What is your experience as the keeper of something important?
Have you ever been the one of importance kept safe in some place?
(Were YOU ever the prisoner OR a jailer guard charged as the keeper a prisoner for justice?)
Prison and Prisoners
IF the only light you ever see seeped filtered though a hole in the ceiling of your cell WOULD YOU SING?
(Likely, neither would I.)
Roman prisons were nothing to sing about, but that didn’t stop Paul and Silas.
S.O.P. – Prisons of Roman Cities & Colonies
Imprisonment was not a sentence under Roman statutory law.. Incarceration (publica custodia) .. was intended to be a temporary measure prior to trial or execution; abuses of this principle occurred but were officially censured. Located near the law courts, the [prison (carcer) with a dungeon (oubliette)] was used as a jail or holding cell for short periods before executions and as a site for executions.
Source: Wikipedia Commons
Of course this Philippian carcer of the Roman colony is bound by the same same rules for jailer and prisoner alike according to Roman Law and the SOP manual of its occupying Legions of this Greek-speaking European colony of Macedonia.
φυλακή – Strong’s translates G5438 in the following manner: prison (36x), watch (6x), imprisonment (2x), hold (1x), cage (1x), ward (1x).
Paul and Silas end up in the ‘temporary’ place near the agora and forum where they have already been punished severely by flogging under the jurisdiction of a Roman Magistrate for unspecified crimes against culture and misdemeanors for which they will most likely be run out of town rather than executed.
Therefore, this evening they have been placed into the care of a prison keeper (jailer) in Philippi for final disposition of their case in the morning.
Previously:
.. they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Who is this Philippian keeper of prisoners for Magistrates of the Court?
φυλάσσω –
Strong’s G5442 – phylassō, Probably from φυλή (G5443) through the idea of isolation
NOTE, however the same responsibility of the Roman 'keeper' of prisoners AND the jailer's two Roman prisoners, apostles sent out with the message of the Jerusalem Council to communicate interpretation of the LAW for these Gentiles as well as the few Jews of Philippi.
to guard
- to watch, keep watch
- to guard or watch, have an eye upon: lest he escape
- to guard a person (or thing) that he may remain safe
- to guard i.e. care for, take care not to violate
- to observe
- to observe for one’s self something to escape
- to avoid, shun flee from
- to guard for one’s self (i.e. for one’s safety’s sake) so as not to violate, i.e. to keep, observe (the precepts of the Mosaic law
And 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.
ACTS of the Apostles 16:4 KJV – Mission of Paul, Silas and Timothy
Scenario of a night in the Jail of Philippi
A guard of the second watch [9 pm] comes on duty and shouts down to you in the hole and other prisoners in cells near you, “Lights out!” He then extinguishes the candle above expecting all to go to sleep.
Unlike the other prisoners YOU and your brother have been locked in here with wooden stocks bound to your ankles and chained to the floor of your cell.
What now?
We prayed for a while. Out loud. In fact, we recited much scripture as we prayed. Other prisoners complained to us, but after no intervention from the keeper assigned to this second watch they had no choice but to sleep (or just ignore us).
A little later we hear sounds through the darkness of the third watch [midnight-3 am] keeper coming on duty.
Silas starts singing and Paul joins his voice to the familiar Psalm:
Acts of Awesome Faith
As we continue with the Acts of Paul, Silas and Timothy in Philippi put yourself in their place — an uncertain and unpleasant prison of the moment. Hear the cries of each soul cast into the trembling darkness — the fear of God resounding in each heart.
What Psalm? (For they knew so many from faithful worship.) YOU may find other PSALMS on TalkofJESUS.com which will encourage you in such dark circumstances: https://talkofjesus.com/shaken/ Perhaps this: The LORD is My Salvation from Psalm 27:13 OR
Psalm 142 – You Are My Refuge
A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.
With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD. I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him. When my spirit faints within me, you know my way! In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul. I cry to you, O LORD; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low! Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me! Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name! The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me.
Suppose that you are another prisoner listening to the apostles sing..
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.
And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.
When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice,
“Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
29 And [he] called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas.
“Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all,” Paul will write a decade later to the church in Philippi from a prison in Rome.
Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
ACTS of the apostles 16:30-31 ESV – Keeper of the Philippian jail to Paul & Silas, followed by the apostles’ answer.
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Acts of the Apostles 16 – To Be Continued in the light of a new day in Philippi
