Acts chapter 16

vs 21

Well, that's questionable. But it's a good way of saying that they are troublemakers.

vs 22

Ouch! Only takes a bit of mobocracy to get the crap beaten out of you apparently.

vs 23

All this for exorcising a demon from someone. I mean, talk about the bum steer.

vs 24

The magistrates were obviously concerned with doing more than just beating him for show - they didn't want these guys escaping. They had some plans for tomorrow.

vs 25

Can't put good people down. This verse gives us a little insight into the fact that people used to sing hymns outside of a formulaic religious context. And I'm guessing the hymns were in Greek, if the prisoners were listening to the words anyway. Where they Christian or Jewish hymns? Don't know.

vs 26

Wow, what a coincidence! Oh, wait. This would be God working powerfully, yet again, in the lives of his servants. But why free all the prisoners? We assume at least some of them were in there for a reason.

vs 27

Better to kill himself than be killed for failing to do his job. Because stopping earthquakes was in his job description.

vs 28

All? You mean all the prisoners, not just the Christian ones? Were Paul and Silas singing that great hymn that goes "If you're in prison and there's an earthquake, don't escape!"?

vs 29

They had just saved his life, really. So it's a fair reaction.

vs 30

So we can assume that the jailer had also been listening to the prayers and hymns, and that this was the thing that rocked him enough to think seriously about these strangers and what they'd been saying.

Here's a question for you - where's Luke now? It's all we, and then the rods come out and he seems to be lacking in presence.