Acts 16 - Introduction

CHAPTER 16
THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY (PAUL AND SILAS)—CONTINUED

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1. Paul and Silas in Lycaonia; or, Meeting with Timothy (Acts 16:1).

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2. Regions Beyond; or, the Vision of the Man of Macedonia (Acts 16:6).

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3. Paul and Silas in Philippi; or, the Gospel carried to Europe (Acts 16:11; Acts 16:40).

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4. A Sabbath in Philippi; or, the Conversion of Lydia (Acts 16:14).

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5. The Cure of a Pythoness; or, the Slave-girl and the Apostle (Acts 16:16).

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6. The First Pagan Persecution; or, the Imprisonment of Paul and Silas (Acts 16:19).

NOTE.—The whole critical school admits the credibility of everything in this chapter except the transactions represented as having taken place in the prison. The earthquake, shaking the prison doors and snapping the prisoners’ fetters, the jailor’s foolishness in proposing to murder himself before he knew what had actually happened, the unlikelihood of all the prisoners remaining in their cells when the doors stood open for their escape, and the hasty dismissal of the apostles, are all set down as “holy fable,” which received a colouring at least from the story preserved by Lucian of an innocent prisoner in Alexandria (A.D. 100), who disdained the opportunity of flight from prison which was offered him, and instead demanded the formal recognition of his innocence from the magistrates. But the story is not incredible, if the supernatural is not impossible; while in Lucian’s tale, compared with Luke’s narrative, is nothing more wonderful than this, that an innocent man fell upon the same course of action, as another did half a century before—which is surely not impossible or even uncommon.