Acts 16

KJV · Chapter 16/28

1Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:

2Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.

3Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.

4And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.

5And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.

6Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,

7After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.

8And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.

9And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.

10And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.

11Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis;

12And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.

13And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.

14And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

15And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.

16And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:

17The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.

18And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.

19And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,

20And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,

21And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.

22And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.

23And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:

24Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

25And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

26And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.

27And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.

28But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.

29Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,

30And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

31And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

32And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

33And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.

34And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

35And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go.

36And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace.

37But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.

38And the serjeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans.

39And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city.

40And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Paul calls Timothy to the team and, guided by a vision, travels to Macedonia. In Philippi, Lydia is converted, a spirit is cast out of a slave girl who was a fortune-teller, and Paul and Silas are imprisoned but freed by an earthquake — leading the jailer to faith.

Explanation

This chapter marks the gospel's entry into Europe, through the vision of the 'man of Macedonia' asking for help. Lydia's conversion, an independent businesswoman, shows women playing an active role in the church from the very beginning. The imprisonment of Paul and Silas for freeing the slave girl (hurting her owners' profit) exposes how economic interests can oppose the gospel. The scene of the jailer, about to kill himself in fear of having lost his prisoners, and then converting along with his whole household, shows how personal crises can open the door to spiritual transformation.

Fun facts

  • Philippi was a Roman colony with special citizenship status, which explains why Paul, a Roman citizen, protests firmly at having been beaten without a formal trial — a legal right he uses strategically.
  • Lydia was a dealer in purple cloth, an extremely expensive dye extracted from a Mediterranean mollusk, used by royalty and the elite — indicating she was likely a woman of means and influence.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Acts 16:1Timothy appears for the first time in Acts here, in Derbe or Lystra, described as the son of a believing Jewish mother and a Greek father, a mixed-marriage family common among diaspora Jews.
  2. Acts 16:2Before inviting him on the journey, Paul checks that Timothy already had a good reputation among the Christians of Lystra and Iconium, a practical measure of trustworthiness.
  3. Acts 16:3Paul circumcises Timothy, whose father was Greek and mother Jewish, to make it easier for him to be accepted among the Jews of the cities they would visit. It is a practical, context-driven decision, different from Paul’s refusal to require this of Gentiles in his letters.
  4. Acts 16:4As they pass through the cities already visited before, the group delivers the decisions of the Jerusalem council (from chapter 15) for the local churches to follow, officially spreading the agreement about the Gentiles.
  5. Acts 16:5The direct result of these visits is positive: the churches are strengthened in the faith and continue growing in number.
  6. Acts 16:6The text does not explain how this prohibition against preaching in Asia occurred, it only records that Paul understood it as a sign to change course, which eventually leads the group to Macedonia.
  7. Acts 16:7Nearing Mysia, they try to go on into Bithynia, another Roman province, but again the Holy Spirit stops them, guiding the route of the journey in a way they did not fully control.
  8. Acts 16:8Unable to enter several regions they had planned to, they end up passing straight through Mysia until reaching the port of Troas, on the west coast of Asia Minor.
  9. Acts 16:9The night vision of a man asking for help is interpreted by Paul as a direct call from God to cross from Asia Minor into Europe. This is the point where Christian preaching begins to spread across the European continent.
  10. Acts 16:10It is from here that the narrative shifts to the first-person plural (“we”), a sign that the author of the book himself, Luke, joins the group at this point in the journey.
  11. Acts 16:11From Troas the group sails straight to the island of Samothrace and then on to Neapolis, crossing the Aegean Sea toward Europe for the first time.
  12. Acts 16:12Philippi was an official Roman city, founded as a military colony for army veterans, with Roman citizenship extended to its residents. This explains why their status as Romans carries so much weight later in the story.
  13. Acts 16:13With no formal synagogue in the city, they look for a place of prayer by a riverside outside the walls of Philippi, and find a group of women gathered there.
  14. Acts 16:14Purple was an extremely expensive dye extracted from mollusks, used in elite clothing. Lydia was a successful, independent businesswoman, and her house becomes the first known Christian base in Europe.
  15. Acts 16:15After being converted and baptized along with her whole household, Lydia insists that the group stay lodged at her house, making it the first known Christian base in Europe.
  16. Acts 16:16The girl worked for owners who profited from her predictions, a common practice at the time tied to divination cults. The text does not detail the exact nature of the phenomenon, only its effect, and Paul puts a stop to it in the name of Jesus.
  17. Acts 16:17A slave girl with a spirit of divination begins following the group, crying out that they were servants of the Most High God proclaiming salvation, a true statement coming from a disturbing source.
  18. Acts 16:18After days of being followed by her, Paul becomes troubled and drives out the spirit directly in the name of Jesus, and the effect is immediate.
  19. Acts 16:19With the girl’s gift of divination gone, her owners lose their source of profit and, furious, drag Paul and Silas into the public marketplace, before the authorities.
  20. Acts 16:20The owners accuse Paul and Silas of troubling the city merely for being Jews, hiding the real motive, which was their own financial loss.
  21. Acts 16:21The formal accusation is that they were teaching customs unlawful for Roman citizens to observe, since Philippi was a Roman colony with special legal status.
  22. Acts 16:22The crowd turns against the two of them along with the magistrates, who publicly tear off their clothes and order them beaten with rods, a severe and humiliating physical punishment.
  23. Acts 16:23After many blows, the two are thrown into prison, and the jailer receives explicit orders to keep them under maximum security.
  24. Acts 16:24The jailer goes overboard on security, putting them in the innermost cell and fastening their feet in the stocks, an especially painful kind of restraint.
  25. Acts 16:25Around midnight, instead of complaining, Paul and Silas pray and sing hymns, and the other prisoners hear them — an unexpected scene inside a prison.
  26. Acts 16:26A sudden earthquake shakes the foundations of the prison, opening all the doors and loosening the chains of every prisoner at once.
  27. Acts 16:27The jailer wakes up, sees the doors open, and assumes all the prisoners had escaped; he is about to kill himself out of despair and fear of the punishment he would receive.
  28. Acts 16:28Paul calls out in time to stop the suicide, assuring him that no one had fled, even with the obvious chance to escape.
  29. Acts 16:29Relieved and still trembling, the jailer calls for a light, rushes in, and falls down before Paul and Silas, a gesture of gratitude and respect.
  30. Acts 16:30He brings them out and asks the central question of the episode: what he needed to do to be saved, in both a physical and a spiritual sense.
  31. Acts 16:31Paul and Silas’s answer is direct and simple: believing in the Lord Jesus would bring salvation to him and to his whole household.
  32. Acts 16:32They take the opportunity to explain the full message not only to the jailer, but to everyone living with him.
  33. Acts 16:33Still in the middle of the night, the jailer tends to the wounds the beating had caused the two of them, and right afterward he and his family are baptized.
  34. Acts 16:34He takes them into his own house, sets food before them, and the scene ends with the whole family rejoicing at having believed in God together.
  35. Acts 16:35At daybreak, the magistrates send officers simply saying to release Paul and Silas, with no further explanation.
  36. Acts 16:36The jailer passes along the order, saying they could leave and go in peace, expecting them to accept the release quietly.
  37. Acts 16:37Paul reveals, only after being beaten, that he was a Roman citizen, a serious legal right: Roman citizens could not be beaten or imprisoned without a formal trial. The local magistrates grow afraid of the consequences on discovering their mistake.
  38. Acts 16:38The officers carry the answer back to the magistrates, who grow afraid on discovering they had beaten Roman citizens without trial, a serious violation of Roman law.
  39. Acts 16:39Afraid of the consequences, the magistrates themselves come in person to apologize, and ask Paul and Silas to leave the city.
  40. Acts 16:40Before actually departing, the two go back to Lydia’s house to say goodbye and encourage the Christians who remained there, closing out the Philippi episode.

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