Bible Strands
Acts 16:23
And after striking them with many blows, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to guard them securely.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Roman magistrates, responding to a hostile crowd, have just ordered Paul and Silas to be stripped and flogged. Immediately following the physical punishment, the authorities command the jailer to confine the apostles under strict guard.
The words — πληγὰς (plēgas) literally denotes "blows" or "strikes," specifying the nature of the authorized violence. ἔβαλον (ebalon) translates as "they cast" or "threw," emphasizing the forceful and final transfer into custody.
The thread — The pattern of enforced confinement for witness appears in Revelation 2:10, which warns that testing will come through prison. Paul later notes his own chained condition in 2 Timothy 2:9 while contrasting physical restraint with the unbound word of God.
Why it lands — The verse documents the precise sequence of public violence followed by institutional lockdown, establishing the physical cost of the mission. It requires the reader to acknowledge that official opposition operates through concrete coercion rather than theological debate.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
Cross-references
- Revelation 2:10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer tribulation for ten days. Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
- 2 Timothy 2:9 for which I suffer to the extent of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained!
- 1 Samuel 23:22 Please go and prepare further. Investigate and watch carefully where he goes and who has seen him there, for I am told that he is extremely cunning.
- Matthew 27:63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while He was alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’
- Matthew 26:48 Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The One I kiss is the man; arrest Him.”
- Luke 21:12 But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. On account of My name they will deliver you to the synagogues and prisons, and they will bring you before kings and governors.
- Acts 5:18 and arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
- Acts 5:23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards posted at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”
- Acts 8:3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
- Acts 9:2 and requested letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women belonging to the Way, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.