“Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.”
When the officers arrived at the jail, they did not find them. So they went back and reported - 'We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside' - the officers' report is precise and bemused: the security is intact (thyrai kleimenai asphalōs, securely locked) but the prisoners are gone. This is not a security failure but a supernatural escape; Luke emphasizes the locked doors and the stationed guards to make the impossibility clear. The guards themselves remain unexplained and unpunished.
Church Fathers on Acts 5:23
But the Angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. Acts 5:19-21 This was done both for the encouragement of the disciples, and for the benefit and instruction of the others. And observe how the proceeding in the present instance is just the same as in what Christ Himself did.…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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