Acts 16:29

29 petitoque lumine introgressus est et tremefactus procidit Paulo et Silae

Acts 16:29 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 16:29

Then he called for a light
Or "lights"; he ordered his servants to bring in some candles; the Syriac version renders it, "he lighted a light for himself"; and the Ethiopic version, "he brought a light": whilst he was under the influence of Satan, and going about a work of darkness, namely, to destroy himself, he was in no concern for a light; but when he was delivered from the temptation and snare, he calls for light:

and sprang in;
leaped in at once, in all haste, into the inner prison:

and came trembling;
not as before, because of the prisoners and their escape; nor merely or so much on account of the earthquake, though the terror of that might not be as yet over; but chiefly through the horror of his conscience, and the dreadful sense he had of himself as a sinner, and of his lost state and condition by nature; the law had entered into his conscience, and had worked wrath there; the Spirit of God had convinced him of his sin and misery, and there was a fearful looking for of fiery indignation in him:

and fell down before Paul and Silas;
not in a way of religious adoration, for they would never have admitted that; but in token of civil respect unto them, and of his great veneration for them, as was the manner of the eastern people; the Syriac version renders it, "he fell down at their feet", and so in Velesius's readings; at those feet, which he had before made fast in the stocks: a strange change and sudden alteration this! what is it that almighty power and efficacious grace cannot do?

Acts 16:29 In-Context

27 expergefactus autem custos carceris et videns apertas ianuas carceris evaginato gladio volebat se interficere aestimans fugisse vinctos

28 clamavit autem Paulus magna voce dicens nihil feceris tibi mali universi enim hic sumus

29 petitoque lumine introgressus est et tremefactus procidit Paulo et Silae

30 et producens eos foras ait domini quid me oportet facere ut salvus fiam

31 at illi dixerunt crede in Domino Iesu et salvus eris tu et domus tua