Acts 16:13

13. On the sabbath It is not clear that this was the first Saturday-Sabbath after their arrival at Philippi. That depends on the number of the certain days of Acts 16:12.

By a river side Of the river Gangas or Gangatis, one of the tributaries of the Strymon, which is nineteen miles distant from Philippi.

Prayer This may have been simply a customary locality of river side prayer, or there may have been a roofless enclosure, or there may have been a complete edifice. For each of these three were customary; and either would be designated by the same word, namely, a proseucha. (See note on Luke 6:12.) Biscoe says: “The seashore was esteemed by the Jews a place most pure, and, therefore, proper to offer up their prayers and thanksgivings to Almighty God. Philo tells us that the Jews of Alexandria, when Flaccus, the governor of Egypt, who had been their great enemy, was arrested by order of the emperor Caius, not being able to assemble at their synagogues, which had been taken from them, crowded out at the gates of the city early in the morning, went to the neighbouring shores, and, standing in a most pure place, with one accord lifted up their voices in praising God. Now (in Flac., p. 982, D.) Tertullian says that the Jews in his time, when they kept their great fasts, left their synagogues, and on every shore sent forth their prayers to heaven, (De Jejun. chap. 16;) and in another place, among the ceremonies used by the Jews, mentions orationes litorales, the prayers they made upon the shores. (Adv. Matthew 1:13.) And long before Tertullian’s time there was a decree made at Halicarnassus in favour of the Jews, which, among other privileges, allows them to say their prayers near the shore, according to the custom of their country. (Jos., Ant., XIV, 10-23.) It is hence abundantly evident that it was common with the Jews to choose the shore as a place highly fitting to offer up their prayers.”

Women… resorted The very fact of there being this proseucha, and not a synagogue, (to which Paul would have gone had there been one,) proves the fewness of Jews. The unpopularity of Jews is indicated in Acts 16:20. Of Jews, how many soever there were, none but women were found at the place of prayer; and of those women, one was a foreigner and a proselyte, faithful, perhaps, when the birthright Jews were faithless. And to her the Gospel is to be an exceeding great reward.