Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 16:25-40, The jailer and the Roman citizens
At midnight an earthquake opens the prison. The jailer, about to kill himself, believes with his household; next day Paul reveals that he and Silas are Roman citizens beaten without trial, and the magistrates come to apologize.
Acts 16:25-40, in every translation this tool compares.
About midnight, as Paul and Silas pray and sing hymns with the prisoners listening, an earthquake shakes the prison, the doors open and everyone's chains come loose. The jailer wakes, sees the doors open and draws his sword to kill himself, but Paul shouts that they are all still there; trembling, he asks what he must do to be saved, and they tell him to believe in the Lord Jesus, he and his household. He washes their wounds, he and all his household are baptized at once, and he brings them into his house and sets food before them, rejoicing. In the morning the magistrates send word to let them go, but Paul refuses to leave quietly: they beat Roman citizens in public without a trial, so let them come and escort them out themselves; the magistrates, alarmed, come and apologize, lead them out and ask them to leave the city, and after visiting Lydia's house they go.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-household\/","n":"The household and its head","s":"A household gathered family, slaves, freed slaves and workers under one head, and it was expected to follow that head's religion. When the head turned to a new god, the house often came too.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/roman-citizenship\/","n":"Roman citizenship","s":"In the eastern provinces few people outside the colonies were citizens of Rome. A citizen could not be beaten or chained without trial, could appeal to Caesar, and outranked almost everyone around him.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
Romans thought suicide a noble way out when facing execution, and guards whose prisoners escaped could be made to serve their sentences (Keener and his notes; the CSB Study Bible). Wright reads the jailer's question about being saved as first a plea for rescue from that crisis, since saved commonly meant rescued or healed. Binding or beating an untried citizen broke the Julian law, and the magistrates could lose office (Keener and his notes); Wright recalls Cicero's prosecution of Verres, the governor of Sicily who had flogged and crucified a man crying out that he was a Roman citizen. Why Paul waited to speak is read two ways: Keener sees a strategy that put the magistrates in the wrong; the cultural backgrounds notes suggest Paul and Silas may not have expected the illegality to be taken seriously. On the household's baptism, the ESV Study Bible notes that Christians disagree whether infants were included, and Keener warns that the jailer's possible young children cannot settle the question. The building shown at Philippi as Paul's prison was a religious complex, not a prison (Price and House).
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 16:27, 16:31, 16:33, 16:34, 16:37 and 16:38-39
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 16:27, 16:31-32, 16:33-34, 16:37, 16:38 and 16:39-40
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Acts 16:33
- CSB Study Bible, note on Acts 16:27
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part Two, comments on Acts 16:25-34 and 16:35-40
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Philippians 1:1 New Testament Philippi
