Acts 16:20

Unto the magistrates (toi strathgoi). Greek term (strato, agw) for leader of an army or general. But in civic life a governor. The technical name for the magistrates in a Roman colony was duumviri or duumvirs, answering to consuls in Rome. Strathgoi here is the Greek rendering of the Latin praetores (praetors), a term which they preferred out of pride to the term duumviri. Since they represented consuls, the praetors or duumvirs were accompanied by lictors bearing rods (verse Mark 35 ). These men (outoi oi anqrwpoi). Contemptuous use. Being Jews (Ioudaioi uparconte). The people of Philippi, unlike those in Antioch ( Mark 11:26 ), did not recognize any distinction between Jews and Christians. These four men were Jews. This appeal to race prejudice would be especially pertinent then because of the recent decree of Claudius expelling Jews from Rome ( Mark 18:2 ). It was about A.D. 49 or 50 that Paul is in Philippi. The hatred of the Jews by the Romans is known otherwise (Cicero, Pro Flacco, XXVIII; Juvenal, XIV. 96-106). Do exceedingly trouble (ektarassousin). Late compound (effective use of ek in composition) and only here in the N.T.