Acts 16:23

23 and, after severely flogging them, they threw them into jail and bade the jailer keep them safely.

Acts 16:23 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 16:23

And when they had laid many stripes upon them
Even above measure, as in ( 2 Corinthians 11:35 ) . They cast them into prison;
designing doubtless to inflict some greater punishment upon them, after they had further examined into their affairs: charging the jailer to keep them safely;
suggesting, that he must be answerable for them, should they escape, either through his favour or his negligence; and they might rather give this strict charge, because they perceived that they were uncommon men, possessed of a strange power, which they had exerted in the casting out of the evil spirit, which might come to their knowledge by some means or other; they might look upon them to be a sort of magicians, and therefore were to be narrowly watched, that they did not make use of their art to deliver themselves; however, they judged it necessary to use all the precautions they could, to secure them: some have thought this jailer to be the same with Stephanas, ( 1 Corinthians 1:16 ) but this is not certain, nor very probable.

Acts 16:23 In-Context

21 They are Jews, and are teaching customs which we, as Romans, are not permitted to adopt or practise."

22 The crowd, too, joined in the outcry against them, till at length the praetors ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods;

23 and, after severely flogging them, they threw them into jail and bade the jailer keep them safely.

24 He, having received an order like that, lodged them in the inner prison, and secured their feet in the stocks.

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,