that Philippi was a walled town. Again, it is sometimes objected, that the jailer had no right to take his prisoners outside the jail; and that Paul and Silas showed, by their conduct on the next morning, that they would not go out without the consent of the authorities. But this is to assume that the jailer would rather obey men than God, and that Paul and Silas were so punctilious about their personal dignity that they would refuse to immerse a penitent sinner through fear of compromising it. Such assumptions are certainly too absurd to be entertained when once observed; but, even if we cling to them, they can not set aside the fact, so clearly established above, that the jailer did lead them out of the prison.
As for the assumption that infants were baptized here, we have already observed, in commenting on Lydia’s conversion, that it is precluded by the fact that all the household believed. “He rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.” Moreover, Paul and Silas spoke the Word to “all who were in the house,” yet they certainly did not preach to infants. As there were no infants in the house while hearing, and none while subsequently believing and rejoicing, there could be none at the intermediate baptizing.
Before dismissing this case of conversion, which is the last we will consider in detail in the course of this work, we propose a brief review of its leading features, that we may trace its essential uniformity with those already considered. The influence which first took effect upon him was that of the earthquake, and the attendant opening of the prison-doors. This produced a feeling of alarm and heathenish desperation. It awakened within him no religious thought or emotions until the voice of Paul had recalled all that he had known of the apostolic preaching, when he instantly perceived that the miracle had been wrought by the God whom Paul and Silas preached. The proper effect of miraculous attestation of a messenger of God is next apparent in his rushing forward, falling before them, and exclaiming, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” He is now a believer in the divine mission of the apostles, but not yet a believer in Jesus Christ. Whatever he hears from these men, however, he is ready to receive as God’s truth. He hears from them the “word of the Lord,” and the next we see, he is washing from the neglected stripes of the prisoners the clotted blood, and submitting to immersion. That he was immersed proves that he was both a believer and a penitent. After immersion, he rejoices. The case exhibits the same essential features which we have found in all others; the same word of the Lord spoken and attested by miraculous evidence; the same faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, followed by repentance, and the same immersion, followed by the same rejoicing. Thus we trace a perfect uniformity in the apostolic procedure, and in the experience of their converts.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 33
Was baptized. Probably at the same fountain, since it took place “straightway,” the one washing the stripes on his part being immediately succeeded by the baptism of the keeper “and all his” on theirs.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
16:33 {18} And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed [their] stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
(18) God with the very same hand wounds and heals when it pleases him.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The jailer proceeded to wash Paul and Silas’ wounds. Then they washed him with the water of baptism. He did not have to keep his prisoners under lock and key, only to deliver them at the required time. He believed they would not try to escape, so he brought them into his house and treated them as loved brothers rather than as law breakers.
"One of the evidences of true repentance is a loving desire to make restitution and reparation wherever we have hurt others." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:469.]
"The conversion of the jailer is not just one more of the many conversions in Acts but the conversion of a member of the oppressive system that is punishing Paul and Silas." [Note: Tannehill, 2:204. Cf. Acts 10.]