Where in the bible does it say paul went to prison 5 times?

Answer 1

There is no scripture that says he went to prison 5 times.

His missionary travels are chronicled in The Bible Book of Acts. Trouble followed Paul wherever he went as the Jews were constantly hunting him down.

His first arrest is recorded at:

(Acts 16:16-18) And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain servant girl with a spirit, a demon of divination, met us. She used to furnish her masters with much gain by practicing the art of prediction. 17 This [girl] kept following Paul and us and crying out with the words: "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who are publishing to YOU the way of salvation." 18 This she kept doing for many days. Finally Paul got tired of it and turned and said to the spirit: "I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour.

In Acts the 18th Chapter - Paul is brought up before Gallio but it doesn't mention that he was jailed.

Then came the following:

(Acts 21:34-22:22)

He was arrested in Jerusalem and moved to Caesarea. He held for two years under house arrest awaiting a trial. After that, he was being shipped off to Rome. He suffered two imprisonments in Rome.

It seems that we only document two arrests - but actual imprisonments recorded are four.

There is no scripture that mentions all of them. However, Paul himself outlined his sufferings here:

(2 Corinthians 11:22-28) . . .. 23 Are they ministers of Christ? I reply like a madman, I am more outstandingly one: in labors more plentifully, in prisons more plentifully, in blows to an excess, in near-deaths often. 24 By Jews I five times received forty strokes less one, 25 three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I experienced shipwreck, a night and a day I have spent in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from highwaymen, in dangers from [my own] race, in dangers from the nations, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers, 27 in labor and toil, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in abstinence from food many times, in cold and nakedness. 28 Besides those things of an external kind, there is what rushes in on me from day to day, the anxiety for all the congregations.

Paul wrote some of his Bible Books from prison.

December 1, 1982 Watchtower 14 par. 8

"The God of All Comfort" Is With Us

"8 In prisons more plentifully: Clement of Rome, writing toward the end of the first century C.E., says that Paul had been imprisoned on seven occasions. Before the writing of Second Corinthians he had already been in prison more often than the "superfine apostles." The record in Acts tells of one such imprisonment-in the Macedonian city of Philippi. Obviously Paul and Silas were happy to suffer "for righteousness' sake," for while imprisoned there they prayed to God and praised him with song. They found comfort in reflecting on the Scriptures as well as in the realization that God heard their prayers and was answering them. (Psalm 65:2; 119:52) When freed by an earthquake, they did not make a fast getaway, but, rather, "spoke the word of Jehovah to [the jailer] together with all those in his house." The result? Why, the jailer and his household became Christians! (Acts 16:16-40) Truly, this account encourages imprisoned witnesses of Jehovah today to accept persecution with godly joy, to be prayerful, to meditate on God's Word and to speak about it boldly!-Acts 4:29-31."

See the attached link for more information on Paul and his journeys.