Acts 16:25-28 25So around midnight, Paul and Silas, while praying were singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. 27When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, believing that the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
It was a sleepless night for Paul and Silas as they sat on the cold ground with their feet in shackles and their backs bruised and bleeding. The inner cell was likely dark and damp, a place for infections to begin. Yet in this dire situation, they were praying and singing hymns to God. Other prisoners heard their praise to God. Even in the worst of situations, their testimony could not be silenced. Roman prisons were not pleasant places. They were not places of long-term confinement but were usually for awaiting trial and punishment. Philippi has frequent earthquakes. The one that happened that night was timed perfectly because God was in control. God can cause earthquakes, though God has also set up certain natural laws that govern the movement of tectonic plates around the earth. This earthquake was big because it caused the doors to shake open, possibly by removing any bars or fasteners that kept them closed. Another evidence that God’s sovereign power was involved is how all the bonds of the prisoners were also loosened. An earthquake could shake the doors open, but to have all the chains and shackles loosened is even more of a surprising miracle.
The earthquake probably woke up the jailor and most of the people of Philippi. Worried about his prisoners, he rushed to assess the situation. The scene was a jailor’s worst nightmare, with the prison doors wide open and all the bonds loosened. Guards were responsible for their prisoners. If the prisoners escaped, the guards could experience the same punishment and likely themselves be executed. Paul also saw the scene. Instead of escaping, which he and Silas could have done, he stopped the jailor from committing suicide. The prison may have been dark, so Paul had to cry out in a loud voice. There is no mention of the other prisoners who heard Paul and Silas singing and praising God. These two were the notorious ones in the prison and the focus of the story. The implication is that they also stayed around the prison. God’s protection and plan is evident in even the small details of this story. This story has similarities but also differences with the miraculous escapes of the apostles in 5:19–26 and Peter in 12:5–19.