…Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God…Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, ‘Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!’ Acts 16:25-28 (NIVUK)
Jailors in the first century BCE had a widespread reputation for cruelty, as Philo observed: ‘Everyone knows well how jailors are filled with inhumanity and savagery. For by nature they are unmerciful, and by practice they are trained daily toward fierceness, as to become wild beasts. They see, say, and do nothing good, not even by chance, but instead the most violent and the most cruel things.’