Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 16:25 - 16:25
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
25. κατὰ δὲ τὸ μεσονύκτιον, and at midnight. Sleep being out of the question they passed the night in devotion. The imperfects ὕμνουν and ἐπηκροῶντο in the verse indicate that the prayers and singing were continued; but we have no means of adequately representing this by idiomatic English.
οἱ δέσμιοι, the prisoners. 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.
The derived noun ἐπακρόασις is found in LXX. 1Sa 15:22 ἡ ἐπακρόασις ὑπὲρ στέαρ κριῶν, ‘Hearkening [i.e. obedient hearkening] is better than the fat of rams.’