Acts 5:22

22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they returned with the report:

Acts 5:22 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 5:22

But when the officers came
The Arabic version adds, "to it"; that is, to the prison;

and found them not in the prison.
The Vulgate Latin version reads, "the prison being opened they found them not"; when they came to the prison, they opened the doors of it, or the keepers for them; for though the angel had opened them for the apostles, yet he shut them again, as he brought them out; for these men found the doors shut, as the following verse shows, and who upon opening them and searching the prison, for the apostles, could find none of them in it; wherefore they returned; the Arabic version reads, "to them"; to the sanhedrim:

and told;
that is, them, as both the Arabic and Ethiopic versions read.

Acts 5:22 In-Context

20 “Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.”

21 At daybreak the apostles entered the temple courts as they had been told and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin —the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles.

22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they returned with the report:

23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards posted at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”

24 When the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard this account, they were perplexed as to what was happening.