_Paul revisits LystraHe takes Timothy with him He travels through Asia Minor, 1-11_. Acts 16:1. AND BEHOLD. The interjection ‘behold' marks the importance which the writer of the ‘Acts' attaches to the solemn adoption of Timothy by Paul. Wordsworth happily speaks of the incident ‘as a gift from Hea... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:2. WHICH WAS WELL REPORTED OF BY THE BRETHREN WHO WERE AT LYSTRA AND ICONIUM. Nothing seems to have been left out by Paul in his diligent inquiry into the character and fitness of his young associate. He had made himself, no doubt, thoroughly acquainted, in his first visit to Lystra, with th... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:3. HIM WOULD PAUL HAVE TO GO FORTH WITH HIM, Silas filled the place of his old companion and brother-apostle, Barnabas, but as yet the loving apostle had no one to supply the vacancy caused by the desertion of the shrinking Mark. Paul longed for the society and comfort of one who might in t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:4. THE CITIES. This would probably include Iconium and Pisidian Antioch.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:5. SO THE CHURCHES WERE ESTABLISHED IN THE FAITH. So (οὖν), as a consequence of the mediating tendency of the decrees of the Apostolic Council, a great bar to the acceptance of the gospel by the mass of Gentiles had been permanently removed. The religion of Jesus might be accepted by a Roma... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:6-8. NOW WHEN THEY HAD GONE THROUGHOUT PHRYGIA. Phrygia denoted at this time broken portions of a territory under the jurisdiction of three or four distinct governors. It roughly represented the great central space of Asia Minor. Its chief cities mentioned in the books of the New Testament a... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:8. TROAS. This famous place bearing the name of the ancient Troy was a seaport on the Hellespont, situated some four or five miles from the supposed site of the ancient city. It was built and named after the great Macedonian king ‘Alexandria Troas' by two of his successors, Antigonus, who fo... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:10. IMMEDIATELY WE ENDEAVOURED TO GO INTO MACEDONIA. In this verse the ‘writer of the “Acts”' adopts the style of an eye-witness, and the apostolic memoirs for a time are written in the first person. ‘We endeavoured;' from this it appears that Luke, the presumed author of these records, join... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:11. WE CAME WITH A STRAIGHT COURSE TO SAMOTHRACIA, or ‘we ran with a straight course.' The same word occurs again in the same sense in chap. Acts 21:1. Luke, observes Hackett, observes almost a technical precision in the use of such terms. His account of the voyage to Rome shows a surprising... [ Continue Reading ]
_Paul and the Missionary Company at Philippi,_ 12-40. Acts 16:12. AND FROM THENCE TO PHILIPPI. This city was built on the site of the ancient village Krenides (the fountains), subsequently known as Datos, by Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, who named it after himself. Philippi beca... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:13. BY A RIVER SIDE. The Gangas, a small river which flows close to the city. It is possible that the Jews worshipped there outside the gates of the city, because the military inhabitants (Philippi was never a commercial centre) would not allow them to worship within. A more probable reason,... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:14. LYDIA, A SELLER OF PURPLE, OF THE CITY OF THYATIRA. The city of Thyatira, on the confines of Lydia and Mysia, and one of the seven churches of Asia addressed in the Apocalypse, was celebrated in very early days for its purple dyes and purple fabrics. Among the ruins of the city has been... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:15. AND WHEN SHE WAS BAPTIZED, AND HER HOUSEHOLD. This passage has been a little hastily quoted in support of ‘infant baptism.' It is, however, quite uncertain whether, by the words ‘and her household,' we are to understand her children, her slaves, or the working-people busied in her indust... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:16. AS WE WENT TO PRAYER. This should be rendered as in above verse, ‘to the place of prayer.' A CERTAIN DAMSEL POSSESSED WITH A SPIRIT OF DIVINATION MET US. This was a female slave possessed, to translate the Greek literally, ‘with the spirit of a Pythoness.' Python was the spirit that tr... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:17. AND CRIED, SAYING, THESE MEN ARE SERVANTS OF THE MOST HIGH GOD. This testimony on the part of the evil spirit which possessed the unhappy slave-girl to the work and power of Christ and His servants, Paul and Silas, was by no means an unusual incident in the early days of Christianity. On... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:18. I COMMAND THEE IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST TO COME OUT OF HER. ‘In My Name,' said the Lord (Mark 16:17), ‘shall they cast out devils.' It is noticeable how differently such acts as these were performed by the Master and His servants. Christ worked His miracles in His own sovereign power;... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:19. AND WHEN HER MASTERS SAW THAT THE HOPE OF THEIR GAINS WAS GONE. It was simply revenge that prompted these covetous men to procure the apostles arrest. When the evil spirit had once been exorcised, the power of ventriloquism and of uttering prophecies of future events was gone, and with i... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:20. TO THE MAGISTRATES. The official title of these provincial officers was ‘Duumviri;' but the title they preferred and usually assumed was the well-known Roman appellation of ‘Praetor.'... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:21. THESE MEN, BEING JEWS, ACTS 16:21. TEACH CUSTOMS WHICH ARE NOT LAWFUL FOR US TO OBSERVE, BEING ROMANS. It was no very easy matter for these angry men to formulate their complaint against Paul and Silas, so they had recourse to the favourite accusation against men of a strange race and na... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:22. AND THE MULTITUDE ROSE UP AGAINST THEM. The citizens and dwellers in that proud and exclusive Roman garrison town of Philippi as usual were at once roused by such an accusation. The original cause of offence, the damage done to the productive property of the slave-owners, was quite lost... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:23. AND COMMANDED TO BEAT THEM. ACTS 16:23. AND WHEN THEY HAD LAID MANY STRIPES UPON THEM. Literally, ‘to beat them with rods.' The custom was with the Romans to inflict the blows with rods upon the naked body. In his sad catalogue of the sufferings he had endured for his Master's dear sake... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:24. THRUST THEM INTO THE INNER PRISON, AND MADE THEIR FEET FAST IN THE STOCKS. In a Roman prison there were usually three distinct parts (1) the communiora, where the prisoners light and fresh air; (2) the interiora, shut off by strong iron gates with bars and locks; (3) the tullianum or dun... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 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... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:26. AND SUDDENLY THERE WAS A GREAT EARTHQUAKE. Vain attempts have been made (for instance, by Baur and Zeller) to explain away the miraculous aspect of this event. But the simple words of the narrator can only be understood as an account of a miraculous interference on the part of the King r... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:27. AND THE KEEPER OF THE PRISON AWAKING OUT OF HIS SLEEP, AND SEEING THE PRISON DOORS OPEN, HE DREW HIS SWORD, AND WOULD HAVE KILLED HIMSELF, SUPPOSING THAT THE PRISONERS HAD FLED. The jailor or governor of the prison seeing the doors open, naturally concluded that his prisoners, of whom no... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:28. WE ARE ALL HERE. The prisoners, we are especially told, had been listening to the sweet, solemn Hebrew hymns of Paul and Silas when the earthquake and its accompanying marvels took place. Then, feeling that what had happened was supernatural and in some measure connected with those easte... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:29. THEN HE CALLED FOR A LIGHT, AND SPRANG IN, AND CAME TREMBLING, AND FELL DOWN BEFORE PAUL AND SILAS. The Greek has _lights,_ not a light. The prison governor wished to examine everything minutely. He at once fell at the feet of Paul and Silas, recognising they were under no mortal protect... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:30. AND BROUGHT THEM OUT, AND SAID. From the inner prison where they were confined, probably into the court of the prison, and there he asked that celebrated question which has formed the text of so many an earnest and impassioned exhortation in such varied language during some seventeen or... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:31. AND THEY SAID, BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED, AND THY HOUSE. The question of the jailor evidently implies that he was acquainted in some measure with the general purport of the preaching of Paul and his companions; indeed, his question seems to re-echo the mon... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:32. AND THEY SPAKE UNTO HIM THE WORD OF THE LORD, AND TO ALL THAT WERE IN HIS HOUSE. This refers to the detailed instruction in the religion of Jesus which the apostles forthwith proceeded to give, explaining the practical meaning of ‘faith in Jesus Christ.' It was something more than a bare... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:33. AND HE TOOK THEM THE SAME HOUR OF THE NIGHT, AND WASHED THEIR STRIPES; AND WAS BAPTIZED, HE AND ALL HIS, STRAIGHTWAY. Most likely in that rectangular reservoir or basin called the ‘impluvium,' which was usually enclosed in the houses of that period. This ‘tank' received the rain-water wh... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:34. AND WHEN HE HAD BROUGHT THEM INTO HIS HOUSE. Literally translated, ‘brought them up,' that is, from the court in which they then were, _up_ into his house which was ‘above' the prison court. AND REJOICED, BELIEVING IN GOD WITH ALL HIS HOUSE. This is better rendered ‘and rejoiced, havin... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:35. AND WHEN IT WAS DAY, THE MAGISTRATES SENT THE SERJEANTS, SAYING, LET THOSE MEN GO. There is but little doubt that, subsequently to the tumultuous condemnation of Paul and Silas, the magistrates (Duumviri or Praetores) understood that the men who had been so hastily sentenced after the po... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:37. BEING ROMANS. On the citizenship of Paul, see the note on chap. Acts 22:25, where the question is fully discussed. It is observable that Paul, who five times (2 Corinthians 11:24) submitted to be scourged by his own countrymen, never there pleaded his rights as a Roman citizen. To the Je... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:38. AND THE SERJEANTS. Here, as in Acts 16:35, literally, rod-bearers, lictors, officials who attended upon the magistrates and carried out their orders. In a ‘colony' these officers carried staves, not as in Rome, fasces. AND THEY FEARED. Hackett quotes from Lucian a case of false impriso... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 16:40. AND THEY WENT OUT OF THE PRISON, AND ENTERED INTO THE HOUSE OF LYDIA. Even after the magistrates had paid them the respect of an official visit, and had expressed their regrets, the apostles did not at once comply with their request, that in order to avoid any more popular tumult they sh... [ Continue Reading ]