Acts 16:33

33 At that hour of the night, the jailer washed Paul and Silas' wounds. The jailer and his entire family were baptized immediately.

Acts 16:33 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 16:33

And he took them the same hour of the night
After they had done preaching to him, and to his family:

and washed their stripes;
which were very many and heavy, and whereby they were covered with blood; and which by this time began to fester, and to produce corrupt matter; and all this in a pool, which Grotius supposes was within the bounds of the prison, he washed off from them: his faith worked by love, and showed itself in fruits of charity and righteousness, and in obedience to Christ, and submission to his ordinance, as follows:

and was baptized, he and all his, straightway;
by immersion, that being the only way in which baptism was administered, or can be, so as to be called a baptism: and which might be administered, either in the pool, which Grotius supposes to have been in the prison; or in the river near the city, where the oratory was, ( Acts 16:13 ) and it is no unreasonable thought to suppose, that they might go out of the prison thither, and administer the ordinance, and return to the prison again before morning unobserved by any; and after that, enter into the jailer's house and be refreshed, as in the following verse; and as this instance does not at all help the cause of sprinkling, so neither the baptism of infants; for as the jailer's family were baptized as well as he, so they had the word of the Lord spoken to them as well as he, and believed as well as he, and rejoiced as he did; all which cannot be said of infants; and besides, it must be proved that he had infants in his house, and that these were taken out of their beds in the middle of the night, and baptized by Paul, ere the instance can be thought to be of any service to infant baptism.

Acts 16:33 In-Context

31 They answered, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your family will be saved."
32 They spoke the Lord's word to the jailer and everyone in his home.
33 At that hour of the night, the jailer washed Paul and Silas' wounds. The jailer and his entire family were baptized immediately.
34 He took Paul and Silas upstairs into his home and gave them something to eat. He and his family were thrilled to be believers in God.
35 In the morning the Roman officials sent guards who told the jailer, "You can release those men now."
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