Acts 16:26

ἄφνω, see on Acts 2:2. σεισμὸς, cf. Acts 4:31, where the divine nearness and presence were manifested in a similar manner; the neighbourhood and the period were conspicuous for such convulsions of nature, cf. Plumptre on Matthew 24:7, and Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 221. παραχρῆμα, see critical notes. ἀνεῴχθησάν τε … αἱ θύραι πᾶσαι : any one who has seen a Turkish prison, says Prof. Ramsay, will not wonder at this; “each door was merely closed by a bar, and the earthquake, as it passed along the ground, forced the door-posts apart from each other, so that the bar slipped from its hold, and the door swung open,” and see further description on same page. ἀνέθη, cf. Acts 27:40, nowhere else in N.T. in same sense; in LXX we have the same collocation of words in Malachi 4:2. See also for the phrase, Plut., Alex., 73; see Winer-Schmiedel, p. 101. If we ask, Why did not the prisoners escape? the answer is that a semi-Oriental mob would be panic-stricken by the earthquake, and there is nothing strange in the fact that they made no dash for safety; moreover, the opportunity must have been very quickly lost, for the jailor was not only roused himself, but evidently called at once to the guard for lights; see Ramsay's description, u. s., and the comments of Blass, in loco, and Felten, note, p. 318, to the same effect as Ramsay, that the prisoners were panic-stricken, and had no time to collect their thoughts for flight.