Acts 16:34

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(34) He set meat before them, and rejoiced.—Literally, set a table before them. The two sufferers may well have needed food. If the tumult had begun, as is probable, as they were going to the proseuclia for morning prayer, at the third hour of the day (9 A.M.), they had probably been fasting for nearly twenty-four hours. They were not likely to have made a meal when they were thrust into the dungeon. The “joy” of the meal reminds us of that noted as a chief feature of the social life of the disciples at Jerusalem in Acts 2:46. The new hope, succeeding to the blank despair, brought with it what we may well describe as a new “joy in the Holy Ghost” (Romans 14:17). The absence of the specific term of “breaking bread” excludes the idea of its having been, in the later sense of the term, an eucharistic feast; and St. Paul would probably have hesitated to admit the new convert to the Supper of the Lord without further instruction, such as we find in 1Corinthians 10:15-17; 1Corinthians 11:20-34; but the meal at which the teachers and the disciples, so strangely brought together, now sat down may, at any rate, be thought of as an agape or “feast of charity.” (See Note on Jude 1:12.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:25-34 The consolations of God to his suffering servants are neither few nor small. How much more happy are true Christians than their prosperous enemies! As in the dark, so out of the depths, we may cry unto God. No place, no time is amiss for prayer, if the heart be lifted up to God. No trouble, however grievous, should hinder us from praise. Christianity proves itself to be of God, in that it obliges us to be just to our own lives. Paul cried aloud to make the jailer hear, and to make him heed, saying, Do thyself no harm. All the cautions of the word of God against sin, and all appearances of it, and approaches to it, have this tendency. Man, woman, do not ruin thyself; hurt not thyself, and then none else can hurt thee; do not sin, for nothing but that can hurt thee. Even as to the body, we are cautioned against the sins which do harm to that. Converting grace changes people's language of and to good people and good ministers. How serious the jailer's inquiry! His salvation becomes his great concern; that lies nearest his heart, which before was furthest from his thoughts. It is his own precious soul that he is concerned about. Those who are thoroughly convinced of sin, and truly concerned about their salvation, will give themselves up to Christ. Here is the sum of the whole gospel, the covenant of grace in a few words; Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. The Lord so blessed the word, that the jailer was at once softened and humbled. He treated them with kindness and compassion, and, professing faith in Christ, was baptized in that name, with his family. The Spirit of grace worked such a strong faith in them, as did away further doubt; and Paul and Silas knew by the Spirit, that a work of God was wrought in them. When sinners are thus converted, they will love and honour those whom they before despised and hated, and will seek to lessen the suffering they before desired to increase. When the fruits of faith begin to appear, terrors will be followed by confidence and joy in God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He set meat before them - Food. Greek: "he placed a table." The word "meat" formerly meant "food" of all kinds.

And rejoiced - This was the effect of believing. Religion produces joy. See the notes on Acts 8:8. He was free from danger and alarm; he had evidence that his sins were forgiven, and that he was now the friend of God. The agitating and alarming scenes of the night had passed away; the prisoners were safe; and religion, with its peace, and pardon, and rejoicings, had visited himself and his family. What a change to be produced in one night! What a difference between the family when Paul was thrust into prison, and when he was brought out and received as an honored guest at the very table of the renovated jailor! Such a change would Christianity produce in every family, and such joy would it diffuse through every household.

With all his house - With all his family. Whether they believed before they were baptized or after is not declared. But the whole narrative would lead us to suppose that, as soon as the jailor believed, he and all his family were baptized. It is subsequently added that they believed also. The joy arose from the fact that they all believed the gospel; the baptism appears to have been performed on account of the faith of the head of the family.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

34. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing—that is, as the expression implies, "rejoiced because he had believed."

in God—as a converted heathen, for the faith of a Jew would not be so expressed [Alford].

with all his house—the wondrous change on himself and the whole house filling his soul with joy. "This is the second house which, in the Roman city of Philippi, has been consecrated by faith in Jesus, and of which the inmates, by hospitable entertainment of the Gospel witnesses, have been sanctified to a new beginning of domestic life, pleasing and acceptable to God. The first result came to pass in consequence simply of the preaching of the Gospel; the second was the fruit of a testimony sealed and ennobled by suffering" [Baumgarten].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Into his house; which was close unto, or a separate part of, the prison, into which they did ascend, being before in a low dungeon.

He set meat before them; Paul and Silas had been long fasting, and in any season of the night it was a mercy to them to have a table spread for them.

Rejoiced; finding the effects of his faith, peace with God, and joy in the Holy Ghost; which was not a little augmented, in that he had his family admitted into the covenant of God’s grace, they also believing, and being baptized.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And when he had brought them into his house,.... After he and his family had been baptized, either in the pool in the prison, or in the river near the city of Philippi:

he set meat before them; he spread a table for them, with provisions to refresh them after all their fatigue; partly by stripes and imprisonment, partly by the exercises of prayer and praise, and also by the ministration of the word, and the administration of the ordinance of baptism to the jailer and his family:

and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house; he and his rejoiced at the good news, of peace and pardon, righteousness, life, and salvation, which the Gospel brought unto them; they rejoiced in Christ Jesus, in his person, offices, grace and righteousness; believing in him who is truly and properly God, they were filled with joy unspeakable, and full of glory; with a joy that always attends true faith, and which a stranger intermeddles not with; and they rejoiced that they were admitted to the ordinance of Christ, and were among his baptized followers; so the eunuch, after baptism, went on his way rejoicing, Acts 8:39.

Geneva Study Bible

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

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 16:34. ἀναγαγών τε αὐτοὺς: τε closely connects this second proof of his thankfulness with the first ἀναγ.: “he brought them up into,” R.V.; Blass thinks that the ἀνά means that he brought them up from underground, but it may simply mean that the house was built over the prison; see also Knabenbauer in loco.—παρέθηκε τράπ.: the phrase is a classical one, so in Homer, also in Polyb.; so in Homer a separate table is assigned to each guest, Odys., xvii., 333; xxii., 74. But the word is also used as implying the meal on the table see . and ., cf. Tob 2:2, παρετέθη μου ἡ τράπεζα, . Psalm 77:20. Paul makes no question about sitting at meat with the uncircumcised (Weiss).—ἠγαλλιάσατο: it is suggestive that St. Luke uses the cognate noun of this same verb to describe the intense exulting gladness of the early Church at Jerusalem in their social life, Acts 2:46—here was indeed an Agape, a Feast of Love, cf. 1 Peter 1:6; 1 Peter 1:8; 1 Peter 4:13 (Matthew 5:12, Revelation 19:7); in St. Luke the word occurs twice in his Gospel, Luke 1:47, Luke 10:21, and in Acts 2:26, quotation (see above); not found in classical Greek, but formed probably from ἀγάλλομαι, Hellenistic, often in LXX. At the same time the word πεπιστευκώς, perfect participle, shows that this fulness of joy was caused by his full profession of belief; it was the joy of the Holy Ghost which followed on his baptism: “rejoiced greatly with all his house, having believed on the Lord,” gaudebat quod crediderat, Blass (reading imperfect ἠγαλλιᾶτο, see critical note). See also Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., p. 194 (1893).—πανοικὶ (-εὶ, W.H[299], App., p. 154), cf. παραπληθεί, Luke 23:18. In LXX the word is found, Exodus 1:1, but A has -κίᾳ 3Ma 3:27, where A has also -κίᾳ. On St. Luke’s fondness for πᾶς and its related forms see Friedrich, p. 6. The form preferred in Attic is πανοικησίᾳ. The word in text is found in Jos., Philo, and in Plato, Eryx., p. 392 C., cf. Blass, in loco, and Proleg., p. 19.

[299] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34. he set meat (Greek, a table) before them] He would not leave them a moment in the dungeon, but testify to them, how the dawning of faith had filled him with joy.

and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house] The Greek adverb which is represented by the last four words in English would be better combined with the first verb, “and rejoiced with all his house.” (So R. V.) The concluding verb gives the reason for the joy, and would be more fully rendered “having believed in God” or “having believed God.” “To believe on the Lord Jesus” was the exhortation in Acts 16:31. By this later expression we understand what was implied in the first. The belief on Jesus is to believe what God has revealed concerning Him. This had been explained in “the word of the Lord” which they had heard—the word which told how Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies, and by His acts on earth shewed that He was the Son of God.

It is scarcely possible to help being struck in this chapter with the account of the effect of the first preaching of the Gospel in Europe. We see at once its universality and its power. The first notable convert is Lydia, the Asiatic settler, a woman evidently of wealth, position and refinement; then the demoniac slave-girl is made an instrument of proclaiming the presence and power of the Most High God; and last, the Roman jailor, of a class, insensible as a rule and hardened by habit, and also disposed to despise the Jews who were the bearers of the message of the Gospel. The converts of Philippi were types and an earnest of how Christ’s cause would make its way.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 16:34. Τράπεζαν, a table) Faith makes a man full of alacrity, prudent, and liberal.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 34. - He brought them up... and set for when he had brought them... he set, A.V.; rejoiced greatly for rejoiced, A.V. (ἀγαλλιάομαι, a stronger word than χαίρειν, Matthew 5:12; 1 Peter 1:6); with all his house, having believed in God for believing in God with all his house, A.V. The word πανοικί. rendered "with all his house," occurs only here in the New Testament. But it is used by the LXX. in Exodus 1:1 and elsewhere, and by Josephus, etc. The more classical form is πανοικεσίᾳ or πανοικησίᾳ. The A.V. gives the meaning better than the R.V. The faith and the joy were both common to the jailor and his house. Acts 16:34

Vincent's Word Studies

Brought (ἀναγαγών)

Lit., "brought up (ἀνά)." His house would seem to have been above the court of the prison where they were. See on took, Acts 16:33.

Believing (πεπιστευκὼς)

More correctly, having believed; assigning the reason for his joy: "in that he had believed."