The Apostles Arrested and Freed

The high priest and the Sadducees are filled with jealousy, arrest the apostles, and place them in public jail. During the night an angel opens the doors and tells them to go back to the temple courts and speak the full message of this life.

T¹⁷hen the high priest and all his associates, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They went out ¹⁸and arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. ¹⁹But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out, saying, ²⁰“Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.”

At daybreak the apostles enter the temple courts and begin teaching again just as they were told. Meanwhile the high priest and his associates convene the Sanhedrin and send for the prisoners.

²¹At daybreak the apostles entered the temple courts as they had been told and began to teach the people.

The officers reach the jail and do not find the apostles there. They report that the prison was securely locked and guarded, yet empty when it was opened.

²²When the high priest and his associates arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin — the full assembly of the elders of Israel— and sent to the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they returned with the report: ²³“We found the jail securely locked, with the guards posted at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”