Acts 16
Acts 16 is the sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the second missionary journey of Paul, together with Silas and Timothy. The book containing this chapter is anonymous but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.[1]
Acts 16 | |
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Acts 15:22–24 in Latin (left column) and Greek (right column) in Codex Laudianus, written about AD 550. | |
Book | Acts of the Apostles |
Category | Church history |
Christian Bible part | New Testament |
Order in the Christian part | 5 |
Text
The original text was written in Koine Greek and is divided into 40 verses.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
- Codex Vaticanus (AD 325–350)
- Codex Sinaiticus (330–360)
- Codex Bezae (c. 400)
- Codex Alexandrinus (c. 400–440)
- Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (c. 450; extant verses 1–36)
- Papyrus 127 (5th century; extant verses 1–4, 13–40)
- Codex Laudianus (c. 550)
Locations
This chapter mentions the following places (in order of appearance):
Verse 1
- Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek.[3]
- "Timothy" or "Timotheus" is the son of Eunice, a Jewish woman whose name is mentioned in 2 Timothy 1:5.
The Man of Macedonia
Verse 9
- And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."[4]
Verses 9 record a vision in which the Paul is said to have seen a 'man of Macedonia' pleading with him to "come over to Macedonia and help" them. The passage reports that Paul and his companions responded immediately to the invitation. The passage is considered to echo Joshua 10:6 in which the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua saying " ... come up to us quickly, save us and help us".[5] The first seal of Massachusetts Bay Colony had an American Indian with a scroll coming out over his mouth with the words "Come over and help us", also said [6] to echo the words of the man of Macedonia.
The woman of Filippi and the spirit of divination
Verses 16 to 18
- Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation." And this she did for many days.
But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour.[7] The passage refers of woman who was possessed by a "spirit of divination", whose nature remains unclear. Paul ordered to the spirit to come out of her and this happened in the Name of Jesus Christ, like apostles were called to do against demons (Mark 16:16-18). Nevertheless, the spirit of divination (Ancient Greek: πνεῦμα Πύθωνα, romanized: pneuma Pythōna[8]) affirmed for some days that Paul and Silas were servants of the Most High God.
Verse 31
- So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”[9]
See also
- Lydia of Thyatira
- Paul the Apostle
- Silas
- Timothy
- Related Bible parts: Acts 14, Acts 15, 2 Timothy 1, 2 Timothy 3
References
- Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.
- John Arthur Thomas Robinson (1919–1983). "Redating the New Testament". Westminster Press, 1976. 369 pages. ISBN 978-1-57910-527-3
- Acts 16:1 NKJV
- Acts 16:9 NKJV
- Selwyn, E. C. The Christian Prophets at Philippi. Expositor, June, 1901, pp. 415–21
- Stockbridge Mohican History, 'The Seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony: "Come Over and Help Us' http://www.stockmohistory.com/the-seal-of-the-massachusetts-bay-colony-come-over-and-help-us/ Archived 2015-01-07 at the Wayback Machine accessed 19 September 2015
- Acts 16:16-18 NKJV
- "Acts, chapter 16, verse 16 - Greek Interlinear Bible".
- Acts 16:31
External links
- Acts 16 King James Bible - Wikisource
- English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate
- Online Bible at GospelHall.org (ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
- Multiple bible versions at Bible Gateway (NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.)