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Act_16:20-40
The magistrates, very sensitive to whatever might excite public disturbance, as it was insinuated this kind of teaching must do, and perceiving that the mere statement of the charge made a stir among the multitude, sought to allay the ferment by some instant provisional punishment. They therefore directed the lictors to beat the apostles with their rods. The clothes of Paul and Silas were hastily pulled off, and their bared backs exposed to this severe infliction. The lictors unbound their fasces, and with the leathern thongs proceeded to bind the prisoners, to whose backs they then, with a strong hand, applied the rods of elm. This seems to have been regarded as a severer punishment than the scourging with thongs, as used among the Jews. Besides, in that case, the number of strokes was limited by law, not exceeding forty, and therefore in practice thirty-nine; whereas the blows with the rods were only limited by the discretion of the magistrates. This, therefore, was one of the occasions to which Paul refers when he tells the Corinthians, “Thrice was I beaten with rods;” and to which also may be applied the declaration that he had suffered “stripes above measure,” that is, probably, not limited in number, as among the Jews, from whom he had, he says, “five times received forty stripes save one.” Note: 2Co_11:23-25.
Having been thus chastised, Paul and Silas were sent to the town-prison, with special injunctions to the jailer to keep them safely. Aware of the responsibility imposed upon him by such a charge, the jailer not only thrust them into the innermost and safest part of the prison, but “made their feet fast in the stocks.” The instrument thus designated was ordinarily a wooden, or sometimes iron-bound machine, by which any member, and especially the neck, was so confined that it could not be raised; or into which the feet only were thrust and constrained, as in the present instance; or, finally, it was one in which the person was held—all the members, neck, hands, and feet—by means of five holes. But the painful constraint of the stocks, added to the smart of their torn backs, had no power over the undaunted spirit of the prisoners. The Lord, for whom it was their privilege to suffer, was with them in the low dungeon, and filled their hearts with spiritual gladness, which found expression in holy songs, which they sang together, in the night season. The other prisoners heard them, we are told; and doubtless they were much astonished to hear such sounds, instead of the accents of lamentation and the groans of pain. As Paul and Silas were both Hebrews, there can be little doubt that they sang some of the Psalms of David in their native tongue; and Hebrew singing never fails to attract the marked attention of those unused to it, and unacquainted with the language, as was assuredly the case with the other persons in this heathen prison. We can remember to have listened to it with strange fascination in early boyhood, as proceeding from a synagogue close by our abode.
But suddenly the voice of those who sang was stayed, and the attention of those who listened interrupted, by a terrible convulsion which made the walls of that strong prison totter, which caused all its gates and doors to fly wide open, and which made the bonds fall from the limbs of all the captives there. This latter incident of the loose bonds of the prisoners being made to drop off, is important as showing the miraculous nature of the event. It calls to mind the rending of the flowing veil of the temple by the earthquake at our Lord’s crucifixion. The keeper waking suddenly from his sleep, and beholding the prison thus open, made no question that all his prisoners had escaped. He knew that for this his life was forfeited; and to avoid the ignominy of the public death that awaited him on the morrow, he drew forth his sword, at once to anticipate and escape that doom. Suicide was the common resort of Romans under such circumstances, and in their view it had more the nature of a merit and a privilege than of a crime. But Paul, perceiving the poor man’s intention, called loudly, “Do thyself no harm, for we are all here!”
If, then, they did not escape, what was the need of the earthquake? what the use of their loosened bonds? for they were, after all, at length freed by other means. The earthquake was manifestly the act of God, designed for a special end. That end was not the liberation of the captives, but the liberation of their jailer. God had a purpose of high mercy towards him, and to fulfill it had sent Paul and Silas to his prison, had sent the earthquake to shake its walls—that this man’s heart might be shaken; that this spirit, so long in bondage to the world and to the powers of darkness, might be set free. The keeper had doubtless heard—even the Pythoness had proclaimed it from day to day in the streets—that his captives had claimed to be divinely commissioned to declare to men the way of salvation unto eternal life. This, which had seemed to him an idle pretence, was now awfully authenticated by their songs in the night; by the earthquake; by the doors marvellously thrown open, as if for their egress; by their neglecting to do that which would have insured his ruin; and by their solicitude to preserve the life of one who had treated them so roughly. He saw divine acts that made him afraid; he recognized divine principles, which showed him the depravity of his own life and character; and a voice within told him that he was undone, unless a way of salvation were found. All this inner work was the act of a moment. He called for a light, and, hastening into the cell, cast himself at the feet of Paul and Silas, in token of his deep respect. He spoke not then—not enduring to detain them longer in that dismal place; but having brought them forth into the outer and more commodious part of the prison, he addressed to there the most solemn inquiry man can make: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Their answer was very plain and simple: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Memorable words! written as with a sunbeam over the portals of the Christian church—the record of its liberties and the charter of its hopes. They then proceeded, more at leisure, to pour into his attentive and delighted ears the history of Jesus Christ; to declare His doctrine and to explain what it was to believe in Him. All his household shared these glad tidings, having been assembled for the purpose, either at his suggestion or at the request of the apostles. The jailer then washed their stiffened stripes; and he was next himself, with his household, washed with the waters of baptism, and admitted into the church of Christ. After this he introduced them to the ease and comfort of his own apartments, and with kind solicitude set before them such refreshment as by this time they must have greatly needed; his hospitable cares being now and then interrupted by bursts of joy at the unutterable gain to his soul which he had that night made.
It was no sooner day than the lictors made their appearance at the prison. But it was not, as might be expected, to take Paul and Silas again before the praetors for further examination, but with an order for their immediate release. How this change had been produced we know not exactly; but we do know that it was by Him who has the hearts of all men in his hands, and can turn them as He wills. Earthquakes are always awful things, and suited to alarm the guilty conscience. Especially were they terrible to the Romans, who regarded them as assured tokens of the anger of the gods: and this may have led them to reflect that they had committed a. great iniquity and a culpable infraction of Roman law, for which they might be called to account, in subjecting Paul and Silas to punishment, in deference to popular clamor, without trial and condemnation, and, indeed, without having heard a word of defence. Paul knew very well bow grievously the praetors had committed themselves in this respect; how illegally the magistrates had acted; and how seriously their proceedings had, in a Roman colony, compromised the much vaunted dignity and justice of the Roman law. He therefore actually refused to depart from the prison, in that underhand way. He declared that he and his friend had been illegally treated. He proclaimed that in their persons the honor of Roman citizens had been outraged, and he demanded that their vindication should be as public as their punishment had been, by the magistrates coming themselves and releasing them in due form. The good jailer, who had supposed that they would have been glad to get away on any terms, was astounded at all this; but still more was he astonished when, with very little delay, the magistrates actually appeared at the prison as Paul had demanded. They had no doubt been terrified at the intimation that the men they had thus injured were citizens of Rome, whose persons, as such, were inviolable. Hence it is on record that the simple expression, “I am a Roman citizen” (civis Romanus sum), often sufficed in even the most distant and barbarous countries, to repress all violence against the persons who were able to use it; for Rome had made it widely known how well she was able, and how fully she was disposed to resent any injury offered to her citizens. But that a Roman citizen should have been scourged at all, much more scourged unheard, in a Roman colony, and by order of Roman magistrates, was an enormity which would have excited astonishment and indignation, wherever heard of, in every Roman breast, and would in all probability be sternly noticed at Rome. Hence the praetors yielded to the demands of Paul, being probably but too glad to escape so cheaply from the consequences of a fault so serious. They came, therefore, and, apologizing for their mistake, and declaring their conviction of the apostles’ innocence, led them forth from the prison—only politely intimating that it might, under the circumstances, be desirable that they should retire from the city at their earliest convenience. With this hint Paul and Silas thought proper to comply; and after they had been to the house of Lydia, and spoken encouragingly to the brethren, they took their departure from Philippi.
It has been asked why Paul and Silas (who, it appears, was also a citizen of Rome) did not urge their civic rights in order to prevent their punishments. The best answer seems to be, that the haste and clamor allowed them no opportunity, and would not permit them to be heard.
And if it be asked what use there was in urging this claim afterwards, when their liberation was already secured without it, it may be answered that there is every reason why a man who has been wrongfully treated should claim his liberation as a right, and refuse to receive it as a pardon or a favor. If Paul had departed secretly, it might have been reported that he had broken from prison, which would have tainted his reputation, and have been injurious to his apostolic authority there and elsewhere. He was, moreover, bound both by civil and natural right to maintain his privileges, which he could not, without damage to others, suffer to be injuriously affected in his person. He had also special regard, as Doddridge observes, to the interests of Christianity in this place; “for such a token of public respect from the magistrates would undoubtedly encourage the new converts, and remove a stumbling block out of the way of others, who might not have discerned the true value of the characters of Paul and Silas in the midst of so much injury as they had before suffered.” It may be added, that the form of acknowledgement which Paul demanded, was not only just in itself, but particularly suitable to the place where it was made; for we learn that it was, especially among the Macedonians, thought a mark of innocence for any one to be publicly set free by the magistrates.
We find magistrates and others, here and elsewhere, readily yielding credence to Paul’s assertion of his citizenship. It may be that he was in possession of some document to substantiate the claim; but if not, it may be explained by the fact, that no one would make such a claim lightly, as it was a capital offence to make an untrue pretension to the rights of citizenship.
It appears from the epistle which Paul addressed to this church about ten years after, from Rome, that its members continued to cherish the most affectionate regard for him. Among the modes in which they evinced this, was that of sending contributions towards his subsistence. And this was a rare distinction; for there seems to have been no other church from whom be received or would accept this kind of assistance, as he often chose rather to labor with his own hands than to lay himself open to the slightest suspicion of interested motives.