Acts 16:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

O madness! They did not examine the matter and did not allow them to answer. Yet after such a miracle they ought to have honored them. They ought to have received them as saviors and benefactors. If you desired wealth, then why, having found such riches, did you not run to them? To have the power to cast out demons is far more glorious than to be subject to them. Here are signs, yet love of gain prevailed. But they, see, answer nothing and do not defend themselves, so that they might appear worthy of still greater wonder. “For,” he says, “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10). “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). Thus they were wondrous also in meekness. The harsher the imprisonment, the more glorious the miracle. Perhaps the authorities did this in order to stop the disturbance. They saw that the people were agitated, and by subjecting the apostles to blows they wanted to calm their frenzy.

"And the people rose up together against them." Working miracles and teaching belonged to Paul. But Silas also shared with him in the dangers.

When the people heard such a charge, they rose up against Paul and Silas. The city authorities tore off their garments and, without any inquiry, commanded them to be beaten with rods.

Behold an unjust judgment and a cruel punishment! The masters of the young woman accuse Paul and Silas before the magistrates, as though they were rebels and disturbers of the common peace. The magistrates take no explanation from the accused and do not investigate whether the accusation against them is just. Seeing also that the whole crowd gathered in the marketplace agrees with them, and that it has risen against the apostles on trial like a powerful storm, they do not halt the matter. They do not stop the insults that the people were inflicting on the apostles in their presence. Instead, with their own hands, in order to shame the accused further, they tear their garments and command that they be beaten with rods.

A certain maidservant had within herself a spirit of darkness, through which she foretold the future and revealed hidden things. Following the apostles, she said in the hearing of the people: behold, servants of God; they preach to you the way of salvation. It is not known what moved her to do this, or rather, the spirit that dwelt in her. Was he afraid of being cast out of the soothsayer, and therefore wished beforehand to dispose Paul favorably toward her? Or did he think it improper to be silent about such men, as a spirit to whom they had to be known? In any case, he repeated such statements many times, although by this he seemed to harm himself. But the apostles were as far from accepting such testimony in their favor as the Savior was.

The preaching of the Gospel began successfully here. A wealthy woman named Lydia, who soon turned to faith in Christ, offered the preachers her house for lodging. But the casting out of a divining spirit from a maidservant brought upon Paul and Silas the hatred of her masters, who gained profit from her divinations. They seized the wonder-working preachers and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. These, after inflicting many blows upon them, cast them into prison without trial (vv. 13-23).

The city rabble took their side. After them the city magistrates also followed, without investigating the matter. They "tore off their garments and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them securely."

Having torn the garments, that is, of the accused. Of course, they did this not with their own hands, but through the city servants mentioned in v. 35, the so-called lictors, a kind of executioner. Through them they also inflicted many blows with rods on the bare body, for which reason the garments of those subjected to beating had been torn. Paul and Silas accepted this humiliation with silent self-denial. They did not now appeal to their right as Roman citizens, by which they were exempt from bodily punishment. They endured this dishonor to the glory of God for the name of Christ; compare Acts 5:41. Declaring themselves Roman citizens could, of course, at once have calmed the fury of the people and freed them from dishonor. But they resolved to accept this dishonor in silence and to declare it only for their final victory (v. 37).

The uprising of the people against the apostles, who had done them no harm, becomes understandable if one supposes the owners of the soothsayer gave part of their income from her to the leaders of the crowd. They may have assured them that the magistrates, the duumvirs, had also been satisfied from this side, since they often profited from income of this kind; compare Acts 24:26. From this point of view, the speed of the trial, the cruelty of the sentence, and the rough treatment of the apostles become understandable. The dignified duumvirs themselves were not ashamed to tear off their clothing. Then they ordered them to be beaten mercilessly with rods and thrown into the deepest interior of the prison, with orders to guard the supposed political criminals especially strictly.