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Bible Dictionaries
Jailor
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or The Authorized Version translates δεσμοφύλαξ in Acts 16:23 ‘jailor,’ and in Acts 16:27; Acts 16:36 ‘keeper of the prison.’ The Revised Version adheres to the term ‘jailor’ in all three verses. The person so designated occupied the position of supreme authority as governor of the prison (cf. ἀρχιδεσμοφύλαξ, Genesis 39:22 Septuagint ), and must be distinguished from persons holding the subordinate position of guard or warder (φύλαξ, Acts 5:23; Acts 12:6; Authorized Version ‘keeper’). It was to the custody of this official that the duumviri at Philippi committed St. Paul and Silas, with the strict injunction to ‘keep them safely.’ The fact that Philippi was a Roman colony lends a certain amount of probability to R. B. Rackham’s suggestion that he was a Roman officer, occupying the rank of centurion (Com. on Acts, 1901). Chrysostom’s attempt to identify him with Stephanas (1 Corinthians 16:15) overlooks the fact that Stephanas was among the ‘firstfruits of Achaia,’ not Macedonia; while a later suggestion that he was Epaphroditus, though it is more probable, lacks adequate data to support it.
Modern criticism seriously questions the credibility of the portion of the narrative (Acts 16:25-34) containing the account of the jailor’s conversion, on the ground of inherent improbabilities (B. Weiss, Weizsäcker, Holtzmann, Harnack, Bacon, Cone). Most of the objections have been adequately dealt with by W. M. Ramsay in St. Paul the Traveller, 1895, pp. 221-223; and a summary of them, with their refutation, is given in an article by Giessekke (described in the Expository Times ix. [1898] 274f.). The legendary character of the narrative has been maintained for the further reason that it is not guaranteed by the ‘we’ section, which ends, it is alleged, with v. 24. ‘Yet these verses betray such unimpeachable tokens of the style of St. Luke as to prevent us from even thinking of them as interpolated’ (A. Harnack, Luke the Physician, Eng. translation , 1907, p. 113). Nor does it follow that the ‘we’ section ends with v. 24, because the first person is no longer used. After his separation from St. Paul and Silas, owing to their arrest and imprisonment, the narrator would, of necessity, proceed to describe the subsequent events, when he was no longer in their company, in the third person. The presence of the miraculous element, if the earthquake is to be so regarded, in no way militates against this assumption, for the ‘we sections are full of the supernatural’ (Harnack, Acts of the Apostles, Eng. translation , 1909, p. 144).
Leaving aside the alleged improbabilities, it must be admitted that the description of the night-scene in the prison is most vivid and life-like. Assume the possibility of the earthquake, which in itself is a natural occurrence, treated in this case as a special instance of providential interference, and there is nothing absolutely inexplicable in the course of events which follows. The difficulties are largely due to the brevity of the narrative, which does not allow of entering into minute detail. The author (whether St. Luke or another) is not describing an ‘escape’ from prison, miraculous or otherwise, for the release of the captives takes place next morning. The interest of the narrative centres in the conversion of the jailor and his household, and it is as leading up to this most interesting and happy dénouement that the earlier incidents of the eventful night are depicted. When the main object of the story is borne in mind, the difficulties which it presents will not be regarded as sufficient to justify its wholesale rejection.
W. S. Montgomery.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Jailor'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/j/jailor.html. 1906-1918.
