Acts 16:33

33 At that very hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; and he and all his family were baptized at once.

Acts 16:33 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 16:33

And he took them the same hour of the night
After they had done preaching to him, and to his family:

and washed their stripes;
which were very many and heavy, and whereby they were covered with blood; and which by this time began to fester, and to produce corrupt matter; and all this in a pool, which Grotius supposes was within the bounds of the prison, he washed off from them: his faith worked by love, and showed itself in fruits of charity and righteousness, and in obedience to Christ, and submission to his ordinance, as follows:

and was baptized, he and all his, straightway;
by immersion, that being the only way in which baptism was administered, or can be, so as to be called a baptism: and which might be administered, either in the pool, which Grotius supposes to have been in the prison; or in the river near the city, where the oratory was, ( Acts 16:13 ) and it is no unreasonable thought to suppose, that they might go out of the prison thither, and administer the ordinance, and return to the prison again before morning unobserved by any; and after that, enter into the jailer's house and be refreshed, as in the following verse; and as this instance does not at all help the cause of sprinkling, so neither the baptism of infants; for as the jailer's family were baptized as well as he, so they had the word of the Lord spoken to them as well as he, and believed as well as he, and rejoiced as he did; all which cannot be said of infants; and besides, it must be proved that he had infants in his house, and that these were taken out of their beds in the middle of the night, and baptized by Paul, ere the instance can be thought to be of any service to infant baptism.

Acts 16:33 In-Context

31 They answered, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and your family."

32 Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in the house.

33 At that very hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; and he and all his family were baptized at once.

34 Then he took Paul and Silas up into his house and gave them some food to eat. He and his family were filled with joy, because they now believed in God.

35 The next morning the Roman authorities sent police officers with the order, "Let those men go."