ACTS: Paul and Silas in Prison

Paul and Silas in Prison

The Passage: Acts 16:11-40

Structure:

a. 16:11-15, Lydia is introduced.

 b. 16:16-18, I command you to come out

  c. 16:19-24, thrown into prison and ordered to keep the guard

   d. 16:25-27, Midnight event

    e. 16:28, words of Paul

     f. 16:29-30, what should I do to be saved?

    e’. 16:31-32, words of Paul

   d’. 16:33-34, an hour of the night

  c’. 16:35-36, Release those men

 b’. 16:37-39, led them out and asked to leave the city

a’. 16:40, They went to Lydia’s house   

Historical and geographical context:

Apart from St. Paul’s “travel”/prison escort to Rome, his missionary work covered three main areas: Asia minor (modern Turkey) with Cyprus, Macedonia (modern north Greece), and Achaia (modern south Greece – Athens, Corinth, etc.). He begins his witness in somewhat familiar area, Cyprus and Asia minor – people speak same dialect and have similar customs. But now we are on the other side of the Aegean Sea – Macedonia. It is the homeland for Alexander the Great and his father Philip II who defeated the alliance of city-states led by Athens in the battle of Chaeronea (338 BC). This resulted in unification of Greece, thou we’ll see the snobs of Athens acting up.    

Theology:

The meeting with Lydia “governs” the passage (see the structure, a and a’). Jesus said: “as my Father sent me – I am sending you” (John 20:21). We already seen how apostles repeat the patterns of Jesus, adjusting it for a particular situation. There is “Good/bad Friday” paradigm (ch. 5). Here, we see a gentile woman, Paul meets her by the water, talks to her, and she is converted – should sound familiar, John 4(!).

Inside of her story there is a theme that will be picked up and developed by the jailer narrative. She is the one who listens, but her household is baptized (!). She makes the decision for everyone. Same as parents for the children entrusted to them now. Same as jailer – vv. 31-34, the whole family is baptized. A valuable passage in discussion of “decision theology”.  

There is at least one more point of comparison between earthly ministry of Jesus and missionary journeys of St. Paul – their rejection of a witness by demons or possessed entities. In case of Jesus see Mk. 1:21-28. Here we have a girl. Later both St. Paul and St. John will teach on distinguishing of the spirits (cp. 1 Tim. 4:1-2; 1 John 4:1-4)  

It is noteworthy that the main “action” happened at midnight (v. 25). This adds to the list of midnight turning point events: Passover (Ex. 11:4), Samson carries the city gates of Gaza (Judg. 16:3), king Artaxerxes reads the memorial book (Esth. 6:1), birth of Jesus (Lk. 2:8), dialog with Nicodemus (John 3:1-2), the Last Supper (John 13:26-30). We see how step by step the important events in the biblical history turn from the nighttime into the day, as it was promised (Mal. 4:1-2).      

Other themes:

Reading the passage, it is hard to avoid a sense of mystery in Pauline relationship with the authorities. On the one hand, he allows the magistrates to beat him (and Silas) with rods being a Roman citizen (v. 22). Why did he not use his Roman citizenship card immediately? Did he forget? Did he leave his Roman passport in his luggage when was delayed in the previous airport? Ok, the last one is more a fun argument.

On the other hand, Paul and Silas demanded that the magistrates would apologize – it doesn’t look like “humility”. St. Paul used the same legal grounds to protect himself in a few other cases, see lesson 42 (Acts 22:28). At the end – the citizenship is the reason for his trip to Rome for a trial before Ceasar (lesson 45, Acts 25:12). Where is the dividing line when we should rely on the help from above and a permissible usage of governmental structures God Himself placed for the order of society? (cp. Rom 13:1-7 vs. Acts 4:18-20).