Acts 16

Acts 16:2

Who was a Christian approved of all in Lystra and Iconium.

Acts 16:3

Him Paul chose to go and accompany and assist him in preaching, which because the Jewish Christians would not let him do, (the proselytes of the gates, or uncircumcised, being not permitted to come into the same court of the temple with the Jews, at least they would never hearken to or benefit by his preaching, having a special aversion to such,) he therefore circumcised him, his father being a Greek, and consequently his not being circumcised in his childhood being known to all.

Acts 16:5

And thus they confirmed the churches, and every day converted many to the faith of Christ.

Acts 16:8

And therefore not coming to, ver. 7, but passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.

upon discourse, resolving from the vision that the Lord— had a very fair gale that brought us directly to Samothracia—

a metropolis of one part of Macedonia, and this city a colony of the Romans, ver. 21: and we were—

where by a river side there stood an oratory; and thither we went; and going in found many women together, and to them Paul preached the gospel.

Acts 16:13

[a] where prayer was] That προσευχή signifies a place set apart or accustomed for the service of God, there is little question: so προσευχάς καθιδρύσαντες, building oratories, in the 3rd book of Maccab., and so perhaps προσευχή τοῦ Θεοῦ signifies, Luke vi. 12. And from the ordinariness of that use of the word, for praying places, it is, that Juvenal hath made use of it for a begging place, or a corner, or porch where beggars meet,

…in qua te quæro proseucha?

and Cleomedes, lib. 1. c. 1, speaking of some strange words and forms of speech used by Epicurus, saith they are such as are fetched ἀπό μίσης τῆς προσευχῆς καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐταῖς προσαιτούντων, Ἰουδαϊκά τινα καὶ παρακεχαραγμένα, “fetched from the middle of a proseucha, from those that use to beg there, certain Jewish obsolete words or phrases,” καὶ καταπολὺ τῶν ἑρπετῶν ταπεινότερα, “much more humble than those that creep on the ground.” As for that of oratories, which is the scripture acception of the word, we find mention of them in Josephus in his life, p. 645, εἰσάγονται πάντες εἰς προσευχήν, “they are all brought into an oratory, a great house,” saith he, “able to contain a great multitude;” and so soon after again and again. The custom of building such is said to come from the fact of Isaac, Gen. xxiv. 62, 63, where it is said that he went out into the field to a well to pray, saith the Chaldee paraphrase, and therefore they built these proseuchæ in fields, for the most part near fountains or rivers, or brooks’ sides, which the idolaters imitated, Isa. lvii. 6, (and such perhaps it was where they prayed, ch. xxi. 5, a little way without the city, and upon a shore,) or on mountains, as that Luke vi, which the idolaters imitated also. Now that this here was such an one will appear, not only by that which is here said of Paul, that he sat down and spake to the women, making it a place not to pray, but to preach, but also by the express words of Epiphanius, tit. 2. lib. 3. c. 80. “There were,” saith he, “anciently some places of prayer without the city, both in Judæa and among the Samaritans, and there is a place of prayer in Shechem (which is now called Neapolis) without the city,” &c., which is near this very place which is here spoken of,

Acts 16:16

[b] spirit of divination] Python was a name of the city Delphos, where oracles were delivered by the devil, and they that prophesied there were called by that name Πύθωνος, Pythons. From thence the word was accommodated to other sorts of diviners, especially to the ἐγγαστρίμυθοι, those out of whose bellies (as the oracles out of caves) the devil spake. Of these, see Photii Epist. ρνά. p. 206. Τὸ ἐμφωλεύον τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ γαστρὶ πονηρὸν, καὶ ἄξιον τὴν κοπροδόχον οἰκείν, ἀκάθαρτον πνεῦμα, λίαν ἐμφερῶς προσωνομάκασιν ἐγγαστρίμυθον, “The wicked and unclean spirit, that inhabits a man’s belly as a serpent his hole in the earth, and being unclean, is fit to dwell in that place which is the receptacle of ordure, they appositely call engastrimuthus.” This, saith he, the Grecians commonly call ἐντερόμαντιν, “the diviner from the guts,” others ἐγγαστρίμαντιν, “the diviner in the belly.” But Sophocles and Plato “being ashamed that their demon should have such a dwelling,” one of them, ἀντὶ γαστρὸς αὐτῷ τὰ στέρνα χαρισάμενος, στερούμαντιν μετωνόμαζεν, “instead of the belly allowed him the breast, and called him the diviner out of the breast;” and the other called every such by the name of Eurycles, a person who had been famous for this, and so transmitted the appellation to all other the like. And of this kind of devil, saith he, “which loves to dwell in the ordure both of men and women,” Λαόπλανον τοῦτο καὶ τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀπωλείας τοῖς προσέχειν αὐτῷ ἀναπεπεισμένοις πρόξενον, “it is a great deceiver of people, and author of destruction to all that give ear to it.” That this is it which is here meant by Πύθωνος πνεῦμα, the spirit of Python, appears by Hesychius, being read, as that place ought to be, ἐγγαστρίμυθος—(not as we now read without any sense, τούτων ἡμεῖς πάντων ἦν καλοῦμεν, but) τούτον ἡμεῖς Πύθωνα νῦν καλοῦμεν, “we now call this Python.” These the Hebrew calls אובות, from אוב, the belly; and the reason is rendered by Galen, because “they speak without opening their mouth, and so seem to speak out of the belly.” These are they that have familiar spirits, Lev. xix. 31.

Acts 16:22

[c] rent off their clothes] Among the rites of scourging, this of rending the garments asunder is mentioned for one, in Mischna, c. 3. “Both hands are tied to the pillar on both sides, then the officer of the

Acts 16:30

And brought them out of the inner prison, ver. 24, and said, Sirs, I see and acknowledge that the doctrine taught by you is the truth of the eternal omnipotent God, thus testified by him by miracles, which therefore all are bound to receive that will be saved. Tell me, I beseech you, what I must do to be capable of that salvation.

Acts 16:31

And they told him, that the receiving and embracing the doctrine of Christ, and regulating his life according to it, was that which was required of him and his family.

Acts 16:32

And they preached the gospel to him and to— ° used the best remedies he could to assuage the pain and heal the wounds and soreness that remained from their scourging, and was baptized—