When it was decided that we a should sail to Italy, they handed Paul and some other prisoners over to Julius, b an officer in the Roman army regiment c called “The Emperor’s Regiment.” 2 We went aboard a ship from Adramyttium, d which was ready to leave for the seaports e of the province of Asia, and we sailed away. Aristarchus, f a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. 3 The next day we arrived at Sidon. g Julius was kind h to Paul and allowed him to go and see his friends, to be given what he needed. 4 We went on from there, and because the winds were blowing against us, we sailed on the sheltered side of the island of Cyprus. i 5 We crossed over the sea j off Cilicia k and Pamphylia and came to Myra l in Lycia. 6 There the officer found a ship from Alexandria m that was going to sail for Italy, so he put us aboard.
7 We sailed slowly for several days and with great difficulty finally arrived off the town of Cnidus. n The wind would not let us go any farther in that direction, so we sailed down the sheltered side of the island of Crete, passing by Cape Salmone. o 8 We kept close to the coast and with great difficulty came to a place called Safe Harbours, p not far from the town of Lasea. q
9 We spent a long time there, until it became dangerous to continue the voyage, r for by now the Day of Atonement s was already past. So Paul gave them this advice: 10 “Men, I see that our voyage from here on will be dangerous; there will be great damage to the cargo and to the ship, and loss of life as well.” 11 But the army officer was convinced by what the captain and the owner of the ship said, y and not by what Paul said. 12 The harbour was not a good one to spend the winter in; so most of the men were in favour of putting out to sea and trying to reach Phoenix, u if possible, in order to spend the winter there. Phoenix is a harbour in Crete that faces southwest and northwest.
a The ‘we’ narrative begins again. The last such reference appeared in 21:18. Probably Luke spent the two years of Paul’s Caesarean imprisonment nearby, and now he joined Paul again together with others.
b Julius was a centurion (see chap 10, note b) but beyond that, nothing is known about him.
c The Roman legions were designated by number, and each of the regiments also had designations or titles. The identification ‘Augustan’, or ‘Imperial’, or ‘Emperor’, was common.
d They probably left from Caesarea. Adramyttium was a harbour on the west coast of the province of Asia, southeast of Troas.
e At one of these stops, Julius would plan to transfer to a ship going to Rome.
f See 19:29 and 20:4 for further details on Aristarchus. Paul’s letters to the Colossians and Philemon seem to suggest that he travelled with Paul all the way to Rome and remained with him during his imprisonment there.
g At Sidon, the ancient Phoenician port some 113 km (70 miles) north of Caesarea, the boat took on cargo. Here Paul was permitted to visit the Christians of the city, who had probably become believers through the witness of Christian Hellenists forced to leave Jerusalem at the time of Stephen’s martyrdom (cf. 11:19).
h As a Roman citizen who had appealed to the Emperor, Paul would naturally have had a more favored position than the other prisoners. The centurion would have recognised Paul’s superiority as an educated gentleman with friends attending him. The centurion Julius could have been advised by Festus to be lenient with Paul, and doubtless Paul had already made a good impression on him. Yet a soldier would always have been with him during his visit.
i They sought the protecting shelter of the island of Cyprus by sailing north on the eastern side of the island, then west along the northern side. This was because of the westerly winds that blow from spring through fall on the eastern Mediterranean. Two and one half years earlier Paul and his companions had sailed with that westerly wind from Patara to Tyre and had passed Cyprus on the south (see 21:3). Now, however, their voyage was considerably slower as their boat had to run against the winds, and they tried to stay along the side that sheltered them from the winds.
j Crossing the open sea between Cyprus and Cilicia, the ship worked its way westward to Myra in Lycia, on the southwest coast of Asia Minor. It was helped along by local land breezes and a westward current that runs along that coast. From Sidon to Myra along this coast would normally be a voyage of 10 to 15 days.
k Both Cilicia and Pamphylia were adjoining provinces on the southern shore of Asia Minor.
l Myra was the most illustrious city in Lycia, with distinguished public buildings, a large theatre, and many evidences of wealth. It became the natural port of call for grain ships bound for Rome from Egypt and an important grain-storage city as well. The growing importance of the city of Myra was associated with the development of navigation. Instead of hugging the coast from point to point, more ships were daring to run directly from Alexandria in Egypt to harbours like Myra on the southern coast of Asia Minor. It was considerably out of the way on the trip to Rome from Egypt, but the prevailing westerly wind would not allow a direct voyage toward the west.
m There Julius arranged with the owner of a larger Alexandrian grain ship to take the soldiers and prisoners on board for the longer voyage to Italy. Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great and was the Roman capital of Lower Egypt. Its harbors were suitable for both commerce and war and it was the chief grain port for Rome. Alexandria was also an important cultural centre, its university (patterned after the great school at Athens) was noted for mathematics, astronomy, medicine and poetry. The library of Alexandria became the largest in the world with about 400,000 to 900,000 books and scrolls. The population of Alexandria comprised Jews, Greeks, and Egyptians. The Jews flourished here and considered this their city.
n Leaving Myra, the grain ship moved slowly along between the islands of Cos and Rhodes to the port of Cnidus, at the south- western tip of Asia Minor. Cnidus was the last port of call before sailing west across the Aegean Sea for the Greek mainland. The trip probably took another 10 to 15 days.
o Rather than cross the open sea to Greece and face the strong northern winds that blow down the length of the Aegean Sea at this time of year, the ship was forced to bear south, seeking to sail west along the southern coast of Crete, the long island southeast of Greece. Passing Cape Salmone on the eastern tip of Crete, the ship entered the small bay of Fair Havens or Safe Harbours.
p Safe Harbours was a port about midway on the southern coast of Crete.
q Lasea was a city about 8 km (5 miles) away.
r Navigation in this part of the Mediterranean was always dangerous after Sept. 14 and was considered suicidal after Nov. 11. The ship had lost valuable time since leaving Myra, and it was obvious that there was no hope of reaching Italy before winter.
s ‘Yom Kippur’ or ‘Day of Atonement’, the chief festival of Judaism which fell in the latter part of September or in October, was already past. The usual sailing season by Jewish calculation lasted from Pentecost (May-June) to the Feast of Tabernacles which was five days after Yom Kippur. So Paul warned that disaster would befall them if they tried to go further.
t But the pilot and the ship’s owner preferred not to winter in the small, open bay of Safe Harbours. They hoped to winter instead at the larger and safer port of Phoenix, 65 km (40 miles) west of Safe Harbours. Between these two ports, however, the south coast of Crete turns suddenly to the north and exposes a ship to the northern winds before it regains the protection of the coast just before Phoenix. The centurion agreed with the pilot and the ship’s owner that it would, if at all possible, be best to winter at Phoenix.
u Phoenix was a major city that served as a wintering place, having a harbour with protection against the storms.
Who was the Roman officer in charge of the voyage that would take Paul to Rome (v. 1)?
What was the name of his regiment?
Who were Paul’s companions on this journey?
2.Give a brief sketch of the journey taken by Paul and his companions from Caesarea till the last port before they sailed for Phoenix (vv. 2-12).
3.Why did Paul warn them against sailing to Phoenix (v. 10)?
4.Why did Julius decide to sail for Phoenix in the end (vv. 11-12)?
13 A soft wind from the south began to blow, and the men thought that they could carry out their plan, so they pulled up the anchor and sailed as close as possible along the coast of Crete. 14 But soon a very strong wind – the one called “Northeaster” v – blew down from the island. 15 It hit the ship, and since it was impossible to keep the ship headed into the wind, we gave up trying and let it be carried along by the wind. 16 We got some shelter when we passed to the south of the little island of Cauda. w There, with some difficulty we managed to make the ship’s boat x secure. 17 They pulled it aboard and then fastened some ropes tight around the ship. They were afraid that they might run into the sandbanks off the coast of Libya, y so they lowered the sail and let the ship be carried by the wind. 18 The violent storm continued, so on the next day they began to throw some of the ship’s cargo overboard, z 19 and on the following day they threw part of the ship’s equipment overboard. 20 For many days we could not see the sun or the stars, and the wind kept on blowing very hard. We finally gave up all hope of being saved.
21 After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood before them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete; then we would have avoided all this damage and loss. 22 But now I beg you, take courage! Not one of you will lose his life; only the ship will be lost. 23 For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship came to me 24 and said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul! You must stand before the Emperor. And God in his goodness to you has spared the lives of all those who are sailing with you.’ 25 So take courage, men! For I trust in God that it will be just as I was told. 26 But we will be driven ashore on some island.”
27 It was the fourteenth night, and we were being driven in the Mediterranean a’ by the storm. About midnight the sailors suspected b’ that we were getting close to land. 28 So they dropped a line c’ with a weight tied to it and found that the water was one hundred and twenty feet deep; a little later they did the same and found that it was ninety feet deep. 29 They were afraid that the ship would go on the rocks, so they lowered four anchors d’ from the back of the ship and prayed for day- light. 30 Then the sailors tried to escape from the ship; they lowered the boat into the water and pretended that they were going to put out some anchors from the front of the ship. 31 But Paul said to the army officer and soldiers, “If the sailors don’t stay on board, you have no hope of being saved.” e’ 32 So the soldiers cut the ropes f’ that held the boat and let it go.
33 Just before dawn, Paul begged them all to eat some food: g’ “You have been waiting for fourteen days now, and all this time you have not eaten a thing. 34 I beg you, then, eat some food; you need it in order to survive. Not even a hair of your heads will be lost.” 35 After saying this, Paul took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, broke it, and began to eat. 36 They took courage, and every one of them also ate some food. 37 There was a total of 276 h’ of us on board. 38 After everyone had eaten enough, they lightened the ship by throwing all the wheat into the sea. i’
v Sailors called this wind the Euroquilo (lit., ‘northeaster’). It was a typhoon-like, east-northeast wind. Before it they were helpless. It drove the ship away from their destination.
w Driven southwest some 37 km (23 miles) to the small island of Cauda, the ship managed to gain the lee or sheltered side of the island. This provided enough shelter to make preparation against the storm.
x This was a small boat that was towed behind the ship. It was interfering with the progress of the ship and with the steering. It may also have been in danger of being crushed against the ship in the wind and the waves and had to be taken aboard. The sailors pulled in the dinghy, which was full of water, reinforced the ship with ropes to keep it from breaking up and put out the sea anchor to keep the ship from running onto the sandbars off the African coast.
y Other versions translate this as Syrtis. It was an area of quick- sand off the coast of Libya, a country in northern Africa. It was still far away, but in such a storm the ship could be driven a great distance.
z This was to lighten the ship. However, they kept some bags of grain (see v. 38).
a’ Other versions translate this as Adriatic Sea. This was the sea between Italy, Malta, Crete and Greece. In ancient times the Adriatic Sea extended as far south as Sicily and Crete.
b’ Most likely they heard the sound of breakers, waves breaking on the shore and suspected that they were near a shore.
c’ They measured the depth of the sea by letting down a weighted line.
d’ To keep the ship from being wrecked against the rocks of an unknown coast in the darkness, they dropped four anchors and waited for dawn.
e’ But Paul saw through the trick, doubtless realising that no sailor would drop anchors from the bow under such conditions. If the sailors had been allowed to desert the ship in seeking to save themselves, the passengers would have been unable to beach or land the ship the following day. He knew that to try to make shore in the morning without a full crew would be disastrous.
f’ So Paul warned Julius that all would be lost if the sailors deserted the ship. Though he had not listened to Paul earlier, Julius took his advice here and ordered his men to cut the lines holding the dinghy and let it fall away.
g’ The storm had been so fierce that preparing food had been impossible. Once again, Paul’s great qualities of leadership came to the fore. Urging all on board to eat, he took some bread, gave thanks to God, and ate it. The others on board were encouraged and also ate.
h’ Only now does Luke tell us how many were on board. Probably in distributing the food, they had to know the exact number, and Luke himself may have helped supervise the distribution.
i’ Then, strengthened by the food, they threw the remainder of the cargo of grain which had probably been kept for food supply overboard. The lighter the ship, the farther it could sail in to shore.
What happened when the ship started to sail out of Safe Harbours (vv. 13-14)?
Where were they heading to?
2. Describe what was done when the Northeaster struck the ship (vv. 15-20).
3. What did Paul say to encourage everyone when they lost all hope of being saved (vv. 22-26)?
4. What happened to the ship after that (vv. 27-29)?
5. What did the sailors try to do (v. 30)?
6. What warning did Paul give to the army officer and soldiers (v. 31)?
7. How did the officer respond to Paul’s warning this time (v. 32)?
8. Describe what took place after that as they waited for the morning (vv. 33-38).
39 When day came, the sailors did not recognise the coast, but they noticed a bay with a beach and decided that, if possible, they would run the ship aground there. 40 So they cut off the anchors and let them sink in the sea, and at the same time they untied the ropes j’ that held the steering oars. Then they raised the sail at the front of the ship so that the wind would blow the ship forward, and we headed for shore. 41 But the ship hit a sandbank and went aground; the front part of the ship got stuck and could not move, while the back part was being broken to pieces by the violence of the waves.
42 The soldiers made a plan to kill all the prisoners, k’ in order to keep them from swimming ashore and escaping. 43 But the army officer wanted to save Paul, l’ so he stopped them from doing this. Instead, he ordered all the men who could swim to jump overboard first and swim ashore; 44 the rest were to follow, holding on to the planks or to some broken pieces of the ship. And this was how we all got safely ashore.
j’ They did this to lower the stern (back of ship) rudders into place so the ship could be steered toward the sandy shore. Ancient ships had a steering oar on either side of the stern.
k’ Roman military law decreed that a guard who allowed his prisoner to escape could expect the same penalty the escaped prisoner would have suffered. Thus the soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners, lest they escape while getting to land.
l’ Julius, however, determined to protect Paul, prevented this and ordered all to get to land either by swimming or by holding on to pieces of the wreckage. So God in His providence brought them all safely to shore as He had promised Paul He would (v. 24).
Describe what the sailors did in the morning (vv. 39-41).
2. What did the soldiers want to do (v. 42)?
3. How were Paul and the prisoners saved (vv. 43-44)?
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