Acts 16:35-40 meaning

Acts 16:35-40 shows what happens the morning after Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Philippi. During their night in jail, Paul and Silas sang hymns and prayed till the middle of the night. Suddenly, a great earthquake struck, shaking the prison and loosing the prisoners’ chains. The jailer rushes in, and seeing the prison doors open, prepares to take his life because he thinks the prisoners have escaped. But Paul intervenes, telling the jailer that all the prisoners are there. 

The jailer asks Paul and Silas to tell him what he must do to be saved. He takes them into his house, where they preach the gospel to the jailer and his household. Everyone in the house believes. Paul and Silas’s wounds are washed, and then they wash the jailer and his household by baptizing them. The jailer gives them food and rejoices that he has trusted in the Son of God to save him. 

Paul and Silas sleep in his house, which was probably above or connected to the prison. 

Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen, saying, “Release those men.” (v. 35).

Apparently the chief magistrates, having slept on the matter, decided the Jewish prisoners had been sufficiently dealt with. They had been beaten and imprisoned for the night, and would probably cause no more trouble for the city of Philippi. So when day came, they sent their policemen with the release orders. The order was to “Release those men.” This message was given to the jailer.

And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The chief magistrates have sent to release you. Therefore come out now and go in peace” (v. 36). 

The jailer likely received this message with a happy heart, because he did not want Paul and Silas to remain prisoners. These men had told him God’s message of salvation. They had shown mercy and love toward him when he despaired the night before, to the point of nearly killing himself. The most he could do for Paul and Silas was take them into his house, clean their wounds, and feed them. But he could not release them of his own accord. So, undoubtedly he was glad to receive the message from the chief magistrates to “Release those men.”

He relays the message to Paul, “The chief magistrates have sent to release you. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” The jailer wishes peace upon them as they walk into freedom. 

But Paul, though a gracious and faithful servant of God, also seeks justice. He is never rude or cruel, but there are many instances in the New Testament where he counters injustice, exploitation, and deception with stern words, often putting the abuser or deceiver to shame (Galatians 5:12, 1 Corinthians 4:8-16, 2 Corinthians 12:13, Acts 23:1-5). Many times did Jesus Himself speak sarcastically, satirically, and sternly toward those who merited it (John 10:31-32, Luke 13:33, Matthew 23:24).

So, while the jailer tells Paul and Silas the good news and tries to set them free, Paul rejects the gesture. He does not view this as some act of kindness from the chief magistrates. They are trying to cover their bases. Indeed, it was not good governance that Paul and Silas were beaten with rods and imprisoned based solely on some men’s accusations. 

The chief magistrates had failed to judge rightly or to even hear both sides, and had gone along with the mob in persecuting these men for no reason (Acts 16:22-23). But it was worse than that, for Paul and Silas had a secret which would multiply the chief magistrates’ troubles. 

Paul mocks the order to release them, while also revealing that he and Silas both have Roman citizenship:

But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out” (v. 37).

This is a bombshell. Paul and Silas are men who are Romans. Though they are Jewish ethnically and culturally, they both have Roman citizenship. As Romans, they were considered “free men” and had more rights than non-Romans living in the Roman Empire. Non-Romans were held in such low regard that, for example, the murder of a non-Roman citizen would not be investigated. Roman citizens, on the other hand, had the right to a fair trial, and the right to not receive corporal punishment (beatings and floggings). Their rights as Roman citizens were abused, and now Paul demands that there be an accounting.

Years later in Jerusalem, Paul would avoid a whipping by asking those who arrested him, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” (Act 22:25). The Roman commander questioning Paul would tell Paul that he (the commander) had bought his Roman citizenship for a large sum of money, while Paul would counter that he (Paul) was born a Roman citizen, having been born in Tarsus, Cilicia, “a citizen of no insignificant city” (Act 22:28, 21:39).

So, Paul throws the crimes of the chief magistrates back in their faces. They were neglectful and all too willing to have a pair of Jewish men beaten, stripped, and imprisoned, without arranging a real trial to examine the matter. They had unknowingly beaten Roman men in public without trial. There were probably hundreds of witnesses to this injustice. The magistrates had done this crime to men who are Romans. Then they had thrown them into prison. 

Paul was not willing to let them sweep the matter under the rug. He tells them (the policemen representing the chief magistrates) to tell their bosses, “and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.” Paul and Silas refused to leave the prison unless the chief magistrates personally came and released them. They would not help the cover-up of the crime by leaving the prison secretly. 

The policemen go back to the chief magistrates and tell them all that Paul said:

The policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, and they came and appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city (vs. 38-39).

Paul’s words which the policemen reported back to the chief magistrates sends them into a panic. The fact that they were already willing to release Paul and Silas implies that they may have had some regret about beating, stripping, and imprisoning these men without really inspecting the situation. Or it may not have bothered them. To their minds, these were non-Roman Jews; worthless, unwelcome foreigners. But the magistrates clearly did not want to have any further business or heap further punishment on these two men, so they were prepared to let them go. 

But now, the new information that the Jewish prisoners were actually Roman citizens could completely ruin the magistrates’ lives. They had made a terrible mistake. 

The magistrates were afraid when they heard that Paul and Silas were Romans. They did as Paul demanded—they came to Paul and Silas in the prison and appealed to them, apologizing and begging that Paul and Silas not tell anyone and get them in trouble. So the chief magistrates personally brought Paul and Silas out of the prison. This probably did not go unnoticed by the public, much to the magistrates’ distress. 

Paul did not want to be snuck out of the prison secretly. Now he had the chief magistrates in person ushering Silas and him back into the city as free men. The magistrates, still terrified for their job security and their own freedom, kept begging Paul and Silas to leave the city. This was a bold request, but Paul seemingly did not want to waste any more time dealing with these unjust men. 

The Holy Spirit may have been prompting him and his team onward into Macedonia. Or perhaps he felt Philippi had become too dangerous and it was time to go. Paul always tried to stay as long as he could in a city where he was ministering, but he was not a fool and did not press his luck:

They went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed (v. 40)

Paul and Silas went out of the prison and probably assured the chief magistrates they would leave. But first, they entered the house of Lydia to say their farewells. Perhaps in engaging thusly with the city’s leaders, Paul sought to provide a sort of protection for those who believed. The magistrates might then live with a sense of, “I don’t really want to cross these fellows by abusing their followers, lest they turn us in for breaking Roman law and we get fired.”

Before Paul and Silas leave Philippi they encourage their new followers. Luke, the author of Acts, writes, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. The timeframe again is somewhat vague. That they saw the brethren before they left means either the brethren were already gathered in the house of Lydia, perhaps praying for Paul and Silas similar to how the believers in Jerusalem had prayed in the house of Mary for Peter during his imprisonment (Acts 12:12). Or a gathering of the brethren was called together in the house of Lydia one last time to say goodbye to Paul, Silas, and Timothy. 

The church (“assembly”) of believers in Philippi at that point was quite small. Luke does not tell us of any who believed in Jesus other than Lydia, the jailer, and their households. Maybe some of the other women at the riverside had believed too (Acts 16:13). From Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he names two women, Euodia and Syntyche, who belong to the church there, whom he encourages to make peace with one another (Philippians 4:2-3). 

We can wonder if the jailer and his household too were invited to this gathering of brethren in the house of Lydia. This church in Philippi will grow to become Paul’s most faithful and generous supporter (Philippians 4:15). 

Whoever was there, when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them. Paul, Silas, and Timothy had a final conversation with the new Philippian brethren to give them hope, perseverance, and assurance of God’s love. Paul would come back to Philippi years later. In this meeting, he probably promised the Philippians to write to them and return, as he ultimately would do (Philippians 1:1, Acts 20:6). 

Luke had stopped using first person pronouns earlier when Paul and Silas were arrested. His last use of “us” was in Acts 16:17. He does not mention whether he stays or goes with Paul from Philippi. Timothy is not mentioned in this final passage of Chapter 16 either, but it is clear that he went on with Paul and Silas based on Acts 17:14. 

Because Luke here writes, when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed, some observers think this means that Luke stayed in Philippi. Luke will reappear using first-person pronouns in Acts 20:5-6,  

“But these [team members] had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas. We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days...”

Since Luke stops referring to "us" and "we" after Paul leaves the city of Philippi (in Acts 16), and begins using "us" and "we" again when Paul returns to the city of Philippi (in Acts 20), it strongly suggests that Luke remained in Philippi all this time.

It is also possible that Luke continued with Paul, Silas, and Timothy all the way to the end of this second missionary journey, and neglects to mention himself because he is mostly concerned in recording what others had done, rather than insert himself as a figure of much note (Luke 1:1-4). We do not know. We do know that Luke faithfully recorded these events in order to validate Paul’s authority as a true apostle of Christ, and a faithful minister of the gospel to the Gentiles. 

This work of Luke’s was completely successful, and is likely a major reason why Paul’s enemies failed to diminish his authority through their efforts to slander and undermine him. 

In the next chapter, Paul, Silas, and Timothy will go to Thessalonica. They will be met with many hearts eager to believe in the gospel, as well as more persecution. Paul will make his way down south through Macedonia and Greece, preaching the gospel and planting churches regardless of the world’s hostility to the good news of Jesus Christ.