Bible Study Lesson for Acts 16:16-40: Paul and Silas in Prison

(Note: When I taught my Bible study on the Book of Acts I used a flannel map as a visual aid. In my lecture notes you will find reference to this flannel map. The primary commentary I used was Compton's Interactive Bible, a software CD; I sometimes refer to this as my Interactive Bible CD.)

The fourth and last section of this chapter tells the story of Paul, Silas, and the demon-possessed girl who told fortunes.

Read Acts 16:16. My commentary provided some interesting information about this poor slave girl. Here the term "spirit" is called a "python" spirit, a demonic spirit. The python was a mythical snake worshiped at Delphi and associated with the Delphic oracle. The term "python" came to be used of the persons through whom the python spirit supposedly spoke. Since such persons spoke involuntarily, the term "ventriloquist" was used to describe them. To what extent she actually predicted the future is not known.

Read Acts 16:17. My commentary points out something here that I probably would have missed if I hadn't known to look for it: this is where Luke's "we" section ends. From this point on, until we get to Acts 20:5, Luke reverts to the third person, "they." Apparently Luke will leave Paul and Silas sometime during this incident with the slave girl.

Another interesting point here is that the demonic spirit uses the term "Most High God." This is also used by another demonic spirit in Mark 5:7. This title is used in the Old Testament by both Jews and Greeks (inscriptions have been found), but you don't see Christians using this title in the New Testament. This seems to confirm what James says in his letter: Read James 2:19. The demons know and understand that there is only One, all powerful God. But that does not mean they worship or honor Him; they are simply stating a truth they can not escape.

The fact that Paul will get so upset at what this demon is saying (though it appears innocent enough, when we just read the text) tells us that the slave girl was probably speaking mockingly or in a very disrespectful manner, as controlled by the spirit.

Read Acts 16:18. And so Paul casts the demon out, by simply calling on the name of Jesus. The demons can say "Most High God", but they can not bear to stay in the presence of the name of Jesus.

Read Acts 16:19. The fact that the slave girl had more than one owner seems to indicate that she was very valuable property. Perhaps two or men got together to purchase her from her original owner when she started to manifest this fortune telling spirit. As we read in verse 16, she was generating quite a bit of money for her owners. (None of which she would have seen, of course. It sounds like she probably could have generated enough money to buy herself free long since, not that her greedy owners would have allowed that, of course.) Once the spirit was gone, all they had left for their investment was another average slave girl, common, not valuable at all. They don't see Paul's intervention as his saving a girl from demonic oppression, oh no, they see his actions as destroying their business.

As a side note, we don't hear anything else about this slave girl or what happened to her after this. I can only hope that since she was no longer so valuable that she was eventually resold to another owner, hopefully a kinder one. As there will be a significant size Christian community in Philippi over time, perhaps one of the believers eventually bought her. I would think that after what happens here to Paul and Silas I would think her story would become well known in the Christian community. Her story reminds me of something Jesus said, about demon exorcisms. Read Luke 11:24-26. If this girl did not eventually come to Christ through this experience and therefore have the Holy Spirit come to reside in her, she would have had no protection to keep the demon (with some of his fellows) returning and putting her back into bondage.

Read Acts 16:20-21. These men understand that Judaism was a recognized legal religion in the Roman Empire, but that Christianity was not. They use this fact to claim that Paul and Silas are breaking Roman law by saying they are "advocating customs unlawful for us Romans." This was bunk, of course, but because Christianity was a new religion, and Paul and Silas were generating a lot of interest in the city, they knew they had a good case. These men understand they aren't going to get any monetary satisfaction from having Paul and Silas arrested, but they will get their petty revenge.

Read Acts 16:22. The fact that the crowd joined in makes me think that this slave girl and her owners were very well known in the city, perhaps even revered because of her so called fortune-telling ability. When Paul and Silas are beaten, it would have been with rods.

Read Acts 16:23-24. Being placed in an inner cell probably meant it was deep inside the prison building, where there was no windows or natural light. They would have been put in stocks not only for extra security, but also as a form of torture. { Put stock symbol on flannel board near Philippi }

Read Acts 16:25. We read here that Paul and Silas are not alone in the prison and the fact that they are praying and singing hymns to God is really quite remarkable. Even though they would have been in great pain from their beating and from having to sit in stocks, they use this opportunity to not only worship God, but also to witness to their fellow prisoners. As I was reading this, it occurred to me that during these early years of the church there must have been an explosion of creativity in the area of worship songs and hymns: yes, they would have sung the hymns based on the Psalms, but I would expect that there would have been many talented song writers who, having become Christians, would have written new hymns. And these hymns would have been passed on to other believers, just like new worship songs are passed around churches today. These hymns would have taught about and honored the name of Jesus Christ, not just Yaweh of the Old Testament. The book "Wind and Fire" by John William Drane gives the text of an ancient hymn (it doesn't give any dates). { Read hymn from "Wind and Fire" chapter 10 }

Read Acts 16:26. My commentary didn't say anything about this passage, but I couldn't help comparing this "prison break" to two others we have already read about. Here we have a violent earthquake, doors flying open, and ALL the prisoners' chains came loose. This is quite different from the prison breaks we have described in chapters 6 and 12. Read Acts 6:17-21. With this first one, only the apostles are released, and it is done very quietly, without the guards knowing, and the apostles are told to go back to their preaching, as if they had never been imprisoned in the first place. Read Acts 12:5-10. Again, only Peter is released, and it is done very quietly, without the guards' knowledge. Later in this chapter we read that Peter escapes and leaves Jerusalem. So why here, in chapter 16, do we have such a much more spectacular rescue? { Ask group for their opinions }

Read Acts 16:27. In that culture, guards and jailers were responsible for their prisoners at a far greater level than they are in our culture: if a prisoner escaped, the guard's life was forfeit. For the jailer to take his own life would shorten his shame and distress. If we go back to Peter's escape in chapter 12, we can review what happened to Peter's guards. Read Acts 12:19a. Herod very much had the "legal" right to have the guards executed for what appeared their negligence.

Read Acts 16:28. This short verse actually tells us quite a lot - even though their chains fall off and the prison doors fly open, the other prisoners, those who have been listening to Paul and Silas pray, didn't immediately rush out to escape like they could have! Perhaps they didn't have time, perhaps they were too stunned by the happenings around them, or perhaps their hearts had been so softened by what they had heard Paul and Silas saying that they didn't want to leave them. We don't know. We aren't going to read anything more about these other prisoners in Acts, but I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this had to have been one of the most dramatic events in their lives, and whether or not they ever became Christians, I doubt they ever forgot what happened that night. Some of these men may have been waiting to be executed, and like the thief on the cross next to Jesus as His crucifixion, they were given this last opportunity to repent before they died.

Read Acts 16:29-30. These two verses, I believe, tells us why God chose to intervene here with a dramatic earth quake, with doors flying open, and chains falling off: God knew the jailer had a heart that was open to Him, and that by demonstrating His power in such a way, the jailer would choose salvation. The jailer, undoubtedly, heard Paul and Silas' praying and songs, just like the prisoners, however, God knew he needed an extra nudge, like an earthquake, to move forward.

This story should help make us think about when bad things happen in our lives: are they REALLY bad things? Or are they simply God moving in our lives to bring us into contact with others who need Him, who might not have an opportunity to come to Christ, otherwise. This jailer, for example - he most likely spent most of his time in the prison. How else is he to hear about Christ (in that day and age) unless a believer is imprisoned and is brought to his attention? Paul and Silas were unjustly accused, flogged, and put in stocks, but, as we see, the end result will be great rejoicing in heaven when the jailer and his family come to Christ.

Read Acts 16:31. Paul and Silas give a concise answer to the jailer's question: "Believe in the Lord Jesus."

Read Acts 16:32-34. Paul and Silas are now taken to the jailer's home, which must have been attached to the prison, and explain the gospel more thoroughly to the jailer and his family. Though it is late at night, the jailer tends to their wounds - remember they were badly beaten, so their backs would have been all bloody and they had been put in stocks, so they may have had sores around their ankles. Though it doesn't say so here, I would expect that the jailer also provided them with new clothes, since theirs would have been ripped, dirty, and bloody. It is only after Paul and Silas have been tended to, are the jailer and his family baptized, and then they all have a meal together. I would expect that the two prisoners were very hungry and very grateful for the hospitality.

I really like what Luke wrote here about the jailer's change of attitude: "he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God." The picture I get is of a man who is absolutely bubbling over with happiness and joy, so excited by all that has happened in his life, and now to his family, that he can't help sharing it with everyone. I do not doubt that that prison was a very different place after that: as a man of principle he could not release the prisoners, but he could see that they received humane treatment, provided blankets, better food, light in the darker cells... and I'm sure that he went on to share the gospel with many of the men he came in contact with, in that dark place. A church will become established in Philippi, and this man, and his family, would have become an important part of it, providing a powerful witness to the other Gentiles of how God works in people's lives. (As the jailer, I would expect he had a certain reputation in that city!)

Read Acts 16:35-36. We don't know why the magistrates decided to let Paul and Silas go. It is very possible that, to appease the crowd, they decided the easiest way of dealing with the issue was to have the two "trouble makers" flogged and then make them spend the night in prison. The crowd would dissipate, the issue would be forgotten, and the magistrates would have kept order in the city. Notice that there was no mention of whether or not Paul and Silas were found "guilty" because, as Paul will point in the next verse, there was never a trial!

Just a side note, notice that Paul and Silas make no move to try to leave the jailer's home prior to this. By staying at the jailer's home they were still technically in his custody and so the jailer's life would be spared. If they had left, the jailer's life would have been forfeit.

Read Acts 16:37-39. My commentary does a very good job of explaining what is going on here, so I'm going to quote it verbatim:

"without a trial. Public beating for a Roman citizen (see v. 38) would have been illegal, let alone beating without a trial. Let them come themselves. Paul and Silas were not asking for an escort to salve their injured pride as much as they were establishing their innocence for the sake of the church in Philippi and its future."

I'm sure the magistrates had a good scare when they learned they had illegally flogged two Roman citizens! Paul and Silas could have raised quite a stink, perhaps even cost them their positions. We can see how scared they were by the fact that they did indeed come themselves to speak with Paul and Silas. The shoe, as it were, was definitely on the other foot!

We can get a sense about how Paul felt about how he was treated in Philippi by what he will write later to the church at Thessalonica (the next city they will establish a church in.) Read 1 Thessalonians 2:2.

Read Acts 16:40. Paul and Silas knew that they needed to leave Philippi, but not without first making sure that the new believers were going to be OK after they were gone. They would have assured them that the beating had been a mistake (as evidenced by the magistrates public apology) and perhaps arranged for leaders to be raised up from the believers there at Lydia's house, to take over leadership and teaching now that Paul and Silas had to leave.

Short rabbit trail: before we go on with Acts, let's find out a little bit what the church established at Philippi was like. Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-5. Philippi, remember, is in Macedonia, and is one of the churches Paul is praising here for their generosity in giving. In his letter to the Philippians, written toward the tail end of his life, when he is imprisoned in Rome, he praises their faithfulness and zeal for the Lord. Read Philippians 1:3-6, 4:1, 4:14-18. As we will read on in Acts, after leaving Philippi, he will establish a church in Thessalonica. From what we read in Philippians chapter 4, the Philippians generously gave him money during that time, as they did later in Paul's life, to help support him while he was under house arrest in Rome.

Blessings!

Sources
Editors. Compton's Interactive Bible (software)
Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford (notes). The Student Bible. NIV Version
Drane, John William. Wind and Fire: Spreading the Message of Jesus