Acts 16:27

16:27 When the jailer woke up ¹  and saw the doors of the prison standing open, ²  he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, ³  because he assumed ⁴  the prisoners had escaped.

Acts 19:16

19:16 Then the man who was possessed by ⁵  the evil spirit jumped on ⁶  them and beat them all into submission. ⁷  He prevailed ⁸  against them so that they fled from that house naked and wounded.

[16:27]  ¹ tn L&N 23.75 has “had awakened” here. It is more in keeping with contemporary English style, however, to keep the two verbal ideas parallel in terms of tense (“when the jailer woke up and saw”) although logically the second action is subsequent to the first.

[16:27]  ² tn The additional semantic component “standing” is supplied (“standing open”) to convey a stative nuance in English.

[16:27]  ³ sn Was about to kill himself. The jailer’s penalty for failing to guard the prisoners would have been death, so he contemplated saving the leaders the trouble (see Acts 12:19; 27:42).

[16:27]  ⁴ tn Or “thought.”

[19:16]  ⁵ tn Grk “in whom the evil spirit was.”

[19:16]  ⁶ tn Grk “the man in whom the evil spirit was, jumping on them.” The participle ἐφαλόμενος (efalomeno") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. L&N 15.239 has “ἐφαλόμενος ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐπ᾿ αὐτούς ‘the man jumped on them’ Ac 19:16.”

[19:16]  ⁷ tn Grk “and beating them all into submission.” The participle κατακυριεύσας (katakurieusa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. According to W. Foerster, TDNT 3:1098, the word means “the exercise of dominion against someone, i.e., to one’s own advantage.” These exorcists were shown to be powerless in comparison to Jesus who was working through Paul.

[19:16]  ⁸ tn BDAG 484 s.v. ἰσχύω 3 has “win out, prevail…κατά τινος over, against someone Ac 19:16.”