Acts 16:19 - Exposition

But for and, A.V. ; gain for gains, A.V. ( ἐργασία , as Acts 16:16 ); bald hold on for caught, A.V.; dragged for drew, A.V. ; before for unto, A.V. The rulers ( οἱ ἄρχοντες ) ; the archons. Meyer thinks these were the city judges, or magistrates (who always had their court in the ἀγορά , or forum), by whom Paul and Silas were sent to the praetors ( στρατηγοί ) for judgment. So in Luke 12:58 , the litigants go to the ἀρχών , first, and he sends them on to the κριτής , or judge, who orders them for punishment. This seems a more probable explanation than that commonly adopted (Howson, Alford, Renan, Lewin, etc.), that the ἄρχοντες and the στρατηγοί mean the same officers. No reason can be conceived for Luke's calling them ἄρχοντες if he meant στρατηγοί , or for naming the office's twice over when once was sufficient. Nor is it likely that officers of such high rank as the duumviri, or proctors, as they had come to be called, should be always in the forum, to try every petty case (see articles "Colonia, Duumviri," and "Praetor," in 'Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities'). It seems, therefore, that Meyer's explanation is right. At Athens the general term ἄρχοντες was applied to inferior magistrates, as well as to the nine archons ('Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities' "Archon"). Verse 20.—When they had brought for brought, A.V.; unto for to, A.V.; they said for saying, A.V. The magistrates ; στρατηγοί , i.e. the praetors. Philippi, being a colony, was governed by Roman magistrates called duumviri, corresponding to the two consuls at Rome. But we learn from Cicero that in his time the duuraviri in the colonies were beginning to be called praetors, a little previously used only at Rome ('De Leg. Agrar.,' 34), and to be preceded by lictors ( ῥάβδουχαοι of verse 35). Two inscriptions have been found in which the duumviri of Philippi are mentioned.