Dewayne
Dulaney
The
jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul
and
Silas.
He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They
replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you
and
your
household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all
the
others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them
and
washed
their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were
baptized.
The
jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he
was
filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his
whole household.
—Acts
16:29—34, Today’s New International Version (TNIV)[/B][/COLOR]
Site of Ancient Marketplace, Philippi. Photo courtesy of BibleStudy.org.
Introduction
In
the previous article of the series, we looked at the answer given by
God’s Holy Spirit to the question about salvation asked in Acts
chapter 2 by some Jews visiting Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
The Apostle Peter, chosen by Jesus as the one who would have the
“keys to the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16:19) had just had the
privilege of preaching the first Gospel sermon and thus, opening the
door to salvation. That was the first of the three occasions the
Spirit of God led Luke to record an answer to the question of how to
be saved from one’s sin. We will now look at the second occasion,
recorded in Acts 16:29—34.
This time, the question is asked by a Roman jailer in the Greek city
of Philippi. Again, unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are
from the Today’s New International Version (TNIV), the 2001 update
to the New International Version (NIV).
The
Background of Acts 16
The Apostle Paul,
formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, had become a Christian some years
earlier after a dramatic encounter with the risen Christ. (We will
look at his conversion in our next article for this series.) Once a
persecutor of the early church (Acts 7:57-8:2; 9:1-2), Paul was now a
missionary eager to spread the faith he had once sought to destroy.
He had been commissioned by Jesus (Acts 9:15—16), and received the
message he was to preach directly from Jesus (Galatians 1:1, 11—17).
After being vouched for
by Barnabas (Acts 9:26—28), he was accepted by the Jerusalem church
and began his missionary career. He and Barnabas teamed up to help
the young church in Antioch of Syria, where the disciples or
followers of Jesus were first called Christians (Acts 11:25—26).
They also worked together to bring funds for famine relief to Jewish
Christians (Acts 11:27—29) in Judea. Returning to Antioch after
completing this mission, Paul and Barnabas were called by God’s
Holy Spirit to undertake a missionary journey to preach on the island
of Cyprus (Acts 13:1—4). After starting the church there, they
worked next in the southern part of Asia Minor, now the country of
Turkey, preaching in Pisidian Antioch and other cities in the region
of Galatia. Both some Jews and many non-Jews, or Gentiles, responded
favorably to their preaching. (Acts 14). Paul and Barnabas also
partnered to resist the efforts of some Jewish Christians to require
circumcision of Gentile Christians as a means of salvation (Acts
15:1—35). After a conference on the matter was held at Jerusalem,
the apostles and the elders of the Jerusalem church issued a decree
stating the Gentiles would not be required to be circumcised in order
to be saved. Paul and Barnabas, along with two representatives of the
Jerusalem congregation, Judas Barsabbas and Silas, delivered the
decree to Antioch of Syria and spent time encouraging the Christians
there.
Some time later, Paul
proposed to Barnabas a return visit to the cities where they had
first worked to establish congregations. They disagreed over whether
to take John Mark with them because he had deserted them on that
first mission. They disagreed so much that they parted company.
Barnabas went to Cyprus with Mark, and Paul decided to take Silas
with him on the missionary journey (Acts 15:36—41).
The Mission of Paul
and Company to Philippi
As
Acts 16 opens, Paul and company visit the Galatian cities of Derbe
and Lystra. In Lystra, Paul begins a partnership with the young
Christian Timothy, whose mother is a Jewish Christian and whose
father is a Greek, evidently a nonbeliever. Timothy was both
well-known and highly recommended by the area Christians. Paul
decides to take him on his team, and they travel on together,
preaching and encouraging the Christians in the region of Phyrgia and
Galatia (Acts 16:1—6). Heading west, they desired to preach in the
Roman province of Asia, but the Holy Spirit did not permit them to.
(Paul would preach there later, however.) They then desired to preach
in Bithynia, in the northern part of Asia Minor (Turkey), but again
were prevented by the Spirit’s directions. Going down to Troas,
Paul has a vision during the night of a man in Macedonia (at that
time, the northern part of Greece) begging for help. Paul and his
companions concluded that the Holy Spirit had called them to preach
the gospel of Christ there (Acts 16:9—10). The Good News or Gospel
concerning Jesus had first been proclaimed in Asia (the Middle East);
now it would be proclaimed in Europe, as well.
As
the mission team approached Macedonia, they sailed into Neapolis, and
from there traveled to Philippi. Luke tells us that Philippi was a
κολωνία (kolōnia)—a
Latin loan word (from colonia)
which denoted a Roman colony (Arndt-Gingrich Greek Lexicon). R.J.
Knowling noted, “...there were many Greek colonies, ἀποικία
[apoikia] or ἐποικία [epoikia], but κολ.
[κολωνία (kolōnia)]
denoted a Roman colony, i.e., one enjoying the Ius
Italicum like
Philippi, governed by Roman law, and on the model of Rome....” (The
Acts of the Apostles,
The Expositor's Greek Testament, vol. 2, 344.) As brother David L.
Roper noted, to fully understand the significance of Philippi being a
Roman colony, we need to know something of its history.
Originally,
Philippi was a village named Crenides. King Philip II of Macedon,
father of Alexander the Great, became interested in the area because
of a gold-producing mountain there. He built fortifications at
Crenides and renamed it Philippi. Later, a pivotal battle that
determined the destiny of the Roman Republic was fought on the plains
outside Philippi. (Shakespeare referred to the battle in his play
Julius
Caesar .)
In the battle Octavian (later known as Augustus, who became the first
Roman emperor) and Mark Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius, the
murderers of Julius Caesar, Octavian’s uncle and adoptive father.
When Augustus became emperor, he made Philippi a Roman colony. The
city then was called Colonia Julia Augustus Philippensium. Luke used
the common name of the city, Philippi. Six cities mentioned in Acts
were Roman colonies: Antioch of Pisidia, Lystra, Troas, Philippi,
Corinth, and Ptolemais. Only Philippi, however, is specifically
called a Roman colony by Luke.
Brother
Roper goes on to point out that a Roman colony had many privileges.
The people ruled themselves and were exempt from paying taxes to
Rome. In effect, a Roman colony was a bit of Rome on foreign soil.
Rome settled many army veterans in these colonies, where they had
special privileges. The citizens wore Roman clothing, spoke Latin
instead of Greek, practiced Roman customs, and were fiercely
patriotic (vv. 20, 21). In several ways a Roman colony was more Roman
than the city of Rome itself. Rome itself was a cosmopolitan place,
mixing many cultures. It had many Jews and many synagogues, for
instance (Acts 18:2; 28:17). Philippi, however, had few Jews, and
apparently no synagogue (David L. Roper, Acts
15—28, Truth
for Today Commentary, 57).
After
several days in the city, the missionaries found that some Jewish
women and others attracted to the Jewish faith were meeting by the
Gangas River (J.W. McGarvey,
Acts, 182
). Luke tells us that the site was a place of prayer (v. 13), and
that it was the Sabbath. One of the women was named Lydia, who was a
dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira. The color came from
a dye made from the secretions of a certain shellfish. Among the rich
and government officials the purple cloth was in great demand; it was
used as the official toga at Rome and in the colonies (Gareth L.
Reese, New
Testament History: Acts, 577).
More important than Lydia’s occupation, though, was her character:
Luke says she was a “worshipper of God” or, as commentators say,
a “God-fearer” (Greek σεβομένη τὸν θεὸν,
seboménē ton theon). The term can also be translated
“devout”. It was applied both to proselytes (Greek προσήλυτοι,
prosēlytoi), or “converts to Judaism” (Acts 13:43)—those
Gentles, or people of non-Jewish origin who fully accepted the Jewish
religion, including circumcision for males—and those who did not
accept circumcision but embraced the rest of the Jewish faith,
including belief in the God of the Bible, the biblical moral code
taught in the Torah or Old Testament, and worship on the Sabbath and
other holy days (Roper, ibid.,
59-60; also his Acts
1—14, 382
[comments on 10:2]). The latter are sometimes called ”
half-proselytes” or “proselytes of the gate.” Thus Lydia was a
female counterpart to Cornelius, the devout Roman army captain or
centurion (Acts 10:1—2). When Paul and his companions met her and
the other women gathered for worship, she and her household believed
their message about Jesus as the Messiah and Savior and became
Christians (Acts 16:14—15).
Paul
and Silas are Arrested at Philippi (Acts 16:16f)
Some
time later, while on the way to the place of prayer by the river in
Philippi, Paul and his team encountered a female slave who was
possessed by an evil spirit who allowed her to predict the future.
She made a great deal of money for her owners in this way. She began
following the missionaries around, shouting that they were “servants
of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved”
(verse 17). This continued for several days, and finally Paul
commanded in the name of Jesus that the evil spirit leave her, and it
did so (verse 18). While the girl’s statement was true, Paul and
company did not want demonic testimony to their message, lest those
he sought to convert associate Christianity with evil. Likewise,
Jesus rejected this and refused to allow demons to testify concerning
his credentials, even though they recognized his deity and authority
as he cast them out (Mark 1:25, 34).
When
the slave girl’s owners learned she could no longer foretell the
future, and their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas
and dragged them before the authorities. The slave girl’s owners
identified Paul and Silas as Jews and claimed the missionaries had
caused an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for them as Romans to
accept or practice. While many Romans regarded Judaism as a
superstition (this prejudice was later extended by some Romans to
include Christianity), it was nevertheless a legal religion to
practice under the Empire. But Roman law at the time did not allow
“foreign-religious propaganda among Roman citizens” (F.F. Bruce,
Commentary on the
Book of the Acts, New
International Commentary, 336).
Urged
on by a crowd that had gathered, the magistrates then ordered Paul
and Silas stripped and beaten with rods, apparently not even taking
the time to investigate the charges (verse 22). They could have paid
dearly for this omission later, had Paul and Silas chosen to cause
trouble for them—because the two Christians were themselves Roman
citizens, and such treatment of Roman citizens was a clear violation
of Roman law. It was explicitly forbidden by the Valerian and Porcian
laws to have a Roman citizen beaten (Livy, History
of Rome, IV.9).
These laws were passed between 500 and 200 B.C. Whenever on trial, a
citizen could claim his rights by saying, “I am a Roman citizen”
(Latin “civis
Romanus sum”).
To falsely claim Roman citizenship was punishable by death
(Suetonius, Claudius,
XXV).
If Paul and Silas had pressed charges against the officials for their
unlawful punishment, the magistrates could have been stripped of
their office, and never allowed to hold office again (Cicero, In
Verrem, V.66;
De
Republica, II.31).
The punishment could be even more severe: according to Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, “The punishment appointed for those who abrogated or
transgressed the Valerian law was death, and the confiscation of his
property.” (Reese, 594-595; the Latin for “I am a Roman citizen”
is quoted in Richard
N. Longenecker,
The
Acts of the Apostles, The
Expositor's Bible Commentary,
vol.
9, 466. I have modified his spelling of “ciuis” to “civis”.)
Either
Paul and Silas did not claim their rights as citizens at this time,
or were ignored; perhaps in the clamor of the crowd, their protests
were not heard. Whatever the case, they were beaten with rods. The
men who carried out this beating were those later sent as messengers
to the prison ordering Paul and Silas’ release. The Greek text of
Acts 16:35 calls these officers ῥαβδούχους (rabdouchous),
or “rod-bearers”. The Romans called them lictores
(English
“lictors”); this term is used for them in the Latin Vulgate Bible
in verse 35. As symbols of their office, the lictors carried bundles
of rods—with an axe inserted among them under certain
circumstances, the fasces
et secures—representing
the magistrates’ right to inflict corporal and capital punishment.
It was from this “bundle” (Latin fascis)
of rods and axes, used as an emblem, that the name of Benito
Mussolini’s Fascist party was derived (Bruce, ibid.,
336
and footnote 49).
1936 "Mercury" dime obverse and reverse, with Roman fasces shown on reverse. Photo courtesy of WIkimedia Commons at Wikimedia.org.
Once
the flogging was over, the magistrates ordered Paul and Silas thrown
into prison, and to be guarded carefully. When he received these
orders, the jailer put them in the inner cell, the most secure area,
and fastened their feet in stocks.
Exterior, Roman prison at Philippi. Possible site of Paul and Silas' imprisonment. Photo from BibleStudy.org.
Divine
Intervention Leads to the Jailer’s Question: “What Must I Do to
be Saved?” (Acts 16:25—30)
What
a situation Paul and Silas found themselves in! Rights trampled on,
beaten, bleeding, and bruised, treated like criminals. 
Interior, Roman prison at Philippi. Photo courtesy BibleStudy.org.
Most people in
their circumstances would have complained and cursed. Instead, we
find them praying and praising God with hymns, and the other
prisoners were listening to them. Most likely, they had never heard
prisoners do that before. The prisoners, though, were not the only
ones listening: God was listening, too. And in answer to their
prayers, he intervened with a great earthquake that shook the
foundations of the prison, opened the doors of the cells, and made
all the prisoners’ chains come loose.
The
jailer, seeing what had happened and thinking the prisoners must have
escaped, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. Footnote 104
in the NET (New English Translation) New Testament (on verse 27) says
about this, “The
jailer’s penalty for failing to guard the prisoners would have been
death, so he contemplated saving the leaders the trouble (see Acts
12:19; 27:42)”. Paul,
realizing this, shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
Calling for lights, the jailer fell down trembling before Paul and
Silas; he then he brought them out of the prison and asked the
crucial question: “Sirs,
what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30)
Brother
J.W. McGarvey has a perceptive comment about the jailer’s question
and his state of mind:
That he asked this
question proves that he had some conception of the salvation of which
Paul had been preaching; and that he trembled, and fell at their
feet, shows that he was overwhelmed with a sense of danger, and
painfully anxious to escape from it. At sunset, when coldly thrusting
the bleeding apostles into the dungeon, he cared but little for this
question. In the midst of life and health, when all goes well with
us, we may thrust this awful question from us; but when we come
within an inch of death, like the jailer at midnight, hanging over
the point of his own sword, it rushes in upon the soul like a lava
torrent, and burns out all other thoughts. (Commentary
on Acts , 189)
The
jailer's question tells us something valuable for our understanding
of this account, something we need to know considering the many false
teachings about salvation, including the jailer and his family’s
salvation, that are being spread today. After pointing out that the
jailer’s question showed he realized the necessity of being saved,
and that he personally needed to be saved, Brother Neale Pryor
stated,
Thirdly,
the jailer realized that there was something he must do. Many people
tell us that there is nothing that we can do, that there is no way
that we can "help God save us." Most of those who make this
claim will admit that we need to be receptive, believe, and even
repent before God can save them. As long as man does not earn his
salvation, his salvation is still by grace. The fact that grace is
conditional does not mean that it is not grace. The children of
Israel were given the Land of Promise, but they had to drive out the
Caananites. Naaman was healed of his leprosy, but he had to dip in
the river Jordan. There is something we must do in order to be saved.
("The Question of the Jailer", Gospel Advocate,
January 16, 1986, 38)
God's
Answer and the Jailer's Response (verses 31—34)
Paul
and Silas, as God’s messengers to Philippi, give this answer:
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your
household”. Now the jailer had heard something of what the
missionaries had preached, but he as yet did not know who Jesus was,
or had limited knowledge at best. Therefore, as Luke tells us, Paul
and Silas “spoke the word of the Lord to him and all the others in
his house”. Their message, then, would have explained who Jesus is,
why he is to be believed in as Savior and Lord, and what one must do
in response.
Notice
what happened next after they spoke to the jailer and family: “At
that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds;
then immediately he and all his household were baptized.” (verse
33). Many who preach and teach about this case of conversion today,
who believe that one is saved by faith only, completely ignore this
verse and skip over it when they discuss this example of conversion.
Yet such handing does not do justice to the text as given by the Holy
Spirit through Luke. If we take the text as given, and seek to look
at it with an open mind, the natural conclusion is that “the word
of the Lord” spoken by Paul and Silas included the commands to
repent and be immersed (baptized), exactly as the divinely inspired
message spoken by Peter in Acts 2:38 did. Also the honest reader
would conclude that the jailer and family did these acts in order to
be saved, just as the 3000 Jews in Peter’s audience did (See the
earlier article in the series, The
Question on Pentecost, Part B.). The jailer showed repentance for
mistreating these men by washing their wounds.
We
see further that Luke, led by God to record this account, understood
that believing in Jesus included obedience to his commands, for he
concludes by saying “The jailer...was filled with joy because he
had come to believe in God—he and his whole household” (verse
34; emphasis mine).
Again,
brother McGarvey has a perceptive comment concerning the relation of
faith in Christ and obedience:
Those who
argue that the jailer obtained pardon by faith alone, leave the jail
too soon. If they would remain one hour longer, they would see him
immersed for the remission of his sins, and rejoicing in the
knowledge of pardon after his immersion, not before it. (McGarvey,
Ibid.,190)
In
his article referenced above, Brother Neale Pryor also talked about
this connection between faith and obedience, and that the jailer's
actions showed he realized this:
Why did
the jailer insist on being baptized the same hour of the night? It
was close to 1 or 2 a.m. when the jailer wanted to be baptized. I
know of no explanation for this unless the jailer realized that he
was not saved until he was baptized. We cannot imagine Paul telling
the jailer to sleep on it and wait until the morning or maybe until
Sunday and come forward at the morning worship hour for baptism. What
do you think the jailer would have done if Paul had brought him to
this point in faith, told him to think about it tomorrow and then
gone to bed? I don't think the jailer wold have given him one
minute's rest. (Pryor,
Ibid.)
We
would further note that Luke implies strongly the deity of Christ
here, as he equated believing in the Lord Jesus (verse 31) with
believing in God (verse 34).
Two
further points need to be made concerning the baptism of the jailer
and his family. First, we should point out that some who claim that
infant baptism is necessary attempt to use the fact that the jailer’s
household was baptized to support this view, as they also try with
the account of Lydia and her household earlier in this same chapter
of Acts. The attempt is futile as it does not fit the facts of either
case. In both cases, people were baptized in response to teaching
after believing; Lydia’s is implied by her statement in verse 15,
and that of both the jailer and his family is stated in verse 34.
Infants are not capable of believing, nor can they repent. They are
innocent, and have no sins to repent of.
Second,
despite the clear evidence of both Scripture and ancient history that
baptism was by immersion in water, and only immersion, in apostolic
times—the time of the New Testament—some in the past and even
today teach that the jailer and his family’s baptism consisted of
sprinkling or pouring water. (To review the evidence, see the earlier
article in this series, The
Question on Pentecost, Part A.) Adam Clarke argued this, as did
even so good a scholar as F.F. Bruce, having them baptized at a well
in the prison courtyard; others suggest a fountain as the source, to
the same effect.
Given
that such teaching flies in the face of the evidence, the suggestion
of A.T. Robertson is much more reasonable:
...It
looks as if his house was above the prison. The baptism apparently
took place in the pool or tank in which he bathed Paul and Silas (De
Wette) or the rectangular basin (impluvium)
in the court for receiving the rain or even in a swimming pool or
bath (κολυμβηθρα [kolumbēthra])
found within the walls of the prison (Kuinoel). Meyer: "Perhaps
the water was in the court of the house; and the baptism was that of
immersion, which formed an essential part of the symbolism of the
act." (Robertson,Word Pictures in the New Testament)
Roman house (reconstruction) showing atrium with impluvium. Such a reservoir could have been used at the jailer's house to immerse him and his family. Photo courtesy Wilfred Major from Web Lecture marterial on Roman housing.
It is also possible that they went to the river, which is doubtless where Lydia and her household were immersed.
The Outcome of the
Mission to Philippi (Acts 16:35—40)
When it was daybreak, the
magistrates sent the lictors to the jailer, saying “Release these
men.” Paul and Silas were not about to let matters rest with their
reputations, and by extension, the reputation of Christ and his
church, left under a cloud. So, for the sake of the young group of
Christians in Philippi, he demanded a public apology. He told the
lictors that since they were Roman citizens, yet had been beaten
publicly without a trial, then thrown into prison, the magistrates
should come in person and escort them out. And indeed, this was the
least they could do, for all these actions against the missionaries
were blatantly illegal, as we have seen.
After hearing the report
of the lictors, the alarmed magistrates did as Paul and Silas asked
and escorted them out, and requested that they leave the city. After
spending time with Lydia and her family to encourage them, they left.
Paul continued to have a
close relationship with the young church there; they assisted him
financially in his missionary work over the years, and continued to
show him their love and encourage him. Later, while in prison in Rome
for Christ, Paul wrote them his most personal letter, showing his
deep affection for them. We know it today as the New Testament book
of Philippians.
In the next article of
the series, we will look at Paul’s own conversion and how the Lord
answered his question about salvation. Please join us, with an open
Bible and an open mind.
Works Cited
Bauer, Walter. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian
Literature. Translated and adapted by William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich. 2nded.
Revised and augmented by F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1979.
BibleStudy.org,
online
at http://www.biblestudy.org/biblepic/philpris.html
and
http://www.biblestudy.org/biblepic/picture-of-philippi-marketplace-from-paul-missionary-journey.html.
© 2008 Barnabas Ministries, All RIghts Reserved.
I found the images of the Roman prison at Philippi, interior and
exterior, as well as that of the Roman forum or marketplace at this
site.
Bruce,
F. F. Commentary
on the Book of the Acts. The English Text with Introduction,
Exposition, and Notes. N.p.,n.d.:
rpt., Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1981.
Clarke,
Adam. Commentary
on the Bible. N.p.,
1810/1825; Digital edition: module in MacSword Bible study software
for Macintosh OS X, version 1.3 beta. Online at
http://www.macsword.com/.(A
version for Windows is available at The Sword Project, Crosswire
Bible Society, http://www.crosswire.org/sword/index.jsp.
Click on the Software link to go to the download page.
Dulaney,
Dewayne. “Marks of the New Testament Church, Part IV: The Question
on Pentecost, Part A.” 1 February 2008. Online at the blog
“Dewayne’s Devarim: Bible Studies in the Digital Age”, at
http://my.opera.com/Loquor/blog/2008/02/02/marks-of-the-new-testament-church-part-iv-the-question-on-pentecost-part-a
. Copyright ©2007-2008 Dewayne
and Mary Dulaney. All rights reserved.
_______________.
“Marks of the New Testament Church, Part V: The Question on
Pentecost, Part B.” 2 February 2008. Online at the blog “Dewayne’s
Devarim: Bible Studies in the Digital Age”, at
http://my.opera.com/Loquor/blog/2008/02/02/marks-of-the-new-testament-church-part-v-the-question-on-pentecost-part-b
. Copyright ©2007-2008 Dewayne
and Mary Dulaney. All rights reserved.
Knowling,
R.J. The
Acts of the Apostles. In
The Expositor's Greek Testament,
Vol.
2 (Acts-1 Corinthians). W. Robertson Nicholl, Editor. N.p, n.d.;
rpt.: Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983.
Longenecker,
Richard N. The
Acts of the Apostles. In
The Expositor's Bible Commentary,
Vol.9
(John-Acts). Frank E. Gaebelein, General Editor. Regency Reference
Library. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981.
Mac Gallery, http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/1217/MacGalleryIndex.html I found the "Made with the Magic of Macintosh" banner here. (No copyright info listed).
McGarvey,
J.W. A
Commentary on Acts of the Apostles. 7th
ed.
Lexington, Kentucky: Transylvania Printing and Publishing Co., 1872;
rpt., electronic edition, Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF) format, by Ernie
Stefanik, 1997-1998. Public domain. Found online at Christian
Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/.
Microsoft Office Online:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx (Clip art and photos). I found the the "Roman Librarian" image (by the "You're Invited to Comment" statement) at this site. ©2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
New
English Translation (NET) Bible. Digital edition: Compiled HTML help
file format. Online at http://www.bible.org/
©1996-2001 Biblical Studies
Press.
Pryor,
Neale. “The Question of the Jailer”. Gospel
Advocate. January
16, 1986. Pp. 38, 40.
Reese,
Gareth L. New
Testament History: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book
of Acts. Joplin,
Missouri: College Press, 1976. 4th
printing,
1980.
Robertson,
A.T. Word
Pictures in the New Testament. Digital
edition: module in MacSword Bible study software for Macintosh OS X,
version 1.3 beta. Online at http://www.macsword.com/.
(A version for Windows is available at The Sword Project, Crosswire
Bible Society, http://www.crosswire.org/sword/index.jsp.
Click on the Software link to go to the download page.)
Roper,
David L. Acts
1—14. Truth
for Today Commentary: An Exegesis and Application of the Holy
Scriptures. Eddie Cloer, D. Min., General Editor. Searcy, Arkansas:
Resource Publications, 2001.
---------------------.
Acts
15—28. Truth
for Today Commentary: An Exegesis and Application of the Holy
Scriptures. Eddie Cloer, D. Min., General Editor. Searcy, Arkansas:
Resource Publications, 2001.
Web
Lecture Material, Wilfred E. Major, "Introduction to Roman
Housing and Decoration: 2. Space: From Front to Back of the Roman
House", originally prepared for lecture in Humanities Program at
St. Anselm College. Online at
http://home.att.net/~b.b.major/space.html
©1999-2000 Wilfred E. Major.
I found the image of a Roman
house showing an impluvium
(reconstruction)
at this site.
Wikimedia
Commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Mercury_dime.jpg.
Composite image. Original obverse image by Bobby131313. Original
uploader was Cholmes 75 at www.en.wikipedia.
Later versions uploaded by DaveHinz at www.en.wikipedia.
Wikimedia® is a registered trademark of Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc. I found the images of the U.S. 1936 “Mercury” dime (the
reverse shows the Roman fasces) at this site.
Copyright and Trademark
Notices;
All
original material on this blog is copyright © 2007-2009 Dewayne and
Mary Dulaney. It may only be reproduced for nonprofit personal,
church, or educational use. Credit must be given to the author.
Macintosh and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. (Apple Computer). © 2008 Apple Inc.
Microsoft is a tradmark of Microsoft Corporation. © 1985-2001, 2008 Microsoft Corporation.
Scriptures
marked TNIV taken from the HOLY BIBLE, TODAY'S NEW INTERNATIONAL
VERSION®. Copyright © 2001. 2005 by International Bible
Society. All rights reserved. Digital edition: Adobe Acrobat Reader
PDF file. Found online at International Bible Society website,
http://www.ibs.org/bibles/tniv/index.php
You're Invited to Comment and Ask Questions
I welcome questions and comments concerning my blog, or about the Bible and Christianity in general. Feel free to write a comment or question in the box below; you may comment anonymously if you like. Or you can email me at dewayne.mary@futura.net, or use the member messaging service on Opera. I look forward to hearing from you.
—Dewayne Dulaney
My Opera
