The Last Stop, Rome

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Paul Warns of Danger

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Chapter 27 deals with Paul's trip to Rome. We are not told if Agrippa or any of the other people who were present when Paul spoke were any help to Festus in writing the charges against Paul to be sent along with him to Rome, but there was nothing left for Festus to do but write the charges and send Paul to Rome.

The only practical way for Paul to get to Rome was by boat. To have gone by land would have required about two years and great expense. Travel between the two countries had always been by boat. It was prophesied in Num. 24:24 that ships would come from Chittim (Italy) and would afflict Eber (the Hebrews). This Prophecy had been fulfilled and Roman Soldiers over ran Israel and they came by boat.

Notice Paul, along with some other prisoners, is turned over to a Roman Centurion by the name of Julius. The name of the company from which he had been assigned, was Cornelius. Each company, a group of 1000 men, had their own name. He had 100 men assigned to him to guard the prisoners as well as protect them on their trip and make sure that they arrived safely at Rome. The boat on which they acquired their passage was from Adramittium, a seaport of Africa. This ship had left Africa with goods bound for Syria and Asia Minor, where it would exchange it's cargo for goods to be taken back to Africa. Paul was linked by chains to the thieves and murderers on this trip as Jesus was crucified between two thieves.

Notice who accompanied Paul on this trip to take care of his needs. Luke, the writer of this book and Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. Most scholars believe they Timothy and Trophemus, an Ephesian, also accompanied Paul but they left the boat at Miletus when Trophemus became ill. Paul substantiates this in II Timothy 4:20 when he says about Trophemus, "I left him ill at Miletus."

This group left Caesarea, sailed up the coast some 150 miles and arrived the next day at Sidon in Phoenicia. There the Centurion allowed Paul to go ashore and visit friends and be cared for. From Sidon they sailed for Myra in Lycia. Normally they would have taken a more direct route on the south side of the Island of Cyprus, but the winds were not favorable for this so they sailed to the north side going between Cyrpus and the coast of Asia, a route that was called "under the lee" of Cyprus.

They arrived at Myra where they were forced to change ships. There the Centurion found a ship bound for Italy from Alexandria in Egypt. Ships from Alexandria were given special treatment in Italy because their cargos of corn and silks from India and Persia were much in demand. They were not required to "strike sail" as others ships were when they entered an Italian port.

They left Myra and again were required to take the long way staying close to the coast because of ill winds. They kept this course until they reached the Isle of Coos. From there they sailed south to the Island of Crete, using the "lee side" for protection, they put in at the port of Fair Havens. So far, because of the winds being against them, they had sailed 1000 miles to get 500 miles.

Fair Havens was the name of a port o the Island of Crete and it has kept its name to this day. It was an excellent port to wait out a storm because of the protection of a natural sea wall, however, it was not good in winter because it lacked accommodations for people and ships for a long period of time. Because so much time had been lost, Paul reminded them that winter would soon be coming on. Verse 9 says that the "Fast" had already gone by. This meant that it was after Sept. 20th. The Fast that Paul was speaking about was the yearly fast that the Jews called "The Day of Atonement". It is strange that there is no other mention of this fast anywhere else in scriptures accept here.

This time of the year was the worst time to be at sea. Paul knew this, either by the enlightenment of the Spirit or by experience, so he warned the ship's crew that to continue would bring loss of cargo, loss of lives and probably the loss of the ship. His warning went unnoticed. They considered him impertinent, a tent maker, telling sailors about how and when to sail. The Roman Centurion, not knowing anything about weather on the Mediterranean Sea was forced to side with the Captain of the ship, whom he supposed knew more about this sort of thing than did Paul.

So they leave the port of Fair Havens, in spite of Paul's warning, and make an attempt to reach Phoenix (Phenice) a port on the western end of the Island of Crete. This port would provide accommodations for the people and safe wintering for the ship. The port was located between two projections of land, one to the northeast and one to the southeast. This afforded protection from the violent storms of winter. The journey from Fair Havens to Phoenix was only about 30 miles and it would seem that a gentle wind that blew from the south lulled them into making this decision, one they would soon regret, in spite of Paul's warning.

Into the Storm

Verses 13 thru 26 of Chapter 27 record this ill-fated journey. They sailed westward along the southern coast of Crete, taking advantage of the gentle winds from the south. They had not gone very far when they were hit by a "northeaster", a violent wind that blew across the island from the northeast. Having no warning, they were unable to turn back and were forced to go with the wind in a southeast direction. These winds were called Euro-cly-don by the sailors of the Mediterranean Sea. "Euro", meant that they blew out of Europe, across the island in a cyclonic fashion. When these winds hit there was nothing to do by strike sail and ride out the wind.

They somehow managed to run under the protection of the south side of a small island called Cauda (Clauda) where they "secured" the boat. I thought when I read this that they had docked the boat but I am told that this was not so. Actually they secured the boat by running cables around the hull of the boat to keep it from bulging and breaking seams that would allow seawater to come in. It seems that they could not dock the boat because the coast of the island was full of "syr-tis" or quick sand and the possibility of the boat breaking up in the process of docking. So they allowed the boat to be tossed about by the wind, a safe distance from the southern shore of the island.

As the storm continued and the boat became increasingly tossed by the winds, it began to take on water. The weight of the water caused the boat to settle deeper and deeper into the water. Pumps were not available in those days and the only way they could lighten the boat was to throw the cargo over board. This helped for a while but soon, with the taking on of more water, it was necessary to further lighten the boat. This time they threw overboard the "tackle" of the boat. This was armament, protection for the boat against Pirates. Probably cannons and cannon balls, all of which had to be thrown overboard to lighten the boat.

Assured by a Vision

Finally, after many days and no let up, they resigned themselves to perishing at sea. Verse 21 says that they had been long without food, either because it had been thrown overboard or because of seasickness, they were unable to eat. The question was, why didn't Paul still the wind as his Master had done? Matthew Henry answers that, he believed that the miracles of Paul were done for the advancement and conformation of the Gospel and not for the comfort of himself or others.

Notice there were 276 people on board. Sailors, merchants, soldiers, prisoners and paying passengers, every man turned to his god and prayed as they did in Jonah's day, however, Paul was not like Jonah, he was not the cause of the storm, rather, as we shall see, he was the comforter of the storm.

Paul had endeavored to keep them safe by warning them, but they did not listen, so. for a time, he lets them suffer. Finally, he told them to "take heart", there would be no loss of life on board that ship. The ship would be loss and all of its contents, but all 276 people would be saved. Notice how Paul knew this. God told Paul in a vision. He sent an Angel to Paul with this message, "Do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand before Caesar, therefore, God will grant you and all those with you, their lives." Paul was destined, pre-ordained by God to appear before Caesar. Because of this, he would live and all the wiles of nature or the plots of man, would not deter him from doing it. The other 275 people were fortunate that they were riding on the same boat with Paul.

Now I'm sure these words did not comfort the unbelievers on board that boat. Without faith, God's word means very little. But to Paul, it meant a great deal. "I have faith", Paul said, "faith that it will be exactly as I have been told." Surly this demonstration of faith by Paul must have encouraged those who had little faith. Then Paul told the captain of the boat that in order that all be saved, he had to run the boat onto an island.

How could this be managed? The Pilot had left the helm, the oarsmen had come top side, the sails had been lowered, their exact location was unknown and the boat was at the mercy of the winds. Verses 27 thru 44 records what happened.

Shipwreck

For 14 days they had been at the mercy of the storm. They had been drifting across the Adriatic Sea, often called the Adria Sea. It was a part of the Mediterranean Sea (The Great Sea) and the northern part was a gulf that ran between Italy and Macedonia and ran south all the way across the Mediterranean Sea to the shores of Africa (Libya). About midnight, the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. They determined this by taking a "sounding", measuring the depth of the water. They determined that it was 20 fathoms deep. A fathom was the length of outstretched arms or approx. 6 feet of a total of 120 feet. The second measurement was 90 feet, therefore they were drifting closer to land.

Now they were afraid that they might drift unto some rocks and sink so they let down 4 anchors and prayed. In the meantime, there were some sailors who tried to jump ship by lowering a lifeboat into the sea. They did this under the pretense of lowering another anchor. Obviously they had heard Paul say that the boat would be destroyed and decided to take their chances in a lifeboat. It would appear that others saw the sailors preparing to enter the boat but were deceived by the pretense. Paul was not. He notified the Roman Centurion and told him that if he allowed the sailors to leave, he could not assure them that they would land safely on the island, besides, the skills of the sailors would be needed to beach the large boat.

God had promised that all would be safe but like all of God's protection, it is predicated upon us using common sense, that which He has given us. By this time the Centurion realized that Paul knew what he was talking about, more so than anyone else aboard that boat, so he used his sword to cut the life boat free from the ship and allowed it to drift away, thus, forcing the sailors to remain on board.

As the day began to dawn, Paul urged everyone to eat something. They would need their strength for what was about to happen. Paul set the example, he took bread, blessed it, broke it and ate it. All were encouraged by his example and ate food also. After they had eaten, they lightened the boat by throwing overboard the remaining cargo of wheat.

When it got light, they saw land ahead of them. The sailors did not recognize the island, but they did see a small bay with a beach which would be a good place to bring the boat to shore. They cast off the anchors literary leaving them on the bottom of the sea, then they removed the ropes that were stabilizing the rudder, hoisted the main sail and headed for the beach.

Now before they reached the beach, the boat went aground on a shoal and this left the stern of the boat at the mercy of the pounding surf. This pounding caused the stern to begin to break up and it became obvious that the only way they were going to get ashore was to either swim or float ashore on a piece of the boat.

Then an interesting problem arose. The soldiers that were charged with the keeping of the prisoners were faced with the a decision. If they set the prisoners free to swim to shore and some escaped, they knew that they would be required to take their place, this was Roman Law, so they had decided that rather than take that risk, they would kill the prisoners. But the Centurion in charge, found out about this and not wanting to see Paul killed, forbid the soldiers from doing what they had planned. He ordered the chains be removed from the prisoners and those who could swim be allowed to swim to shore and those who could not be allowed to take a plank from the s hip and float ashore. And so it was as Paul had said, all on board got safely ashore.

It is interesting to note that a journey of 30 miles that started with a mild southerly breeze ended up in a 14-day storm that took the boat about 550 miles from the Island of Crete to the Island of Malta. It is believed that at one time during that 14 day period that they were within a short distance of the coast of Africa and didn't know it.

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