What Acts 16:34 Really Says
/According to the grammar of Acts 16:34, the Jailer is the only one who believed in God, and yet his entire household was baptized. In fact, there are four verbal declarations in this verse and all of them are written in the singular form.[1]
ἀναγαγών is a second aorist active participle in the nominative SINGULAR masculine form. It means, "when he had brought."
παρέθηκεν is an aorist active indicative verb in the 3rd person SINGULAR form. It means, "he set."
ἠγαλλιάσατο is an aorist middle indicative verb in the 3rd person SINGULAR form. It means, "he rejoiced."
πεπιστευκὼς is a perfect active participle in the nominative SINGULAR masculine form. It means, "that he had believed."
It should also be noted that the prepositional phrase “with all his house” (πανοικὶ) is not attached to πεπιστευκὼς (he had believed) but to ἠγαλλιάσατο (he rejoiced). This means that the text does not say that the jailer believed with all his house, but the jailer rejoiced with all his house. And according to the text, the reason he did that was that he himself came to believe in God. The best translation of this passage is given in the ESV because it follows the Greek text almost word for word. It reads, "Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God."
From these observations, it is clear that it is the jailer alone who did the bringing, setting, rejoicing, and believing since each of these verbs is in the singular form.
OBJECTION: All the members of the Jailer's household must have been adults since the apostles spoke the word of the Lord “to all that were in his house” (v. 32).
ANSWER: It does not follow that if the Word is spoken to a person, he must be an adult, for there are numerous instances where the Word of God was spoken to children:
Deuteronomy 31:12 says, “Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law.”
Joshua 8:34-35 says, “And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings, and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.”
OBJECTION: But the fact that the members of the Jailer's household "rejoiced" (v. 34) proves that there were no infants in that household since infants cannot rejoice.
ANSWER: We have already shown that his rejoicing was singular, though it was done in the presence of his family. [2] Further, we should note that infants both can and do rejoice, as the following passage indicates:
Luke 1:44: “As soon as the voice of your salutation sounded in my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”
See also Deuteronomy 16:11-14, Matthew 21:16, Psalms 22:9, and 2 Timothy 3:15 as proof that infants and small children can “rejoice”, “hope in God”, sing “perfect praises” to Jesus Christ, and “know the Holy Scriptures.”
Notes:
[1] The full text reads: ἀναγαγών τε αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὑτοῦ, παρέθηκεν τράπεζαν καὶ ἠγαλλιάσατο πανοικὶ πεπιστευκὼς τῷ θεῷ
[2] If Luke wanted to indicate that the family also rejoiced, he could have used the term καὶ (and/also), just as he did in verse 33 to indicate that the rest of the family was also baptized "he was baptized, and (καὶ) all his."