Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 16:25

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

25. And at midnight ] Sleep being out of the question, they passed the night in devotions. The imperfect tenses of the verbs in this verse imply that the prayers and singing were continued. But it is unnecessary to render (as R. V.) “Paul and Silas were praying and the prisoners were listening, &c.”

unto God ] Whose bondservants the damsel had called them ( Act 16:17). Now they are in bonds for His name, and He gives them His comfort and refreshing in a manner strange to those who are not His servants.

and the prisoners heard them ] The inner prison appears to have held more than Paul and Silas, or it may be that bars in the inner walls allowed the sound to pass into other cells. The verb is not the common one for “hearing,” and is rarely found anywhere. It indicates attentive hearkening.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And at midnight – Probably their painful posture, and the sufferings of their recent scourging, prevented their. sleeping. Yet, though they had no repose, they had a quiet conscience, and the supports of religion.

Prayed – Though they had suffered much, yet they had reason to apprehend more. They sought, therefore, the sustaining grace of God.

And sang praises – Compare the notes on Job 35:10. Nothing but religion would have enabled them to do this. They had endured much, but they had cause still for gratitude. The Christian may find more true joy in a prison than the monarch on his throne.

And the prisoners heard them – And doubtless with astonishment. Prayer and praise are not common in a prison. The song of rejoicing and the language of praise is not usual among men lying bound in a dungeon. From this narrative we may learn:

(1) That the Christian has the sources of his happiness within him. External circumstances cannot destroy his peace and joy. In a dungeon he may find as real happiness as on a throne. On the cold earth, beaten and bruised, he may be as truly happy as on a bed of down.

(2) The enemies of Christians cannot destroy their peace. They may incarcerate the body, but they cannot bind the spirit, They may exclude from earthly comforts, but they cannot shut them out from the presence and sustaining grace of God.

(3) We see the value of a good conscience. Nothing else can give peace; and amidst the wakeful hours of the night, whether in a dungeon or on a bed of sickness, it is of more value than all the wealth of the world.

(4) We see the inestimable worth of the religion of Christ. It fits for all scenes; supports in all trials; upholds by day or by night; inspires the soul with confidence in God; and puts into the lips the songs of praise and thanksgiving.

(5) We have here a sublime and holy scene which sin and infidelity could never furnish. What more sublime spectacle has the earth witnessed than that of scourged and incarcerated men, suffering from unjust and cruel inflictions, and anticipating still greater sorrows; yet, with a calm mind, a pure conscience, a holy joy, pouring forth their desires and praises at midnight, into the ear of the God who always hears prayer! The darkness, the stillness, the loneliness, all gave sublimity to the scene, and teach us how invaluable is the privilege of access to the throne of mercy in this suffering world.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 25. At midnight Paul and Silas – sang praises] Though these holy men felt much, and had reason to fear more, yet they are undismayed, and even happy in their sufferings: they were so fully satisfied that they were right, and had done their duty, that there was no room for regret or self-reproach. At the same times they had such consolations from God as could render any circumstances not only tolerable, but delightful. They prayed, first, for grace to support them, and for pardon and salvation for their persecutors; and then, secondly, sang praises to God, who had called them to such a state of salvation, and had accounted them worthy to suffer shame for the testimony of Jesus. And, although they were in the inner prison, they sang so loud and so heartily that the prisoners heard them.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

No time or place where prayer is not acceptable unto God, and prevalent with him; nay, it sounds the sweeter when on the waters of affliction a good man pours it forth unto God.

Sang praises unto God, that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ: and being all things are overruled for the good, and conduce to the advantage, of them that love God, Rom 8:28, they owe unto God thanks for all things through Jesus Christ, which is also required of them, Eph 5:20.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

25. And at midnight Paul and Silasprayed and sang praisesliterally, “praying, were singingpraises”; that is, while engaged in pouring out their hearts inprayer, had broken forth into singing, and were hymning loud theirjoy. As the word here employed is that used to denote the Paschalhymn sung by our Lord and His disciples after their last Passover (Mt26:30), and which we know to have consisted of Ps113:1-118:29, which was chanted at that festival, it is probablethat it was portions of the Psalms, so rich in such matter, which ourjoyous sufferers chanted forth; nor could any be more seasonable andinspiring to them than those very six Psalms, which every devout Jewwould no doubt know by heart. “He giveth songs in the night“(Job 35:10). Though theirbodies were still bleeding and tortured in the stocks, their spirits,under “the expulsive power of a new affection,” rose abovesuffering, and made the prison wails resound with their song. “Inthese midnight hymns, by the imprisoned witnesses for Jesus Christ,the whole might of Roman injustice and violence against the Church isnot only set at naught, but converted into a foil to set forth morecompletely the majesty and spiritual power of the Church, which asyet the world knew nothing of. And if the sufferings of these twowitnesses of Christ are the beginning and the type of numberlessmartyrdoms which were to flow upon the Church from the same source,in like manner the unparalleled triumph of the Spirit over sufferingwas the beginning and the pledge of a spiritual power which weafterwards see shining forth so triumphantly and irresistibly in themany martyrs of Christ who were given up as a prey to the sameimperial might of Rome” [NEANDERin BAUMGARTEN].

and the prisoners heardthemliterally, “were listening to them,” that is,when the astounding events immediately to be related took place; notasleep, but wide awake and rapt (no doubt) in wonder at what theyheard.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, When others were asleep, and all things were still and quiet; [See comments on Ps 119:62], and they prayed doubtless for themselves, for their deliverance in God’s time and way, and for support under their present afflictions; and for supplies of grace, to enable them to bear with patience and cheerfulness, until an issue was put to them; and for their enemies, and, particularly it may be for the jailer, who had used them so ill; and for the churches of Christ, for all the saints, and for the spread and success of the Gospel:

and sang praises unto God; or “sang an hymn to God”, very likely one of David’s psalms, or hymns: for the book of Psalms is a book, of hymns, and several of the psalms are particularly called hymns; this showed not only that they were cheerful, notwithstanding the stripes that were laid upon them, and though their feet were made fast in the stocks, and they were in the innermost prison, in a most loathsome and uncomfortable condition; and though they might be in expectation of greater punishment, and of death itself; but also that they were thankful and glorified God, who had counted them worthy to suffer for his name’s sake:

and the prisoners heard them; for it seems there were other prisoners besides them, and who were in the outer prison: and from hence it appears, that their prayer was not merely mental; nor was their singing praises only a making melody in their hearts, but were both vocal; and it might be chiefly for the sake of the prisoners, that they both prayed and praised in this manner, that they might hear and be converted; or at least be convicted of the goodness of the cause, for which the apostles suffered.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Paul and Silas in Prison; Conversion of the Philippian Jailer.

      25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.   26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.   27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.   28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.   29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,   30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?   31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.   32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.   33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.   34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

      We have here the designs of the persecutors of Paul and Silas baffled and broken.

      I. The persecutors designed to dishearten and discourage the preachers of the gospel, and to make them sick of the cause and weary of their work; but here we find them both hearty and heartened.

      1. They were themselves hearty, wonderfully hearty; never were poor prisoners so truly cheerful, nor so far from laying their hard usage to heart. Let us consider what their case was. The prtors among the Romans had rods carried before them, and axes bound upon them, the fasces and secures. Now they had felt the smart of the rods, the ploughers had ploughed upon their backs, and made long furrows. The many stripes they had laid upon them were very sore, and one might have expected to hear them complaining of them, of the rawness and soreness of their backs and shoulders. Yet this was not all; they had reason to fear the axes next. Their master was first scourged and then crucified; and they might expect the same. In the mean time they were in the inner prison, their feet in the stocks, which, some think, not only held them, but hurt them; and yet, at midnight, when they should have been trying, if possible, to get a little rest, they prayed and sang praises to God. (1.) They prayed together, prayed to God to support them and comfort them in their afflictions, to visit them, as he did Joseph in the prison, and to be with them,–prayed that their consolations in Christ might abound, as their afflictions for him did,–prayed that even their bonds and stripes might turn to the furtherance of the gospel,–prayed for their persecutors, that God would forgive them and turn their hearts. This was not at an hour of prayer, but at midnight; it was not in a house of prayer, but in a dungeon; yet it was seasonable to pray, and the prayer was acceptable. As in the dark, so out of the depths, we may cry unto God. No place, no time, amiss for prayer, if the heart be lifted up to God. Those that are companions in suffering should join in prayer. Is any afflicted? Let him pray. No trouble, how grievous soever, should indispose us for prayer. (2.) They sang praises to God. They praised God; for we must in every thing give thanks. We never want matter for praise, if we do not want a heart. And what should put the heart of a child of God out of tune for this duty if a dungeon and a pair of stocks will not do it? They praised God that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name, and that they were so wonderfully supported and borne up under their sufferings, and felt divine consolations so sweet, so strong, in their souls. Nay, they not only praised God, but they sang praises to him, in some psalm, or hymn, or spiritual song, either one of David’s, or some modern composition, or one of their own, as the Spirit gave them utterance. As our rule is that the afflicted should pray, and therefore, being in affliction, they prayed; so our rule is that the merry should sing psalms (James v. 13), and therefore, being merry in their affliction, merry after a godly sort, they sang psalms. This proves that the singing of psalms is a gospel ordinance, and ought to be used by all good Christians; and that it is instituted, not only for the expressing of their joys in a day of triumph, but for the balancing and relieving of their sorrows in a day of trouble. It was at midnight that they sang psalms, according to the example of the sweet psalmist of Israel (Ps. cxix. 62): At midnight will I rise to give thanks unto thee. (3.) Notice is here taken of the circumstance that the prisoners heard them. If the prisoners did not hear them pray, yet they heard them sing praises. [1.] It intimates how hearty they were in singing praises to God; they sang so loud that, though they were in the dungeon, they were heard all the prison over; nay, so loud that they woke the prisoners: for we may suppose, being at midnight, they were all asleep. We should sing psalms with all our heart. The saints are called upon to sing aloud upon their beds, Ps. cxlix. 5. But gospel grace carries the matter further, and gives us an example of those that sang aloud in the prison, in the stocks. [2.] Though they knew the prisoners would hear them, yet they sang aloud, as those that were not ashamed of their Master, nor of his service. Shall those that would sing psalms in their families plead, in excuse for their omission of the duty, that they are afraid their neighbours should hear them, when those that sing profane songs roar them our, and care not who hears them? [3.] The prisoners were made to hear the prison-songs of Paul and Silas, that they might be prepared for the miraculous favour shown to them all for the sake of Paul and Silas, when the prison-doors were thrown open. By this extraordinary comfort with which they were filled it was published that he whom they preached was the consolation of Israel. Let the prisoners that mean to oppose him hear and tremble before him; let those that are faithful to him hear and triumph, and take of the comfort that is spoken to the prisoners of hope, Zech. ix. 12.

      2. God heartened them wonderfully by his signal appearances for them, v. 26. (1.) There was immediately a great earthquake; how far it extended we are not told, but it was such a violent shock in this place that the very foundations of the prison were shaken. While the prisoners were hearkening to the midnight devotions of Paul and Silas, and perhaps laughing at them and making a jest of them, this earthquake would strike a terror upon them, and convince them that those men were the favourites of Heaven, and such as God owned. We had the house of prayer shaken, in answer to prayer, and as a token of God’s acceptance of it, ch. iv. 31. Here the prison shaken. The Lord was in these earthquakes, to show his resentment of the indignities done to his servants, to testify to those whose confidence is in the earth the weakness and instability of that which they confide, and to teach people that, though the earth be moved, yet they need not fear. (2.) The prison-doors were thrown open, and the prisoners’ fetters were knocked off: Every man’s bands were loosed. Perhaps the prisoners, when they heard Paul and Silas pray and sing psalms, admired them, and spoke honourably of them, and said what the damsel had said of them, Surely, these men are the servants of the living God. To recompense them for, and confirm them in, their good opinion of them, they share in the miracle, and have their bands loosed; as afterwards God gave to Paul all those that were in the ship with him (ch. xxvii. 24), so now he gave him all those that were in the prison with him. God hereby signified to these prisoners, as Grotius observes, that the apostles, in preaching the gospel, were public blessings to mankind, as they proclaimed liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison-doors to those that were bound, Isa. lxi. 1. Et per eos solvi animorum vincula–and as by them the bonds of souls were unloosed.

      II. The persecutors designed to stop the progress of the gospel, that no more might embrace it; thus they hoped to ruin the meeting by the river side, that no more hearts should be opened there; but here we find converts made in the prison, that house turned into a meeting, the trophies of the gospel’s victories erected there, and the jailer, their own servant, become a servant of Christ. It is probable that some of the prisoners, if not all, were converted; surely the miracle wrought on their bodies, in loosing their bands, was wrought on their souls too. See Job 36:8-10; Psa 107:14; Psa 107:15. But it is only the conversion of the jailer that is recorded.

      1. He is afraid he shall lose his life, and Paul makes him easy as to this care, Act 16:27; Act 16:28. (1.) He awoke out of his sleep. It is probable that the shock of the earthquake woke him, and the opening of the prison-doors, and the prisoners’ expressions of joy and amazement, when in the dark they found their bands loosed, and called to tell one another what they felt: this was enough to awaken the jailer, whose place required that he should not be hard to wake. This waking him out of his sleep signified the awakening of his conscience out of its spiritual slumber. The call of the gospel is, Awake, thou that sleepest (Eph. v. 14), like that of Jonah, i. 6. (2.) He saw the prison-doors open, and supposed, as well he might, that the prisoners had fled; and then what would become of him? He knew the Roman law in that case, and it was executed not long ago upon the keepers out of whose hands Peter escaped, ch. xii. 19. It was according to that of the prophet, 1Ki 20:39; 1Ki 20:42, Keep this man; if he be missing, thy life shall go for his life. The Roman lawyers after this, in their readings upon the law, De custodia reorum–The custody of criminals (which appoints that the keeper should undergo the same punishment that should have been inflicted on the prisoner if he let him escape), take care to except an escape by miracle. (3.) In his fright he drew his sword, and was going to kill himself, to prevent a more terrible death, and expected one, a pompous ignominious death, which he knew he was liable to for letting his prisoners escape and not looking better to them; and the extraordinarily strict charge which the magistrates gave him concerning Paul and Silas made him conclude they would be very severe upon him if they were gone. The philosophers generally allowed self-murder. Seneca prescribes it as the last remedy which those that are in distress may have recourse to. The Stoics, notwithstanding their pretended conquest of the passions, yielded thus far to them. And the Epicureans, who indulged the pleasures of sense, to avoid its pains chose rather to put an end to it. This jailer thought there was no harm in anticipating his own death; but Christianity proves itself to be of God by this, that it keeps us to the law of our creation–revives, enforces, and establishes it, obliges us to be just to our own lives, and teaches us cheerfully to resign them to our graces, but courageously to hold them out against our corruptions. (4.) Paul stopped him from his proceeding against himself (v. 28): He cried with a loud voice, not only to make him hear, but to make him heed, saying, Do not practise any evil to thyself; Do thyself no harm. All the cautions of the word of God against sin, and all appearances of it and approaches to it, have this tendency, “Do thyself no harm. Man, woman, do not wrong thyself, nor ruin thyself; hurt not thyself, and then none else can hurt thee; do not sin, for nothing else can hurt thee.” Even as to the body, we are cautioned against those sins which do harm to it, and are taught to hate our own flesh, but to nourish and cherish it. The jailer needs not fear being called to an account for the escape of his prisoners, for they are all here. It was strange that some of them did not slip away, when the prison-doors were opened, and they were loosed from their bands; but their amazement held them fast, and, being sensible it was by the prayers of Paul and Silas that they were loosed, they would not stir unless they stirred; and God showed his power in binding their spirits, as much as in loosing their feet.

      2. He is afraid he shall lose his soul, and Paul makes him easy as to this care too. One concern leads him to another, and a much greater; and, being hindered from hastening himself out of this world, he begins to think, if he had pursued his intention, whither death would have brought him, and what would have become of him on the other side death–a very proper thought for such as have been snatched as a brand out of the fire, when there was but a step between them and death. Perhaps the heinousness of the sin he was running into helped to alarm him.

      (1.) Whatever was the cause, he was put into a great consternation. The Spirit of God, that was sen to convince, in order to his being a Comforter, struck a terror upon him, and startled him. Whether he took care to shut the prison-doors again we are not told. Perhaps he forgot this as the woman of Samaria, when Christ had impressed convictions on her conscience, left her water-pot and forgot her errand to the well; for he called for a light with all speed, and sprang in to the inner prison, and came trembling to Paul and Silas. Those that have sin set in order before them, and are made to know their abominations, cannot but tremble at the apprehension of their misery and danger. This jailer, when he was thus made to tremble, could not apply to a more proper person than to Paul, for it had once been his own case; he had been once a persecutor of good men, as this jailer was–had cast them into prison, as he kept them–and when, like him, he was made sensible of it, he trembled, and was astonished; and therefore he was able to speak the more feelingly to the jailer.

      (2.) In this consternation, he applied to Paul and Silas for relief. Observe, [1.] How reverent and respectful his address to them is: He called for a light, because they were in the dark, and that they might see what a fright he was in; he fell down before them, as one amazed at the badness of his own condition, and ready to sink under the load of his terror because of it; he fell down before them, as one that had upon his spirit an awe of them, and of the image of God upon them, and of their commission from God. It is probable that he had heard what the damsel said of them, that they were the servants of the living God, who showed to them the way of salvation, and as such he thus expressed his veneration for them. He fell down before them, to beg their pardon, as a penitent, for the indignities he had done them, and to beg their advice, as a supplicant, what he should do. He gave them a title of respect, Sirs, kyrioi—lords, masters; just now it was, Rogues and villains, and he was their master; but now, Sirs, lords, and they are his masters. Converting grace changes people’s language of and to good people and good ministers; and, to such as are thoroughly convinced of sin, the very feet of those that bring tidings of Christ are beautiful; yea, though they are disgracefully fastened in the stocks. [2.] How serious his enquiry is: What must I do to be saved? First, His salvation is now his great concern, and lies nearest his heart, which before was the furthest thing from his thoughts. Not, What shall I do to be preferred, to be rich and great in the world? but, What shall I do to be saved? Secondly, He does not enquire concerning others, what they must do; but concerning himself, “What must I do?” It is his own precious soul that he is in care about: “Let others do as they please; tell me what I must do, what course I must take.” Thirdly, He is convinced that something must be done, and done by him too, in order to his salvation: that it is not a thing of course, a thing that will do itself, but a thing about which we must strive, wrestle, and take pains. He asks not, “What may be done for me?” but, “What shall I do, that, being now in fear and trembling, I may work out my salvation?” as Paul speaks in his epistle to the church at Philippi, of which this jailer was, perhaps with respect to his trembling enquiry here, intimating that he must not only ask after salvation (as he had done), but work out his salvation with a holy trembling, Phil. ii. 12. Fourthly, He is willing to do any thing: “Tell me what I must do, and I am here ready to do it. Sirs, put me into any way, if it be but the right way, and a sure way; though narrow, and thorny, and uphill, yet I will walk in it.” Note, Those who are thoroughly convinced of sin, and truly concerned about their salvation, will surrender at discretion to Jesus Christ, will give him a blank to write what he pleases, will be glad to have Christ upon his own terms, Christ upon any terms. Fifthly, He is inquisitive what he should do, is desirous to know what he should do, and asks those that were likely to tell him. If you will enquire, enquire ye, Isa. xxi. 12. Those that set their faces Zionward must ask the way thither, Jer. l. 5. We cannot know it of ourselves, but God has made it known to us by his word, has appointed his ministers to assist us in consulting the scriptures, and has promised to give his Holy Spirit to those that ask him, to be their guide in the way of salvation. Sixthly, He brought them out, to put this question to them, that their answer might not be by duress or compulsion, but that they might prescribe to him, though he was their keeper, with the same liberty as they did to others. He brings them out of the dungeon, in hopes they will bring him out of a much worse.

      (3.) They very readily directed him what he must do, v. 31. They were always ready to answer such enquiries; though they are cold, and sore, and sleepy, they do not adjourn this cause to a more convenient time and place, do not bid him come to them the next sabbath at their meeting-place by the river side, and they will tell him, but they strike while the iron is hot, take him now when he is in a good mind, lest the conviction should wear off. Now that God begins to work, it is time for them to set in as workers together with God. They do not upbraid him with his rude and ill carriage towards them, and his going beyond his warrant; all this is forgiven and forgotten, and they are as glad to show him the way to heaven as the best friend they have. They did not triumph over him, though he trembled; they gave him the same directions they did to others, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. One would think they should have said, “Repent of thy abusing us, in the first place.” No, that is overlooked and easily passed by, if he will but believe in Christ. This is an example to ministers to encourage penitents, to meet those that are coming to Christ and take them by the hand, not to be hard upon any for unkindness done to them, but to seek Christ’s honour more than their own. Here is the sum of the whole gospel, the covenant of grace in a few words: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. Here is, [1.] The happiness promised: “Thou shalt be saved; not only rescued from eternal ruin, but brought to eternal life and blessedness. Though thou art a poor man, an under-jailer or turnkey, mean and of low condition in the world, yet this shall be no bar to thy salvation. Though a great sinner, though a persecutor, yet thy heinous transgressions shall be all forgiven through the merits of Christ; and thy hard embittered heart shall be softened and sweetened by the grace of Christ, and thus thou shalt neither die for thy crime nor die of thy disease.” [2.] The condition required: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We must admit the record that God hath given in his gospel concerning his Son, and assent to it as faithful, and well worthy of all acceptation. We must approve the method God has taken of reconciling the world to himself by a Mediator; and accept of Christ as he is offered to us, and give up ourselves to be ruled and taught and saved by him. This is the only way and a sure way to salvation. No other way of salvation than by Christ, and no other way of our being saved by Christ than by believing in him; and no danger of coming short if we take this way, for it is the way that God has appointed, and he is faithful that has promised. It is the gospel that is to be preached to every creature, He that believes shall be saved. [3.] The extension of this to his family: Thou shalt be saved, and thy house; that is, “God will be in Christ a God to thee and to thy seed, as he was to Abraham. Believe, and salvation shall come to thy house, as Luke xix. 9. Those of thy house that are infants shall be admitted into the visible church with thee, and thereby put into a fair way for salvation; those that are grown up shall have the means of salvation brought to them, and, be they ever so many, let them believe in Jesus Christ and they shall be saved; they are all welcome to Christ upon the same terms.”

      (4.) They proceeded to instruct him and his family in the doctrine of Christ (v. 32): They spoke unto him the word of the Lord. He was, for aught that appears, an utter stranger to Christ, and therefore it is requisite he should be told who this Jesus is, that he may believe in him, John ix. 36. And, the substance of the matter lying in a little compass, they soon told him enough to make his being baptized a reasonable service. Christ’s ministers should have the word of the Lord so ready to them, and so richly dwelling in them, as to be able to give instructions offhand to any that desire to hear and receive them, for their direction in the way of salvation. They spoke the word not only to him, but to all that were in his house. Masters of families should take care that all under their charge partake of the means of knowledge and grace, and that the word of the Lord be spoken to them; for the souls of the poorest servants are as precious as those of their masters, and are bought with the same price.

      (5.) The jailer and his family were immediately baptized, and thereby took upon them the profession of Christianity, submitted to its laws, and were admitted to its privileges, upon their declaring solemnly, as the eunuch did, that they believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God: He was baptized, he and all his, straightway. Neither he nor any of his family desired time to consider whether they should come into baptismal bonds or no; nor did Paul and Silas desire time to try their sincerity and to consider whether they should baptize them or no. But the Spirit of grace worked such a strong faith in them, all on a sudden, as superseded further debate; and Paul and Silas knew by the Spirit that it was a work of God that was wrought in them: so that there was no occasion for demur. This therefore will not justify such precipitation in ordinary cases.

      (6.) The jailer was hereupon very respectful to Paul and Silas, as one that knew not how to make amends for the injury he had done to them, much less for the kindness he had received from them: He took them the same hour of the night, would not let them lie a minute longer in the inner prison; but, [1.] He washed their stripes, to cool them, and abate the smart of them; to clean them from the blood which the stripes had fetched. It is probable that he bathed them with some healing liquor, as the good Samaritan helped the wounded man by pouring in oil and wine. [2.] He brought them into his house, bade them welcome to the best room he had, and prepared his best bed for them. Now nothing was thought good enough for them, as before nothing bad enough. [3.] He set meat before them, such as his house would afford, and they were welcome to it, by which he expressed the welcome which his soul gave to the gospel. They had spoken to him the word of the Lord, had broken the bread of life to him and his family; and he, having reaped so plentifully of their spiritual things, thought it was but reasonable that they should reap of his carnal things, 1 Cor. ix. 11. What have we houses and tables for but as we have opportunity to serve God and his people with them?

      (7.) The voice of rejoicing with that of salvation was heard in the jailer’s house; never was such a truly merry night kept there before: He rejoiced, believing in God, with all his house. There was none in his house that refused to be baptized, and so made a jar in the harmony; but they were unanimous in embracing the gospel, which added much to the joy. Or it may be read, He, believing in God, rejoiced all the house over; panoiki–he went to every apartment, expressing his joy. Observe, [1.] His believing in Christ is called believing in God, which intimates that Christ is God, and that the design of the gospel is so far from being to draw us from God (saying, Go serve other gods, Deut. xiii. 2) that it has a direct tendency to bring us to God. [2.] His faith produced joy. Those that by faith have given up themselves to God in Christ as theirs have a great deal of reason to rejoice. The eunuch, when he was converted, went on his way rejoicing; and here the jailer rejoiced. The conversion of the nations is spoken of in the Old Testament as their rejoicing, Psa 67:4; Psa 96:11. For, believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. Believing in Christ is rejoicing in Christ. [3.] He signified his joy to all about him. Out of the abundance of the joy in his heart, his mouth spoke to the glory of God, and their encouragement who believed in God too. Those who have themselves tasted the comforts of religion should do what they can to bring others to the taste of them. One cheerful Christian should make many.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

About midnight ( ). Middle of the night, old adjective seen already in Mark 13:35; Luke 11:5 which see.

Were praying and singing ( ). Present middle participle and imperfect active indicative: Praying they were singing (simultaneously, blending together petition and praise). H is an old verb from (cf. Isa 12:4; Dan 3:23). Paul and Silas probably used portions of the Psalms (cf. Luke 1:39; Luke 1:67; Luke 2:28) with occasional original outbursts of praise.

Were listening to them ( ). Imperfect middle of . Rare verb to listen with pleasure as to a recitation or music (Page). It was a new experience for the prisoners and wondrously attractive entertainment to them.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Prayed and sang praises [ ] . Lit., praying, they sang hymns. The praying and the praise are not described as distinct acts. Their singing of hymns was their prayer, probably Psalms.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

PRAYER AND MIDNIGHT MELODY, BY PAUL AND SILAS V. 25-29

1) “And at midnight,” (kata de to mesounuktion) “Then about (around the time of) midnight,” about half through the night of darkness that followed their public, humiliating beating and imprisonment.

2) “Paul and Silas prayed,” (Paulso kai Silas proseuchomenoi) “While Paul and Silas were praying; He “giveth songs in the night,” Job 35:10; Our Lord sang in the night, after His passover, Mat 26:30.

3) “And sang praises unto God: (humnon ton theon) “And as they praised God in an hymn,” gave to Him expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving for His grace, salvation, and sustaining help for every need. The idea is 11 they were singing prayer hymns,” hymns of praise and thanksgiving, Act 4:31; Rom 5:3; Col 1:11; 1Pe 4:13. It was a spiritual festival of triumph in the night, consisting perhaps of the six festival hymn Psalms, Psa 113:1 to Psa 118:29.

4) “And the prisoners heard them.” (epekroonto de auton hoi desmioi) “As then the prisoners listened to them intently,” listened with awe and astonishment. Paul and Silas let their light shine in testimony, prayer, praise, and song in solitary confinement that night, because they were not alone, nor altogether confined or in the dark, Mat 5:13-16; Joh 8:12; Heb 13:5. And God’s Word did not return to Him void, Isa 55:10-11; Joh 4:34-38; Psa 126:5-6.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

SONGS IN THE NIGHT

Act 16:25.

MUSIC is not a modern art! It dates back to the beginning of human history. Before the fourth chapter of Genesis has gone far with the Adamic family tree, it puts in a musical branch in the person of Jubal, who was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ, and, if we are to credit the Old Testament record, song accompanied the stringed instruments. That Israel employed it to sacred ends, witness Miriam, Jephthahs daughter, Deborah and others. But sacred song never found its fittest subject till Christ came, and ever since, in proportion to the progress of true Christianity, song has risen to higher note and harmonies more heavenly. What Paul and Silas sang we know not, save that they sang hymns, but that is sufficient. That fact is full of suggestions. The first is this:

SINGING IS A SACRED PRIVILEGE

We do not half appreciate it, half realize its joy or power. We do not consider its origin, its obligation, its proper exercise, as becometh Christians.

It is a sacred gift from God. The child who is possessed of perfect vocal organs, to whom song comes as to the lark or the nightingale, is favored far above the millions of us who are compelled to take our place, musically, with the grunting swine or silent swan. I thank God for the powers of speech. I praise Him for a voice by which preaching is possible, but I never hear man or woman lift up a voice clear as a bell and harmonious as organ-peal, and soulful as an angel, but I come near breaking the last link in the commandment-chain, Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbors. How any man can ever sing so as to charm his fellows, and forget the God who gave him his voice, I do not understand. The great Haydn, when an old man, sat down to listen to a company of sweet singers render his oratorio, The Creation, and when they came to that mighty passage, Let there be light, he sprang from his seat, and throwing his hands toward heaven, burst into tears, saying, Not from me! Not from me; but from God it came!

And unto God it ought to be given. Paul and Silas were tithing their voices this midnight. They were not of those who, having a talent, hide it in a napkin and complain that they were given no more, but rather of those who take every talent and put it on interest that their Lord at His Coming might have His own with usury. The dumb souls of our churches are not sinless in their silence. More of us could sing if only we were more arduous in our efforts, and more of us could play if we were more patient and painstaking. To me, one of the severest commentaries on feminine Christianity and feminine accomplishments exists in the fact that not one woman out of forty can play a piano or organ to the notes of a Gospel song. And, yet, music is supposed to be a sine qua non in female education. And it is a fact that quite a few of our schoolbred sisters can creditably acquit themselves with an operatic air, a love-ditty, or the tunes of the dance. So much the greater shame if these same profess Jesus Christ and yet cannot keep to the chords of a Gospel hymn sufficiently well to lead a congregation. I would that every man and woman who. can sing at all, that every one who knows the use of piano key or organ stop, would say of his musical talent what Tom Sullivan, the converted criminal, said of his voice, I havent much of it, but I mean to grow it, and whether it be small or great, Ill give it to God.

In the next place our text suggests

THE CHIEF SUBJECT OF SACRED SONG

Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and we know that Jesus was the subject of that midnight song. When they preached Jesus, the Roman magistrates put them in hold. But if they cannot preach Him, they will sing His love. There was in their throbbing hearts that night a sentiment akin to that which stirred the saintly Samuel Medley when he wrote,

Oh, could I speak the matchless worth,Oh, could I sound the glories forth Which in my Saviour shine,Id soar and touch the heavenly strings And vie with Gabriel while he sings In notes almost Divine.

Id sing the precious blood He spilt My ransom from the dreadful guilt Of sin and wrath Divine!Id sing His glorious righteousness In which all-perfect heavenly dress My soul shall ever shine.

Id sing the character He bears And all the forms of love He wears Exalted on His throne.In loftiest songs of sweetest praise I would to everlasting days Make all His glories known.

And from that night the saints of God have needed no new subject,

Sweetest note in seraph song,Sweetest Name on mortal tongue,Sweetest carol ever sung,Jesus, blessed Jesus.

Some months ago a mother, dying in this city, called her childrengrown-up men and women about her bed and said to them, Darlings, I am about to go and I want you to sing me over the river. They got their books, and looking into the pale face, they asked, About what shall we sing, mother? She replied, There is but one subject! Sing to me of Jesus and His love! And while they sang she ceased breathing, and the bright spirit, still listening from this shore, was greeted by the angel choir, and lo, they confirmed her opinion, for they sang, Alleluia to the Lamb.

SONG IS NOT TO BE SILENCED BY UNTOWARD CIRCUMSTANCES

They had put Paul and Silas into the inner prison a place of filth, foul air and pestilence. Still they sang! They had made their feet fast in stocks, and almost certainly manacled their hands. But their mouths were open, and out of them praises poured. Beloved, the love of Christ will constrain song in singular places. The ardent spirit is not so much governed and choked by times and seasons, but in season and out of season speaks for his Lord. The Christian singer might not ask always for a choir gallery and a sympathizing audience. The sinful world needs his song the more, and the more sinful his auditors are, the more savage and brutal they are, the greater occasion for that courage that clears its throat, stands boldly up, give its sweetest note. It is no trial whatever to stand in a choir gallery and send out a silvery voice to those who watch in sympathy, and with thirsty ears drink every sound. But out yonder in the street, where jeering men and leering women, and low-bred boys banter you and blaspheme; yonder, where the Salvationists stand shoe-deep in mud to sing, it costs something. We can but believe that a song there stands for more than a song here, just as a sermon there is braver than a sermon here. Sing, then, wherever song is needed. Convert the street-corner into a sanctuary, even the damnable saloon into a place of praise.

A young tenor singer came from his home in the east to visit a friend in Chicago. This friend took him to see the board of trade with its great wheat pit, the auditorium and some of the largest mercantile establishments. Then he said, Now I have shown some of the best things. Perhaps you care to see some of our worst things, and he took him to haunts where vice held high carnival. In one of these places the inmates were singing ribald songs. At last they called upon this young man to sing. He didnt know what to do. His musical love was sacred only, and thinking a moment he said, Courage, my heart! In this hell I must stand by my Christian colors, and he opened his lips. In clear sweet tones he sang, Jesus, Lover of My Soul. They were charmed by the voice; they scarce thought of the words. When he finished they encored and he sang a second time,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee!Een though it be a cross that raiseth me;Still all my song shall beNearer, my God to Thee!Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee!

When he finished, the crowd, sin-convicted, slunk out of the place. The proprietor turned the clock up to twelve, turned out the lights, wiped his moist eyes and went home. No more selling liquor that night. The sweet-voiced tenor had turned that hell into too heavenly a place for further comfort in his unholy calling.

SING FOR THE SAKE OF THE PRISONERS

Prison life is unspeakably painful. It is not so much the meagre rations or ill-treatment that emaciates men, shut behind iron bars. It is the dull monotony, the sullen sameness, the stinging conscience. These are the trichina that pierce to the vitals of prisoners.

Ah, what a relief to hear such songs! Not a man murmured because wakened out of sleep, but rising up with open ears they listened as the young girl listens while her lover serenades, and like her, their hearts were moved, their deepest and best sentiments stirred. It was so different from what they commonly heard from fellow-sufferers, so foreign to the accustomed oaths and execrations, and cursings of the freshly incarcerated. They were at first surprised, and then soothed and sweetened, for the sounds came stealing into their cells like an echo from an angel choir, and they wanted to be converted. And ah, the multitude of prisoners! The cells contain not one thousandth part of them. They are everywherein our homes, in our streets, in our shops, in our sanctuaries, sitting hard beside us; prisoners of evil, conscience-judged and sin-bound! How they need our song, and not one of them is so sunken in iniquity as to be indifferent to it! Not one of them so chained that he will not rise up to catch its melody!

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

(25) And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises.Better, praying, they Were singing hymns, the Greek expressing one act rather than two. The act was, we may believe, habitual, and they would not intermit it even in the dungeon, and fastened as they were, so that they could not kneel. The hymn may have been one of the prayer-psalms of David, or possibly one of those, of which Pliny speaks in his letters, and which may well have been in use half a century earlier, in which men offered adoration to Christ as God (Epist. x. 96). The words of Tertullian to the martyrs of his time may well be quoted: Nihil crus sentit in nervo quum animus in clo est; Etsi corpus detinetur, omnia spiritui patentThe leg feels not the stocks when the mind is in heaven. Though the body is held fast, all things lie open in the spirit (ad Mart. c. 2).

And the prisoners heard them.Better, were listening eagerly, the kind of listening which men give to a musical performance. Never before, we may be sure, had those outcasts and criminals heard such sounds in such a place. For the most part those vaults echoed only with wild curses and foul jests.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

25. Midnight When perfect exhaustion from scourge and stocks might have been expected.

Praises unto God For the high privilege of suffering for Christ. Here, as in the case of Stephen, the joy of the martyr in suffering was displayed for an example to all who should suffer. So by glorious suffering the cause of a suffering Master should triumph. Herein the moral glory of Christianity is unsurpassable. No higher attainment can humanity gain than the power to suffer for righteousness.

Prisoners heard them God meant this midnight song not only for the sufferers’ joy, but for the prisoners’ hearing. Let men know how Jesus is glorified in the exultation of his martyrs.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison-house were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.’

However, being deprived of their opportunity of worship at the riverside, Paul and Silas, in spite of the pain that they must have been suffering, took the opportunity provided by their situation to pray, that is, to worship, and to sing hymns to God, probably mainly in Greek, but also possibly in Hebrew. And it seems that many prisoners listened interestedly to what they said and sang. This last is Luke’s way of indicating that the word was still being effective, even in that prison cell.

That prison had witnessed cursings and imprecations, it had witnessed groanings and cries, it had witnessed pleadings and grovellings. But it had never witnessed anything like this. No prison could hold men who behaved in this way, and suddenly there was a great earthquake which shook the prison house to its foundations. All would recognise that it must be the result of their God Who was responding to His servants. The doors were broken open, and the chains which were fastened to the floors and walls became loosened. The point being stressed here was that God had stepped in and that Paul and Silas had been miraculously made free in response to prayer. The lesson was that no one could hold the servants of God, unless He allowed it. But it was a demonstration rather than a jail break, for they made no attempt to escape. It is in complete contrast with previous description of ‘jail breaks’ where those who were freed were led out (Act 5:19; Act 12:7-10).

The doors would only be held by wooden bars so that the movement of the ground causing the doorposts to widen would necessarily release the bars, with the result that the trembling would force the doors open. The cracking of the walls would ensure the release of the chains which were attached to them. In one sense there was no miracle. It was simply a natural catastrophe. It was all in the timing.

Yet the prisoners did not escape. This confirms both the reality of the earthquake, which left conditions such that escape was not so simple as it sounded, and the condition which it left the building in, which clearly made escape difficult, especially in pitch darkness. Furthermore while they may no longer have been fastened to the walls and floors of the prison, the prisoners would still be handicapped by chains and fearful of any guards who would show no mercy to escaping prisoners, and none knew where the guards were or whether there would be another quake. It was safer to remain where they were until morning came. The prison had withstood the shock well and appeared safe enough.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The earthquake at midnight:

v. 25. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God; and the prisoners heard them.

v. 26. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.

v. 27. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison-doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.

v. 28. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm; for we are all here.

Peter had calmly slept in prison on the night before his execution was to take place, chap. 12:6. And here these two disciples, with their backs aching and bleeding from the merciless whipping, with their legs cramped in the instrument of torture, and their minds smarting with the sense of injustice which they had suffered, were able to put all thoughts of the torture aside and to pray. And in prayer they even got the necessary strength to sing hymns to God, to praise Him in psalms. Paul and Silas were singing, and the other prisoners were listening with attentive interest. It was a service of praise and thanksgiving such as had been rarely seen in this world, the first one of many similar ones held by Christian martyrs in the dungeons. But suddenly a great earthquake rocked the prison, with such force as to shake its very foundations. And as a result of the shaking not only were all the doors opened at that same moment, but also the fetters of all the prisoners were loosened, taken off. The Lord of the Christians is stronger than the enemies that attempt to murder His servants. It is an easy matter for Him to save them that are His own. The jailer, awakened from his sleep by the shock, came to the full realization of the situation with one sudden shock. One glance sufficed to show him the open doors of the prison, and since he concluded that the prisoners must surely have escaped, he drew his sword from its sheath with the intention of committing suicide; for death was the penalty for allowing prisoners to escape. All this, of course, did not occur without some commotion and outcry, a fact which quickly informed Paul of the situation, who thereupon with a loud voice both hindered the proposed suicide and gave the jailer the reassurance which was most apt to restore his self-control: Do nothing of harm to yourself; all of us are here. Not one of the prisoners had made an attempt to escape, though there was nothing to hinder them. It was either that they were panic-stricken on account of the earthquake, or that the behavior of Paul and Silas had so deeply impressed them that they were lost in admiration of the courage exhibited by the two tortured prisoners. Many of them undoubtedly saw a connection between the prayer of the apostles and the earthquake, and were moved to admire the almighty power of God.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Act 16:25-26. And at midnight Paul and Silas, &c. These blessed apostles were as little daunted at suffering, as elevated when they were caressed and about to be adored for their miraculous cures. This was true fortitude; a composure and firmness of mind arising, through divine grace, from a sense of having done their duty, and being accepted by their great Lord and Master. From this consciousness of their integrity, and this sense of the divine favour, Paul and Silas, at midnight, when such wounds and torments as they endured give the greatest uneasiness, instead of uttering sighs and groans, prayed and sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God so loudly and so cheerfully, that all the prisoners heard them, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ. While they were at this extatic devotion, they had a miraculous and extraordinary token of the divine acceptance, as remarkable as the sending fire from heaven to consume the sacrifices of old; for on a sudden there was a great earthquake, all the prison-doors were opened, and all the prisoners’ bonds were loosed.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Act 16:25-26 . In joyful consciousness of suffering for the glorification of Christ (Act 5:41 ), they sing in the solemn stillness of the night prayers of praise to God, [59] and thereby keep their fellow-prisoners awake, so that they listened to them ( ). Whether these are to be conceived as confined in the same , or possibly near to it but more to the front, or whether they were in both localities, cannot be determined. Then suddenly there arises an earthquake, etc. God at once rewards this is the significant relation of Act 16:25-26 the joy of faith and of suffering on the part of Paul and Silas by miraculous interposition. The objection, which Baur and Zeller (comp. Gfrrer, heil. Sage , I. p. 446) take to the truth of this narrative, turns on the presupposed inconceivableness of miracles in general. In connection with the fiction assumed by them, even the is supposed only to have for its object “to make good the causal connection between the earthquake and the prayer” (Zeller).

] thus also of those possibly to be found in other parts of the prison. On , comp. Plut. Alex. 73: , Eustath. ad Od. viii. p. 313. 17. The reading (Bornemann) is a correct gloss.

[59] “Nihil crus sentit in nervo, quum animus in coelo est,” Tertull.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. (26) And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. (27) And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. (28) But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. (29) Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, (30) And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? (31) And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (32) And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. (33) And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. (34) And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

Here are several very interesting subjects opened to our meditation within the limits of these few verses, of a different nature, but all sweetly corresponding to one great point, namely, to set forth the glory and prayer of the Lord Jesus. The situation of Paul, and his companion, when thrust into this loathsome place, and with many stripes on their backs, and their feet made fast in the stocks, was truly exercising; but as no prison can shut out Christ, so no prison can shut in the soul. Jesus giveth songs in the night, and the midnight hour is a day-light hour, when God the Holy Ghost calls up his people to prayer and praise!

This was not the first time the Lord had answered the prayers of his saints by an earthquake. See Act 4:31 and Commentary upon it. How Sweetly that promise was here fulfilled, Isa 65:24 . And was it not (I ask the question,) as if to teach them of His abiding presence, who came down in an open display of glory at Pentecost? Act 2:1 , And what a courage it must have imparted to the Apostles, when such decided testimonies were given them, both of the Lord’s presence, and the Lord’s power? Reader! do not overlook the rich assurance such things bring with them to the present hour, of the same presence and power, though such open manifestations may not be now made, because they are not needed. Read, in confirmation of it, only these two promises, and if the Lord applies them to the heart, they will be fully conclusive, Mat 28:20 ; Isa 27:2-3 .

The effect wrought upon the jailor, prompts the mind to ask, whether the Lord in rich mercy had not suffered his sent servants to be imprisoned, purposely to bring about the wonderful event of this man’s conversion. But be this as it may, surely no faithful servant of the Lord would shrink from stripes and a prison, if by such means the Lord should be pleased to minister to the salvation of a sinner. And if we call to mind that this visit of Paul to Philippi, had been induced by the effect of a vision, there will be no great violence to suppose, that the Lord’s providence in thrusting Paul and Silas into this prison, was intimately connected with the Lord’s leading them into Macedon. We may indeed enquire, speaking after the manner of men, how this rugged jailor, whom we may suppose by virtue of his office, rarely, if ever left the prison, should have heard Paul preach, except as by a means like this, Paul came into the prison to preach there?

But, Reader! do not in the earthquake of the prison, given in answer to the prayers and hymns of Paul and Silas, overlook the still greater earthquake the Lord made in the jailors soul. No convulsion without, unaccompanied with trembling within, would have put such a cry as this awakened sinner uttered, when he sprang in and fell down before his prisoners. There was a divine light from the Lord shining inward upon his soul, before that he called for the common light of the house to lighten the wards of the prison. Convinced by this illumination of his own lost estate, and of those prisoners being the servants of the Lord, the language of his very soul earnestly desired to know what must be done for salvation.

The answer of Paul and Silas to the question is short, but sweet, and fully comprehensive to what the Gospel of salvation hath stated. Thus our dear Lord, during the days of his flesh, dwelt much upon it, See Mat 8:10 ; Mar 9:23 ; Luk 17:6 . And his servants following their Lord’s steps, Act 14:9Act 14:9 . But it should be remembered, that in all these instances, and numberless others, it is not meant a mere acknowledgment of the truths of the Gospel. In this sense, devils believe and tremble. But true faith is the conviction, not of the head, but the heart. And this is God’s giving, not man’s creating. Unto you, saith the Apostle, it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, Phi 1:29 .

And let it be further observed, in the instance of this man, that his faith was manifested to be genuine by the effects which followed. For we are told, that he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he, and all his, straightway. Here were decided tokens of a work of sovereign grace wrought in his soul! He took them from the prison to his house. The stripes which he himself had so unmercifully laid on them, he now softened with the oil of love. Their breadless prison was now changed into a bountiful supply of food. And the deadness and darkness of his mind, in a state of nature, was now done away for life and light in the soul. For it is said that he rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. Reader! behold what grace can accomplish! See here, what hath God wrought! Oh! who shall limit the sovereignty of the Lord, when the word of the Lord abounds with such wonderful instances of the power of grace.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 57

Prayer

Almighty God, we are still in the land of the living because of thy great mercy and most tender lovingkindness towards us. There is no death in God. Thou wouldst that we should be like thee altogether, living in thine own endless Evermore. Breathe into our souls the breath of life. Keep us near thee in Christ thy Son, our Saviour, and let death have no more dominion over us. We know that our flesh is delivered up to the jailer; we cannot release the body from his hard grip; the condemnation of death is written upon every bone, and all our blood must be dried up in the dust. But for our souls we pray; we would that they might be hidden with Christ in God; that they might never die. Hast thou not cried unto us from thine home in heaven “Why will ye die?” We would now, in the power of the Spirit, and by the grace of Christ, return unto the Lord, that he may have mercy upon us; and to our God, that he may abundantly pardon. If we could hear that sweet word in our souls, uttered by thine own voice, we should now while on earth be in the very heaven of eternal light. Speak comfortably unto us. Let our bruised and wounded condition of heart be its own plea; and let our hiding under the shadow of the Cross be its own argument, and cry unto us that our iniquity is pardoned, though our warfare is not yet accomplished. If thou wilt say this word “pardon,” we shall spring up again, forgetting old age and gray hair; we shall reclaim our youth, and with the energy of morning hope and strength will lift still higher our hymn of Sabbatic praise. Fill us with thy love, thou loving One. Make us know in our hearts the tender mystery of the Cross. May the Cross of Christ show itself in new forms and bearings every day. May it lie over the whole length and stretch across the whole breadth of our life; and thus may we live in the Cross and rise from it to the crowns that are kept in heaven. We would speak of our sin, were not our memory flooded with the recollections of thy grace. Where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound; and we forget our sin as we forget the darkness of the past night in the lustre of the present day. Few and evil are our days a child’s handful; like in their swiftness to a post, yea, even to a weaver’s shuttle coming, shining, dying yesterday, today, to-morrow here now, gone whilst we are speaking. We are as grass that is cut down and that withereth in the noontide that was to have crowned our pride. Oh spare us, pity us, let us recover strength that we may pray some bolder prayer, and give us courage that we may weep some manlier tears. The Lord have mercy upon us; surround us with mercy; crown us with mercy; give us to feel the day and the night are filled with mercy. We can only live in mercy, we have no standing in the law; we dare not appeal to righteousness. We come before the Lord, whom we have offended, crying for mercy free, boundless, unmerited mercy. Show us that in Christ Jesus thy Son, thy mercy endureth for ev. Give unto us this day according to our need. Thou knowest the heart that is too sore to be touched; thou knowest the ear that is pained by listening; thou knowest the weakness that would feel the dew of the morning to be a burden. Thou knowest those who are crying in the spirit, and weeping bitter tears which the eyes conceal; thou knowest the grave that is in the garden; thou knowest the worm that is gnawing the root yea, thou knowest us altogether. Wilt thou not pity us, and cause thy Spirit to dwell in us, ruling us wholly, until there be no disobedient thought, until our whole heart be a very temple seven times cleansed and beautified for the indwelling of God the Holy Ghost? We put ourselves into thy keeping, and pray for one another. When the road is slippery, take hold of both our hands; when the road is hard and long, find us a place where we may sit down a while, and when danger thickens, may Divine securities abound. The Lord take care of our friends at home, abroad, on the great sea, in the far-away city; the mother, the father, the aching heart, the repentant prodigal. The Lord’s Sabbath day enclose as within arms of infinite love all, from the highest to the lowest, for whom it is our duty and our delight to pray. Amen.

Act 16:25-32

25. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying [G. “worshipping”] and singing hymns unto God [Psa 107:10-16 . Although in evil case, they might reasonably be thankful for life preserved], and the prisoners were listening to them;

26. and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened; and every one’s bands were loosed.

27. And the jailer being roused out of sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword, and was about to kill himself [Act 12:19 , and Act 27:42 . Note also the suicides, here at Philippi, of Cassius, Titinius, and of Brutus, who “fled not with feet but with hands”].

28. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here [this word, so calm and kind, touched the jailer’s heart. Renan entirely ignores it, and accounts for the jailer’s changed behaviour by imagining that the Apostles “declared to him their quality” as Roman citizens!].

29. And he called for lights, and sprang in, and, trembling for fear [of God now, not of man, Act 27:27 and Act 27:28 ],

30. fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs [G. “my lords”], what must I do to be [in order that I may be] saved ( Act 16:17 )?

31. And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus [they are not lords, but Jesus is Lord: they are not the Way of Salvation, but the Lord Jesus is that Way. Cf. Joh 1:36 , Joh 1:37 . The jailer’s faith is turned away from their persons to the Person of the Lord Jesus. This Exalted One is the only object of faith. They added not his Jewish title Christ (Messiah), which would have been misleading here, would have suggested Judaistic error to this Gentile. The word “Christ” and the Judaistic idea (the historic Christ) have been added by ecclesiastics], and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house [Act 8:25 , an additional clause probably suggested by members of the household crowding around].

32. And they spake the word of the Lord unto him, with all that were in his house.

Disadvantages Made Useful

THIS ( Act 16:25 ) is an instance of turning strange places into churches. If, in many cases, desecration has taken place, we are bound to admit as just critics and reviewers of history that many surprising instances of consecration have also occurred. Think of the prison at Philippi being turned into a church! Think of midnight being turned into midday! And think of an unexpected congregation gathering together at a moment’s notice! We might turn every place into praying-ground. There ought to be no difficulty in praying in the market-place. It ought to be quite an easy Christian miracle to turn the thoroughfares of the city into aisles of the church, through which we pass with reverent step and with expectant and solicitous hearts. Thus we might build churches by the thousand, and inexpensively and immediately, so that we need not take long and weary pilgrimages to special places upon urgent need, but might turn the enemy’s masonry into sacred fabrics and common places into consecrated sanctuaries. Every place should be holy unto the Lord. The outputting of a hand should be the finding of an altar; the uplifting of an eye should be the discovery of God. Pray without ceasing. Let your common meal in the house be a holy sacrament, and the drinking of your water be as the imbibing of the blood that vitalizes and saves. Paul and Silas could not be driven from church; they were, on the contrary, always taken to church. As unusual places can be turned into religious temples, so unusual circumstances can be turned into Christian sanctuaries. In all probability we shall never be in the merely stone prison, but is there a man amongst us who is not in a still stronger and darker prison every day? The stone prison may be a palace; but what of the soul’s despair, the heart’s necessity, the life’s keen hunger, the cold, so bitter that it chills our inmost life? Do not let me say again and again imagine that Holy Scripture records ancient instances of imprisonment, or necessity, or difficulty. By many a type, more or less historical and literal, it sets forth our own condition and experience. The teaching of this immediate lesson is, that as unfamiliar and unconsecrated places may be turned into sanctuaries, so may unique, distressing, harmful, and threatening circumstances be turned into ladders up to heaven. What are you doing in your unusual circumstances moaning, groaning, complaining? Paul and Silas “sang praises.” Such men, therefore, never could be in prison. Prison it might be called, but prison it was none in reality. It was only a valley on a highland journey a valley very deep, and yet not deep at all, because only relatively deep to the infinite heights up which their souls often climbed to hold Divine communion in the purer light. Christians ought never to be in prison; Christians ought never to be in any circumstances which they cannot turn into sacramental occasions. “This is my body, this is my blood.” I may take two views of the body and blood the murderer’s view or the Saviour’s. The murderer says, “I have killed him”; the Saviour says, “I lay down my life; no man taketh it from me.” Do not let us take the enemy’s view of our imprisonment, whatever that imprisonment may accidentally be; let us take God’s view of it, and then the stones, seven feet thick and more, shall vibrate under the resonance of an unaccustomed and startling song.

Here is an instance in which Christian thinkers and workers and worshippers may have unexpected observers and listeners. The text says, “and the prisoners heard them”; the Revised Version says, “and the prisoners were listening.” It is always exactly so. You do not speak without being listened to; you do not go to church without being observed; you do not sing your hymn to yourself alone; the hymn has a beginning, but who can tell its end? It warms your own soul as it passes up to the hearing ear of God; but who can tell what it is doing on the way? Sometimes the hymn of the church is overheard by the passers-by, and they who go out to spend the Sabbath in some unknown way carry the hymn with them, and it hums in their memory and calls up recollections of other days, and sometimes brings the wanderer to the evening service. You cannot tell what you are doing. The preacher speaks to his immediate congregation, but he knows not who is listening in the vestibule. “And the prisoners were listening.” They never heard such music before! They had been accustomed to profane language; to cursing and denunciation; to violent and complaining exclamations and reproaches; but here is a new spirit in the house hark how the music rises, falls, plashes like a gracious rain upon dry ground! It is so at home. Passing the room door, we pause a moment to hear some sweet voice in prayer or praise. We say nothing, but receive it in sweet confidence and think about it, and it works wonders in the soul; it follows the life like a pleading angel. We cannot tell all we do. What is true on the one side is true on the other. The fierce word you spoke was heard. The unjust judgment you passed was listened to by your children, and they will grow up to repeat with broader, darker emphasis your sneering and your cynicism. Did you think the children were not listening when you used harsh words and passed unjust not to say ungenerous judgments, and when you ridiculed things that ought to be held sacred? The children heard every word and responded to every tone, and when they grow up to curse the altar you neglected, their blood will be required at your hands. Study this matter of indirect and unconscious influence. Let us remember as those that must give account that whatever we do has an immediate effect upon self, and also a relative and immeasurable influence.

This incident shows us how possible it is quietly and even thankfully to accept all the circumstances of life. Nothing must interfere with the religious sacrifice. Are we in prison? We may have to alter the hour of worship, but not the worship itself. Are we in an uncongenial atmosphere? We may have to wait until the company has broken up before we have our little quiet psalm and our deep and earnest communion with the Father; but it is only waiting; it is a mere change of time; there is no change in the substance, the reality, the sovereign purpose. That does not admit of change. You cannot injure the men who proceed as Paul and Silas proceeded. You cannot get in front of them. You cannot disappoint them. There is something about their whole spirit and force which rude hands cannot touch. If they do not pray in one place, they will pray in another; and if they do not pray at midday, they will have their prayer at midnight, and be all the better heard by human listeners for the silence which they considered was concealing their worship. What a lesson is this to us! Show me a Christian who does not complain. It would seem as if in some cases Christianity had done little for us but teach us the art of reproach. Where are the joyous Christians? the midnight-singing Christians? the Christians who turn night into day, who read the Bible by candle-light, and who wear out the paper by their eagerness of perusal of the Sacred Word? In old times Christians used to be irrepressibly glad; it was part of their very charter to be always joyous not after a flippant and transient sort, but to have that deep joy which gathers to itself the tender shading of melancholy, that ineffable gladness which must of necessity be solemn. We are disputatious Christians; combative believers; great in argument, in hair-splitting, and in cunning use of words. Where is the ancient joy, the old delight, the Sabbath seven days long, the Church that spread its golden roof over all the hills and valleys of changing life? May the old days come again! When they come Christians will accept poverty or wealth, life or death, bleak March or warm June, with resignation, thankfulness, sweet and holy content, saying: “This is the best for me; here I stand in the midst of barns enlarged and harvests multiplied;” or, “Here I stand without a robe to cover my nakedness, without bread enough for the passing hunger, with nothing that I could lay my hands upon and turn to immediate use; yet, though the fig-tree shall not blossom, though there be no fruit in the vines, no herd in the stalls, yet I must not forget my prayer, my hymn, my worship; my circumstances must give accent and immediate expressiveness to my oblation of praise and dedication to God; I live, not in circumstance but in faith.” This is a religious service of prayer and praise. “But there was no preaching,” you say. Yes, there was for we may preach by singing. There would be no harm, but oftentimes great good, if there were no formal preaching; if the whole service were one of prayer and praise. Could we some morning sing twenty hymns straight off, connected only by brief invocation, we should most surely have preached the Word. “The prisoners were listening.” So there was a congregation. But even in a more direct and literal sense preaching was added to prayer and praise. The earthquake took place, the foundations of the prison were shaken, all the doors were opened, every one’s bands were loosed, and the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep (which he ought not to have indulged, and the penalty for which was capital punishment), seeing the prison door open, drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled; and he, with his house, became a congregation to which Paul and Silas did, in the literal sense of the term, preach. So that night they had a full service prayer, praise, preaching, and conversion. How did the jailer know this word “saved”? We must call to memory the speech of the divining damsel, who followed Paul and Silas. She cried, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of salvation.” The soothsayer had made the sacred word salvation familiar in the speech of Philippi. “Salvation” was not an unknown term, but a term well known. As the hymn of the Apostles was heard by those whom they did not know were listening, so this word “salvation” rung out in the clear, silvery tones of the divining damsel was heard by others beside Paul and Silas and Luke. We cannot tell how we pick up our words; we do not always know so as to be able to explain the origin and authority of our information. There is a process of unconscious acquisition. Look at this conversion of the jailer. It took place under circumstances which may well be described as “exciting.” Have we not been unjust to what is called “religious excitement”? Surely nothing could possibly have been more sensational than the circumstances we are now considering. They would shock us. But are the circumstances to blame or ourselves? We like quietness deadness; we do not like to be “excited,” disturbed, unsettled; because the devil has got both his arms around us and has chloroformed us into a state of insensibility. Jesus Christ did not rebuke the excitement which followed his ministry; when others would have had him rebuke them he said, “I tell you that if these held their peace, the very stones would cry out.” I do not object to religious excitement, but I do object to religious cynicism and religious death. Happily the incident does not end here. To excitement was added the necessary element of instruction. In the thirty-second verse we read: “And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.” Excitement must be followed by instruction, if it is to be turned to highest and most enduring usefulness. We must know what we believe; the Word of God must dwell in us richly. Religion is not an excitement only, but a conviction, as deep as life, as lasting as the duration of the being which it has transformed. Religious emotion not followed by religious instruction becomes a harmful agent in human life. Tears in the eyes that are not followed by activities in the hand harden the very heart which for the moment they softened. We shall be the worse for every revival that ends in itself. That is to say, times of revival must be followed by times of study, with Bible-reading, comparing spiritual things with spiritual and getting into our hearts the very pith and marrow of the Divine revelation. We might get up such services as these almost every day in the week. If we prayed and praised in every prison into which our life is thrust, we should be heard by strange listeners, we should be interrogated by strange inquirers, and doors of usefulness would be opened in the very granite which apparently shut us in. There is a releasing power in life. Do not ask yourselves puzzling questions about earthquakes, the shaking of stony foundations and the loosing of iron bands, or you will fritter away the opportunity in a useless inquest into accidents that belong but to a moment. The great truth all-including, everlasting, all-comforting is that in the providence of life there is a releasing power against which nothing of human machination or malignity can stand. God will bring you forth. The Lord will shake the foundations of every prison for your sake. You have seen great and bitter afflictions, yet the Lord has delivered you out of six troubles; will the seventh be too much for him? Can omnipotence be weary? Can almightiness need sleep? Doth the Lord slumber because his eyelids are heavy? The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice. You are shut up in the prison of ill-health; and you are enclosed in the prison of poverty; and you are bound round with chains of circumstances which you cannot overcome, and you are thrust into the innermost dungeon, and your feet are made fast in the stocks, and you say, It is midnight upon midnight, and in the darkness there is no star. Recalling all Divine history, and all Divine promises, recalling the covenant and the oath of God, I have to say to you and to myself, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with everlasting mercy will I gather thee. When the poor and the needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them; I, the God of Jacob, will not forsake them.” Let God be true and every man a liar. Against all transient accidents and all momentary appearances I set up the oath of the Triune God.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

Ver. 25. Sang praises unto God ] His presence turns a prison into a palace, into a paradise. “From the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison;” so the Italian martyr Algerius dated his letter to a friend. “I was carried to the coalhouse,” saith Mr Philpot, “where I with my fellows do rouse together in the straw as cheerfully, we thank God, as others do in their beds of down.” Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, being a long time prisoner under Charles V, was demanded what upheld him at that time? He answered, that he felt the divine consolations of the martyrs.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

25. . . ] Not as E. V., ‘ prayed and sang praises ,’ but, praying, sang praises , or in their prayers, were singing praises . The distinction of modern times between prayer and praise, arising from our attention being directed to the shape rather than to the essence of devotion, was unknown in these days: see Col 4:2 .

‘Nihil crus sentit in nervo, quum animus in clo est.’ Tertullian ad Martyres, c. 2, vol. i. p. 623.

The imperfects shew that they were singing , and the prisoners (in the outer prison) listening , when the earthquake happened.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Act 16:25 . : neuter of the adjective , cf. Act 20:7 , Luk 11:5 , elsewhere only in Mar 13:35 , often in medical writers, also in Arist., Strabo, Plutarch; in LXX, Jdg 16:3 A, Rth 3:8 , Ps. 118:62 (Isa 59:10 ). , see on chap. Act 12:12 . with accusative Heb 2:12 only, cf. Eph 5:19 , Col 3:16 , Trench, Syn [297] , ii., 129. “Hoc erat gaudium in Spiritu sancto: in carcere ubi nec genua flectere, nec manus tollere poterant” Wetstein, cf. too the often-quoted words of Tertullian Ad Martyres , ii.: “Nihil crus sentit in nervo quum animus in clo est,” and Chrys., Hom. , xxxvi., “This let us also do, and we shall open for ourselves not a prison, but heaven. If we pray, we shall be able even to open heaven. Elias both shut and opened heaven by prayer.” : used by Plato (Comicus), and referred to by Kennedy, Sources of N. T. Greek , p. 73, as one of the rare words mainly colloquial common to N.T. and the comic poets; it occurs also in Lucian, and in Test. , xii., Patr. Not found in LXX (but the cognate noun of hearing so as to obey in 1Sa 15:22 ). But it is peculiar to St. Luke in N.T., and it was the technical word in medical language for auscultation; the word might therefore naturally be employed by him to denote attentive hearing as God “gave songs in the night”. Both verbs . and . are in the imperfect; they were singing, and the prisoners were listening, when the earthquake happened.

[297] synonym, synonymous.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Act 16:25-34

25But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” 29And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, 30and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. 33And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. 34And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household.

Act 16:25 “about midnight” They probably could not sleep because of the pain of the beating and the stocks.

“praying and singing hymns of praise to God” It is possible that the theological content of these prayers and hymns caused the prisoners to trust Christ (i.e., “the prisoners were listening to them”) because none of the prisoners escaped when the earthquake opened the doors (cf. Act 16:26; Act 16:28, “we are all here”).

“the prisoners were listening” This is an imperfect middle (deponent) indicative, implying they listened continually to Paul and Silas. The verb epakroaomai is a rare word in the NT and the Septuagint. Its use in 1Sa 15:22 denotes an intense listening with joyfulness. These down-and-out prisoners eagerly heard and responded to a message of God’s love, care, and acceptance!

Act 16:26 “earthquake” This was a natural event, but with supernatural purpose, timing, and effect (cf. Mat 27:51; Mat 27:54; Mat 28:2). God had delivered Peter from prison by means of an angel (cf. Act 4:31), but here an event was chosen that gave Paul a chance to preach the gospel to both the prisoners and the guards.

Act 16:27 “sword” This was the small, two-edged sword worn in the belt, which was shaped like a tongue. This was the instrument of capital punishment for Roman citizens. If a jailor lost prisoners, he suffered their fate (cf. Act 12:19).

Act 16:28 Paul and Silas’ faith and the content of their prayers and songs made a powerful impact on the other prisoners (I think they, too, were saved)!

Act 16:29 “called for lights” Notice the plural. There were other jailers.

Act 16:30 “Sirs, what must I do to be saved” This reflects mankind’s (1) fear of the supernatural and (2) search for peace with God! He wanted the peace and joy that Paul and Silas had exhibited, even in these unfair and painful circumstances. Notice this man, as so many, knew there must be some kind of human response (cf. Luk 3:10; Luk 3:12; Luk 3:14; Act 2:37; Act 22:10).

Act 16:31 “‘Believe in the Lord Jesus'” The verb (aorist active imperative) pisteu can be translated “believe,” “faith,” or “trust.” See Special Topics at Act 2:40; Act 3:16; Act 6:5. It is primarily a volitional trusting response (cf. Act 10:43). Also notice that it is trust in a person, not a doctrine or a theological system. This man had no Jewish background (i.e., Ninevites in Jonah). Yet the requirements for complete salvation are very simple and just the same! This is the most succinct summary of the gospel in the NT (cf. Act 10:43). His repentance (cf. Mar 1:15; Act 3:16; Act 3:19; Act 20:21) was shown by his actions.

“you will be saved, you and your household” In the ancient world the religion of the head of the house was the religion of all its members (cf. Act 10:2; Act 11:14; Act 16:15; Act 18:8). How this worked out on an individual level is uncertain, but apparently it involved some level of personal faith on each individual’s part. Paul subsequently preached the full gospel message to the jailer and his household (cf. Act 16:32).

In this instance, not only his household but his prison also!

Act 16:32 “the word of the Lord” There is a variant involving this phrase.

1. “The word of the Lord” is in MSS P45,74, i2, A, C, D, E. The UBS4 gives it a “B” rating (almost certain).

2. “The word of God” is in MSS *, B

In context the issue is to whom does “Lord” refer?

1. Jesus, Act 16:31

2. YHWH (cf. Act 16:25; Act 16:34; Act 13:44; Act 13:48; it is an OT phrase cf. Gen 15:14; 1Sa 15:10; Isa 1:10; Jon 1:1)

Act 16:33 “and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household” This shows the importance of baptism. Acts mentions it over and over. See SPECIAL TOPIC: BAPTISM at Act 2:38. Jesus did it (cf. Luk 3:21) and commanded it (cf. Mat 28:19) and that settles it (cf. Act 2:38). It also is consistent with other examples in Acts that baptism occurred immediately after their profession of faith (cf. Act 10:47-48). In a sense it was their visible and verbal public profession of faith in Christ (i.e., Rom 10:9-13).

Act 16:34 “and rejoiced greatly having believed in God with his whole household” The two verbs are singular referring to the jailor. However, the adverbial phrase implies the inclusion of the man’s extended family and servants.

The verb, “believed” is a perfect active participle, implying a settled state. Notice the change in tense from Act 16:31.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

midnight. Greek. meaonuktion. Only here, Act 20:7. Mar 13:35. Luk 11:5.

prayed, and = praying. Greek. proseuchomai. App-134.

sang praises unto. Literally were hymning. Greek. humneo. Here, Mat 26:30. Mar 14:26. Heb 2:12. The first two passages refer to the great Hallel. See notes on Mat 26:30. Psalm 113. If this were sung by Paul and Silas, note the beautiful significance of Psa 115:11, Psa 116:3, Psa 116:4, Psa 116:15, Psa 116:17, Psa 118:6, Psa 118:29, and in the result, Psa 114:7. The noun humnoa (hymn) only in Eph 5:19. Col 3:16.

heard = were listening to. Greek. epakroaomai. Only here. The noun occurs in 1Sa 15:22 (Septuagint).

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

25. . .] Not as E. V., prayed and sang praises,-but, praying, sang praises, or in their prayers, were singing praises. The distinction of modern times between prayer and praise, arising from our attention being directed to the shape rather than to the essence of devotion, was unknown in these days: see Col 4:2.

Nihil crus sentit in nervo, quum animus in clo est. Tertullian ad Martyres, c. 2, vol. i. p. 623.

The imperfects shew that they were singing, and the prisoners (in the outer prison) listening, when the earthquake happened.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Act 16:25. , at midnight) a customary hour with them for singing hymns and praying, as is probable. This is the night occupation of the saints in their waking moments.-, praying) macerated (worn) as they were with scourging, with loss of blood, and with hunger.-, were listening) with delight.- , the prisoners) To them it was a novel entertainment to hear (acroama).

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Act 16:25-34

THE JAILER CONVERTED

Act 16:25-34

25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying-Midnight was one division of the watches. Paul and Silas were suffering from stripes, loss of blood, hunger, and the stocks in which they were fastened. It seems that they had not slept any up to this time, yet in the midst of their suffering and inconvenience of position, they could pray to God and sing his praises. They were praying and singing simultaneously, and blending together their petition and praise. Their wounds were undressed, filth and vermin that infested prisons of that day added to their pain, while their position was one of torture, sleep was out of the question, but they had the privilege and comfort of prayer. Other prisoners heard their prayers and songs; they were listening to them. It was an unusual occurrence for prisoners to be praying and praising God; Paul and Silas sang the gospel, and men who would not listen to a sermon heard the gospel in song. Other prisoners were not the only ones who heard Paul and Silas; God and Christ, for whom they were suffering, heard them.

26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake,-Luke and Timothy were not in prison; we know not why they were not cast into prison with Paul and Silas; hence, Luke regards this earthquake, Greek seismos, or shaking of the earth as an answer to prayer. (Act 4:31.) This was a very violent earthquake, for it even was felt down to the foundations of the prison walls and the doors were broken open, and the staples of the chains fell out of the walls. The opening of the doors and the loosening of the chains by the earthquake is difficult to understand unless one understands the construction of the prisons of that time. The quaking of the earth forced the door posts apart from each other so that the bar which fastened the door slipped from its hold, and the door swung open. The chains and stocks were detached from the wall which was shaken so that they were loose from the wall.

27 And the jailor, being roused out of sleep-Such an earthquake would naturally arouse the jailer and frighten all of the prisoners. It is noted that neither the groans nor singing of hymns had kept the jailer from sleeping; nothing but the terror of an earthquake could disturb him. When he saw that the prison doors were open, he naturally supposed that the prisoners had all escaped and, knowing that he would have to pay the penalty for their escape with his own life, he was about to kill himself. By the Roman law the jailer was subject to the same death as the escaped prisoners would have suffered; suicide was preferred by many to the death and torture that they would have to suffer. Sometimes jailers were selected from the lowest class, and sometimes from the criminal class (Act 12:19 Act 27:42), and were punished by death if the prisoners escaped. It appears that the prisoners were too frightened to escape, or did not have time to escape before the jailer made his appearance.

28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying,-Paul was master of the situation here as he frequently was at other times. He saw what the jailer was about to do, and checked him by crying with a loud voice. Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. The earthquake had loosened the staples of the chains which were fastened in the wall and then to the prisoners, and the bars of the doors had been loosened and the doors opened, but no prisoner had escaped; it may be that the chains were still on the prisoners and prevented a hasty escape; at any rate, none of them had escaped. Some have questioned the accuracy of Lukes account by saying that Paul could not see what the jailer was about to do, as the jailer could not see that the prisoners had not escaped; however, there was enough light for Paul to see what was about to be done; the jailer saw the prison doors open without any other light, and so Paul could and did see what the jailer was about to do.

29-30 And he called for lights and sprang in,-When the jailer heard Pauls assuring command, he called for lights and made a hasty investigation and found that Paul had spoken the truth to him; he then, trembling for fear, fell down before Paul and Silas. In some way he connected the earthquake and the safety of the prisoners with Paul and Silas. He may have known something of their miraculous power, and especially the cure of the slave girl for which Paul and Silas had been thrust into prison. It is very probable that the jailer first attended to his proper duties and secured all the prisoners before he came to Paul and Silas; his life was at stake, and he would promptly see that the prisoners were safe before he did anything else. It seems very unreasonable that he would neglect attention to the other prisoners and come and fall down at the feet of Paul and Silas. The jailer brought Paul and Silas out of the inner prison and probably into the court and asked: Sirs, what must I do to be saved? He left the other prisoners inside and realized that he must now deal with these men of whom he had heard something as servants of the Most High God. The jailer did not ask what he should do to be saved from the wrath of his superiors; he had nothing to fear from them, since the prisoners were all safe. Neither did he ask what he should do to save himself from the anger of heathen gods, for his appeal would not be to Paul and Silas, as they did not worship these gods. The answer that Paul gave implies the meaning of his question; he is asking what he must do to be saved from his sins.

31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus,-He had asked both Paul and Silas what he should do to be saved from his sins, and now both are included in the answer; they said is the expression that Luke uses. Believe on the Lord Jesus is the answer to this direct question. Faith in the Christ, personal trust in him as a Redeemer, is required. And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved. (Act 4:12.) The answer is brief, simple, plain, and accurate; not only could he be saved through faith in Christ, but his entire household could be saved; in fact, everyone could be saved on the same terms of the gospel.

32 And they spake the word of the Lord unto him,-The answer was that the jailer should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; but he cannot believe in Jesus as the Savior of the world, as his Savior, without evidence. So belief cometh of hearing, and hearng by the word of Christ. (Rom 10:17.) He could not believe without first hearing the evidence of testimony concerning the Christ; hence, they spake the word of the Lord unto him and to all that were in his house. Paul and Silas preached the gospel to them so that he could obey their command to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul and Silas had sung the gospel to the prisoners, and they now preached it to the jailer and all that were in his house. As a heathen the jailer was ignorant of both the truths and commands of the gospel; these were taught him by Paul and Silas; hence, his faith would have a true foundation. They spoke the word of the Lord not only to the jailer, but to those who were in his house; this shows that the jailer’s household was composed of those who were capable of hearing and understanding the gospel ; hence, they were responsible if they did not hear and obey the gospel.

33 And he took them the same hour of the night,-He took them implies that he took them away from one place to that of another; we are not informed as to where he took them, but we know that he took them to a place where there was much water, for he washed their stripes. This shows that he not only believed the words that had been preached to him, but that he was penitent of his sins, and was willing to do everything that he could for the comfort and ease of Paul and Silas. He was baptized, he and all his, immediately. There was no delay in his doing what he was commanded to do. In giving the commission Jesus had said: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned. (Mar 16:16.) The jailer had heard the gospel, he believed it, was penitent of his sins, and is now baptized; on these conditions and obedience to them, he could claim remission of sins. All who had heard the gospel in the jailers household, and all who believed it, were baptized. It is worthy of note that there was no delay in their being baptized; no one deferred baptism by the instruction of an inspired guide, but, on the other hand, in every case of their hearing, believing, repenting of their sins, baptism was attended to immediately.

34 And he brought them up into his house,-The jailer now does all that he can for Paul and Silas. As a jailer he was not acting illegally, for while he was responsible for the prisoners, he was under no obligations to fulfill this duty in any particular way. Paul and Silas would not try to escape, and the jailer had confidence in them as servants of God. The jailer must be responsible for the safekeeping of his prisoners, and he now feels safe about Paul and Silas. After bringing them up into his house he set food before them, and rejoiced greatly. He had occasion to rejoice. We note the contrast between the jailers joy and the dread of the magistrates. (Act 16:38.) A great change had taken place within a short time in the jailers house. It is very likely that the trouble and arrest of Paul and Silas took place at the third hour of the day, or nine oclock in the morning, and they had probably been fasting for nearly twenty-four hours. We do not know who this jailer was, but some have suggested he was Stephanas. (1Co 1:16 1Co 16:15 1Co 16:17.) Lydia and her household were the first converts in Europe and at Philippi; the jailer and his household were the next; hence, the nucleus of the church at Philippi was the households of Lydia and the jailer. Later Paul wrote a letter to this church.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Salvation in the Jail

Act 16:25-40

Some, as we have seen, are converted by the gentle opening of the heart; others amid the convulsions of the storm. The first knowledge of salvation may have reached the heart of the jailer through the saving of the possessed girl, Act 16:17. If only the heart is right with Christ, it can sing in the darkest night; and the impression of those holy songs must have wrought still further upon the conscience of this rough Roman official, who had treated his prisoners with uncommon severity, Act 16:24. The inner prison! Perhaps some of our readers have been in it! They have come to an end of themselves and their feet are fastened!

But God has His own way of deliverance and never forsakes His own. Art thou in the stocks today? Then pray and sing praises! Choose, for instance, Psa 103:1-22. God will be thy very present help. Thou shalt win thy jailer, and become a monument of Gods saving mercy. There is no course for the convicted sinner but to trust in the salvation wrought upon the Cross; or still better, in Him who wrought it.

Paul was perfectly justified in insisting upon his civil rights when he had the opportunity, Act 16:37. It made the way easier for his new converts.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

prayed

Lit. were praying and singing hymns.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

at midnight: Job 35:10, Psa 22:2, Psa 42:8, Psa 77:6, Psa 119:55, Psa 119:62, Isa 30:29

prayed: Psa 50:15, Psa 77:2, Psa 91:15, Mat 26:38, Mat 26:39, Luk 22:44, Heb 5:7, Jam 5:13

sang: Act 5:41, Psa 34:1, Mat 5:10, Mat 5:11, Luk 6:22, Luk 6:23, Rom 5:3, Rom 12:12, 2Co 4:8, 2Co 4:9, 2Co 4:16, 2Co 4:17, 2Co 6:10, Phi 2:17, Phi 4:4-7, Col 1:24, Col 3:15-17, 1Th 5:16-18, Jam 1:2, 1Pe 1:6-8, 1Pe 4:14

and the: Ezr 3:12, Ezr 3:13, Psa 71:7, Zec 3:8

Reciprocal: 2Ch 7:1 – when Solomon Psa 18:7 – earth Psa 92:2 – every night Pro 15:15 – but Isa 24:15 – glorify Dan 3:20 – to bind Jon 2:1 – out Mat 5:12 – Rejoice Mar 10:30 – with persecutions Mar 14:26 – sung Joh 16:22 – and your Act 2:2 – suddenly Act 4:24 – they Act 4:31 – the place Act 15:22 – Silas Act 23:18 – Paul Act 26:22 – obtained Eph 5:19 – to yourselves 1Th 1:1 – Silvanus 1Pe 4:13 – rejoice

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

5

Act 16:25. Persecution can torture and hamper the body, but it cannot affect the spirit of a devoted servant of God, except to stir it to greater praises to Him who always hears the prayers of the righteous. Those of Paul and Silas were expressed at an hour of the night when men are usually asleep. The righteous men here were tortured into sleeplessness, but their songs of praise to God rang out into the midnight darkness and awakened the other prisoners.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Act 16:25. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God. Peter sleeps in prison between the two soldiers; Paul and Silas sing in the stocks: they cannot raise their hands or bend their knees in prayer, but they can lift up their heart and voice to heaven. Such is the power of joy in the Holy Ghost (Wordsworth). The limbs, says Tertullian, do not feel the stocks when the heart is in heaven; or as another writer has beautifully paraphrased Isa 52:7, The feet of those who publish peace are never more beautiful than when they are bound in fetters and in iron. Wordsworth suggests the prisoners were singing one of the psalms which are entitled a prayer of David, the 17th or 86th.

The Greek verbs in this verse are in the imperfect, and the literal translation brings the scene that night more vividly before us, thus: Paul and Silas in prayer were singing hymns to God, and the prisoners (in the outer prison) were listening to them when the earthquake happened.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

The apostles are here, by Satan and his instruments, cast into prison; but observe, they had their prison-comforts.

1. The joy of their hearts runs out at their lips: they sang praises unto God, when their bodies were in prison, and their feet were in the stocks; these holy servants of God were not only meek and patient, but joyous and cheerful under persecution, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for him who had undergone so much indignity and shame for them.

2. They enjoy sweet communion with God in prayer: At midnight they prayed, and the prisoners heard them. No place can be improper, no time unseasonable, for prayer. No prison can bolt out God, nor deprive us of our communion with him: prayer will get up to heaven in spite of all opposition either of hell or earth.

Observe, 3. How sudden the answer, and how sensible the return of prayer was which the Lord graciously gave his suffering servants: Suddenly there was a great earthquake. This earthquake was an infallible sign of God’s audience; that he heard them, and would stand by them.

Observe, 4. The powerful efficacy of St. Paul’s prayer: his prayer shook the heavens, the heavens shook the earth, the earth shook the prison, even to the very foundations of it. Prayer has a divine kind of omnipotency in it: Vincit invincibilem et light omnipotentem: “It overcomes God with his own strength.”

Observe, 5. What influence this earthquake had upon the gaoler: it occcasioned such an heartquake in him, that to give himself ease, silly soul, he resolves to murder himself.

Lord! how miserable are the consolations which the carnal and unregenerate world have recourse and fly unto, when trouble and distress take hold upon them! They run to an halter, to rid them of their trouble, having no God to go unto, and thereby plunge themselves into endless troubles, yea, eternal torments.

Observe, lastly, How kind the apostle was to his cruel keeper: he that hurt the apostles’ feet with the stocks, hears the apostles crying unto him in the midst of the earthquake, Do thyself no harm. Good men ever have been, and are, men of tender and compassionate dispositions; not so solicitous for their own liberties, as for others’ lives. The apostles might have held their peace, and suffered the gaoler to have slain himself, and thereby made their own escape; but they preferred the gaoler’s eternal salvation before their own temporal liberty and happiness: Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

The Conversion of the Jailor

At midnight, while the other prisoners listened to Paul and Silas singing and praying, a great earthquake shook open all the prison doors and released all those bound in stocks. Believing his prisoners had escaped, the jailor prepared to kill himself rather than face the torturous Roman judgment. Paul stopped him by crying out that they were all there and he should not harm himself.

The jailor called for lights, leaped into the prison in trembling fear, fell before Paul and Silas, brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The inspired response was, as in other cases ( Act 2:37-38 ; Act 22:10 ; Act 22:16 ), based on the current condition of the one asking the question. The jailor was told, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then, they spoke the word of the Lord to him so that faith could be produced ( Rom 10:17 ). The same hour of the night, he washed their stripes, which is clear evidence of repentance. Immediately afterward, he and all the members of his household were baptized. Then, and only then, “he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household ( Act 16:25-34 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Act 16:25-28. At midnight Paul and Silas prayed Doubtless, for their persecutors as well as for themselves; and sang praises unto God Notwithstanding weariness, hunger, stripes, and blood; and the prisoners heard them Heard a song to which they had not been accustomed, and such as had never been heard in that prison before. And suddenly While they were thus engaged; there was a great earthquake A token of Gods favour toward them, and threatening vengeance to their persecutors; so that the foundations of the prison were shaken And probably of the neighbouring buildings also; and immediately By the force of the earthquake; all the doors were opened, and, in the same moment, every ones bands were miraculously loosed Yet the spirits of the prisoners were impressed with such astonishment, that none of them attempted to escape. And the keeper of the prison Who, it seems, resided in a part of it, not far from the ward where Paul and Silas lay; awaking out of sleep Upon this violent concussion of the earth; and seeing the prison-doors open Was in such consternation, that he drew his sword and would have killed himself If he had not been prevented by the apostle, to avoid a more severe punishment, supposing that all the prisoners had escaped. For by the Roman laws, in that case, the keeper was liable to the same punishment that awaited the criminals who had escaped. But Paul cried, &c. As they were all then in the dark, it is not easy to say how Paul knew of the jailers purpose, unless it were by hearing same desperate words that declared it, or by some immediate suggestion from God, which is by no means incredible; with a loud voice Through earnestness, and because he was at some distance; Do thyself no harm Although the Christian faith opens a bright prospect into another life, yet it absolutely forbids, and effectually prevents, a mans discharging himself from this. For we are all here And none of us will take the opportunity of escaping, while the hand of God is working thus awfully around us.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

25. The condition of the two brethren, as night drew on, was miserable to a degree scarcely conceivable. Besides the physical pain of sitting in a dark dungeon, with their backs bleeding from the scourge, and feet fastened in the stocks to prevent even the relief which a change of position might afford, their minds were racked with a sense of the deep injustice done them; with the reflection that such was the return they met at the hands of men for whom they had sacrificed their all on earth, and their present reward for faithful service of the Lord; and with the most mournful anticipations of their future fate. Most men, under such circumstances, would have been wild with rage against their persecutors, unconcerned for the fate of an unfriendly world, and full of doubts as to the protecting favor of God. But in the darkest and bitterest hour of their sufferings, these faithful disciples brought forth the richest fruits of their faith and piety. (25) “But at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard them.” Men do not pray when they are enraged, nor when they are hopeless. The soul must recover from the turmoil of violent passion, before it can offer thoughtful prayer. But still greater composure is necessary to induce a disposition to engage in singing. One in deep distress may be soothed by the music of other voices, but is not inclined to join in the song itself. That Paul and Silas prayed at midnight is the clearest evidence that the tempest of their feelings, which must, at the whipping-post, and when first thrust within the dungeon and fastened in the stocks, have driven away all sober thought, and smothered all utterance, had by this time subsided. And that, after praying, they “sang praises to God,” shows how quickly the soothing effects of prayer had still further calmed and cheered their spirits. The song they sang was not a plaintive strain, suited to the sorrows of the lonely prisoner; but it swelled up in those firm and animated tones which are suited to the praises of God. How rich the treasures of faith and hope which can thus cheer the gloom of a midnight dungeon, and calm the spirit of the bleeding prisoner of Jesus Christ!

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

16:25 {15} And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

(15) The prayers of the godly do shake both heaven and earth.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

We can see that Paul and Silas were full of the Spirit by the way they reacted to the pain that resulted from their beating and from being locked in stocks (cf. Psa 42:8). The other prisoners undoubtedly wondered who these men were and how they could rejoice. Perhaps some of them became Christians and members of the Philippian church. If so, Paul’s exhortations to rejoice in the Lord always in his epistle to the Philippians would have reminded them of his example on this occasion. Again God miraculously freed His servants (cf. Act 5:18-20; Act 12:3-11).

"This was the first sacred concert ever held in Europe . . .

"The world is watching Christians, and when they see Christians shaken by circumstances as they themselves, they conclude that after all there is very little to Christianity; but when they find Christians rising above circumstances and glorying in the Lord even in deepest trial, then even the unsaved realize the Christian has something in knowing Christ to which they are strangers." [Note: Ironside, Lectures on . . ., p. 381.]

Some ancient writers wrote that earthquakes were not uncommon throughout Macedonia and Greece. [Note: Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.782-83; 15.669-78; Lucian, Lover of Lies 22.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)