Acts 27
(Acts 27:1, ESV Bible)
Polos at Sea
“This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar," King Agrippa observed (Acts 26:32). The appeal took that option off the table. "So then the governor decided to send him to Caesar. On the next day, he summoned a certain centurion named Julius and entrusted Paul to him along with other prisoners" (Acts 27:1, Western Text). The other prisoners may have also been irregular, unresolved cases left behind by the former governor. Festus wanted to clear out Felix's backlog. But it was already late in the season for navigation. The moon of Elul was nearly full, and the high holidays quickly approached.
Julius booked passage for his men and prisoners on a coasting vessel. In those days, passenger ships did not exist. Travelers booked passage on cargo ships. Passengers normally provided their own mattresses, blankets, food, and supplies. Paul boarded with Julius, his men, and several other prisoners headed for Rome. Three traveling companions also accompanied Paul. Aristarchus of Macedonia came with him. Aristarchus was a Jewish believer from Thessalonica. He had worked with Paul in Ephesus. When the silversmiths' riot began in Ephesus, the rioters seized Aristarchus and dragged him into the theater in Paul's stead. According to some manuscripts, Secundus of Thessalonica also traveled with Paul. Aristarchus and Secundus originally had come to Judea with Paul two years earlier as delegates from the assembly of disciples in Thessalonica (Acts 20:4). They demonstrated their loyalty by staying with the apostle through the years of imprisonment in Caesarea and then sailing on with him to Rome. Paul's faithful companion Luke the doctor also boarded with him. When all the passengers were aboard, the ship lifted anchor and made her way out of Caesarea's artificial harbor. Paul and his companions watched from the deck as the magnificent city of marble and polished stone faded from view.
In 1 Timothy 1:19, Paul lamented to Timothy that some believers "suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith." In Paul's case, his faith remained intact, but his ships often suffered shipwreck. Sea travel on the Mediterranean was, by all accounts, treacherous in the days of the apostles. Even so, Paul seems to have been particularly ill-fated, if one might use the word "fated" in regard to an apostle. Writing to the Corinthians from Ephesus, Paul reminded them that "three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep" (2 Corinthians II:25). If Paul believed in fortunes or fates, he might have been reluctant to get back on a ship after being shipwrecked three times already. A man who has been struck by lightning repeatedly might consider staying inside during a thunderstorm. Paul was not superstitious. He believed in providence.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
(Acts 27:3, ESV Bible)
Tzidon
Only the enormous Alexandrian grain ships cut directly across the sea. Smaller ships like the Adramyttium coaster skirted the shoreline. Luke always carefully recorded ports of call and departure. He tells his readers that, after a day at sea, they arrived at the Phoenician port of Sidon. Sidon is about seventy nautical miles north of Caesarea.
While the ship laid over in port, Julius allowed Paul to spend the night with "his friends" in Sidon.
Apparently, Julius understood that Paul's case was exceptional. He was a prisoner only as a matter of formality, but no charges had been levied against him. As one Roman citizen to another, Julius gave as much deference and respect to Paul as possible. Even so, one of Julius' soldiers must have accompanied Paul to make sure that he returned to the ship.
Paul's friends in Sidon were the local community of disciples. Paul was familiar to the believers in Ptolemais, Tyre, and Sidon. He made those relationships in earlier years during his frequent journeys between Jerusalem and Syrian Antioch.
The believers in Sidon welcomed the apostle and his traveling com-panions, provided them with hospitality, and gave them provisions for the journey ahead. The Romans did not ordinarily provide food or supplies for their prisoners. Friends and families of Roman prisoners provided those essentials.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
(Acts 27:4, ESV Bible)
Contrary Winds to Mura
The next day, they set sail to cross the Mediterranean, but contrary winds forced them to skirt close to the coastlands. Such "contrary winds" blow in from the northwest for a period of some six or more weeks towards the end of the sailing season.
The island of Cyprus sheltered them from the wind. For several days, they followed the coast, making their way past Paul's native Cilicia, past Pamphylia, and past Perga, where he and Barnabas and John Mark first parted ways. The contrary winds impeded their progress. After fifteen days, they disembarked in the Lycian port city of Andriace, three miles west of Myra, a city located on the Myros River on the southern coast of Asia Minor.
In Paul's day, the Alexandrian grain fleet utilized the port of Andriace/ Myra as a stopping point on their voyages between Italy and Alexandria. They did not stay more than a night in Myra. Julius booked passage on a grain ship that was on its way to Rome.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Grain Fleets
Travelers navigating around the Mediterranean relied on the Alexandrian grain fleet the way modern travelers rely on commercial airlines. The large population of Rome depended on a steady supply of Egyptian grain. At the height of the Roman Empire, Italy could no longer grow harvests sufficient to feed the enormous population occupying the Italian peninsula, and Roman emperors held on to their power over the populace only so long as they could provide a regular, inexpensive supply of wheat.
Fleets of gigantic Alexandrian grain ships regularly hauled the harvests of Egypt to Italy. The smaller freighters carried eighty tons of grain. The largest carried twice that amount. A fully loaded grain hauler might weigh between three and four hundred tons. A large grain ship might have been 18 feet long and forty-five feet wide. The bow of the ship converged into a carving of a figure representing the ship's name, and the stern of the ship carried an idol as well.
Grain ships relied on the wind. Galleys had neither the bulk nor the capacity to haul grain. The largest, three-masted freighters caught the wind with a great square mainsail, a raked foremast, and a small upper sail. With favorable winds, the trip from Rome to Alexandria took as little as ten days, but the return trip against the wind could take up to two months. Contrary headwinds forced the grain ships to lumber their way up the Eastern Mediterranean seaboard and then make their way along the coast of Asia Minor. Even the enormous grain ships could not always weather the violence of the Mediterranean's winter storms.
They boarded the heavy grain ship and set out again. Two hundred and seventy-six souls sailed onboard. That included sailors, crew, passengers, prisoners, slaves, and Roman soldiers. The size of the crew indicates that Paul's ship was one of the smaller or mid-sized freighters. The largest of freighters carried crews and passengers numbering as many as six hundred or more.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
(Acts 27:9-10, ESV Bible)
High Holidays and Voyage to Kreiti
They left Myra sometime around Rosh HaShanah, 59 cE. If Paul or one of his traveling companions had the foresight to pack a shofar, they might have gathered the Jewish prisoners on deck and let the sound of the trumpet blast carry across the waves of the Mediterranean.
From Myra, they passed into the Aegean, sailing between Rhodes and Asia Minor. As they arrived in sight of the island of Cnidus, a strong headwind sought to turn them about and send them back. They tried to sail for the north side of the island of Crete, but the winds drove them sharply south. When the winds showed no sign of relenting, they turned southeast and sought refuge along the south side of the island of Crete. Even there they could not find shelter from the wind but moved along the coast with difficulty. They finally made port on the southern side of Crete at a place called Fair Havens. They anchored down in the port and waited for the wind to break. Fair Havens (modern Limeonus Kalous) is near Lasea and the Cape of Matala. The harbor at Fair Havens is wide open to the sea on the east and offers little shelter.
They spent the holy Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) in Fair Havens. Paul and his party fasted and prayed while the crew of the ship waited for the wind to allow them to leave the port. Luke refers to Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) in Jewish shorthand simply as "the Fast." He would not have used the term "the fast" as a calendar reference unless he himself kept the fast and assumed that his readers did so as well. How did the average Diaspora Jew observe the fast day? Philo of Alexandria describes the hallmarks of Yom Kippur as it was observed in the first century: a day given to asceticism, fasting, prayer, confession of sin, petition for forgiveness, "not on the basis of their own merits, but only through the compassionate nature of that Being who prefers forgiveness rather than punishment" (Special Laws 1:186, 2:I96).
The dangerous season for sailing began about mid-September and lasted until early November. Those who tried to cross the Great Sea in November and December did so at extreme risk to their lives. In 59 CE, Yom Kippur seems to have fallen on October 5-too late in the season for safe sailing on the Mediterranean. Luke says, "The voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over."
After the fast of Yom Kippur, Paul warned the centurion and the ship's officers, "Men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives." Perhaps Paul was merely voicing the pragmatic concerns of a man who had already been shipwrecked three times, or perhaps the Spirit had granted him an intuition of danger during the course of his Yom Kippur fast. After all, the assigned Scripture readings for Yom Kippur include the book of Jonah. For whatever reason, Paul felt certain that they should plan on spending the winter at Fair Havens.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
(Acts 27:11, ESV Bible)
Day One: The Sukkot Storm
Despite Paul's advice, the pilot of the ship wanted to set out as soon as the weather permitted. The harbor at Fair Havens was not suitable for wintering the vessel. Julius and the crew felt confident that they could at least make the short distance up the coast of Crete as far as Phoenix if only they could catch a favorable wind. The port at Phoenix was better situated for harboring the ship, and the city of Phoenix probably had better accommodations for spending the long winter months of waiting for the navigational seas to reopen. They only needed to sail a short forty miles up the coast, less than a day's sailing if the wind cooperated. "The pilot and the captain preferred to put out to sea in hopes of reaching Phoenix, a Cretan port ... and the centurion preferred to listen to them rather than to what Paul said" (Acts 27:11, Western Text).
When the gales broke and a gentle south wind came across the waters, they pulled up anchor and continued their way along the coast of Crete. It must have been, by then, the beginning of the Festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles).
A story in the Talmud relates how Gamli'el 11, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar, and Rabbi Akiva once undertook a voyage to Rome, spent Sukkot at sea, and had to share a single lulav (b.Sukkah 4ib). Likewise, the commandment of dwelling in the booth can be observed even at sea: "If one erects a sukkah on ... the deck of a ship, it is valid" (m. Sukkah 2:3):
It happened with Rabbi Gamli'el and Rabbi Akiva when they were journeying on a ship that Rabbi Akiva arose and built a Sukkah on the deck of the ship [but Gamli'el did not]. The next day, the wind blew and tore it away. Rabbi Gamli'el said to him, "Akiva! Where is your sukkah?" (b.Sukkah 23a)
Did Paul Paul's party erect a sukkah on the deck of the ship? If so their sukkah did not last longer than Rabbi Akiva's.
They had not been out of Fair Havens for more than a few hours when a violent nor'easter descended on them from the heights of Mount Ida. A wind of such force would damage the rigging or even capsize the ship. Luke says, "We gave way to it as it blew, and furled the sails" (Acts 27:15, Western Text). The wind blew them far off course and tossed the ship about on the waves. As they passed under the partial shelter of the island of Clauda, they had a brief respite from the full brunt of the wind. The sailors quickly set to work securing the ship as best they could. Lest they lose the landing boat, they pulled it up on board. Ordinarily, they towed it behind the ship. The storm had capsized the small craft; the landing boat was full of water and dragging. Luke says that they were hardly able to bring the pitching boat under control to secure it.
The ship had been badly beaten by the first day of the storm, and it stood to be beaten even worse as soon as they faced the wind again. A heavy load of grain, pitching back and forth in a ship's holds, exerts enormous pressure on the timbers. The sailors feared that the structural integrity of the vessel might fail. They reinforced the timbers of the hull by passing ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. The straps worked to bind the timbers tight.
In the twisting waters of the storm, there was no hope of guiding the vessel. The waves would slap the rudder back and forth until it snapped off. To prevent this, the crew tied the rudder up with ropes. To minimize the rate of their drift, they dropped a floating anchor.
The crew pored over their navigational charts and tried to determine where the wind might drive them. The pilot warned that a nor'easter could blow them toward North Africa where, within a few days, they might run aground on sandbars in the dreaded shallows of Syrtis:
There is no getting out again for ships, once they are forced to enter that gulf. For everywhere are shallows, everywhere thickets of seaweed from the depths, and over them silently washes the foam of the water without noise, and there is a stretch of sand to the dim horizon, and there moves nothing that creeps or flies. (Apollonius, Argonautica 4.I231-1235)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
(Acts 27:18, ESV Bible)
Days Two and Three: Dumping the Cargo and Gear
The ship passed out from under the protection of Clauda and faced again the full rage of storm and sea. The wind and waves so battered the ship that the crew felt they would certainly be torn apart and sunk. To lighten the load, they took the drastic measure of dumping much of the cargo. Grain does not travel well in storms. It slides around in the holds, destabilizing a pitching craft. When it becomes wet, it retains the moisture and weight of the water. Soggy grain swells to as much as double its size and ruptures its containers-even whole ships.
The crew worked all through the day, casting what must have been hundreds and even thousands of pounds of Egyptian wheat into the tossing sea. Presumably, the grain was in sacks. They did not dump it all. They still hoped to salvage some, and even after a full day's work, they could not have finished unloading all the grain. A grain carrier ordinarily took as long as a week to fully unload.
Dumping the cargo gave the ship more buoyancy for riding the swells. It was not enough. Still the storm beat against them. The ship rode lower and lower in the water, threatening to sink. Water seeped in through the stressed timbers and washed down from the upper decks into the cargo holds. Constant bailing operations could not keep pace. The crew needed to lighten the load still further. On the third day of the relentless hurricane, they resorted to tossing the ship's gear and tackle overboard. Some manuscripts have the first person plural in 27:19, "On the third day, we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands," suggesting that the passengers were involved in the effort. They tossed everything except the bare essentials overboard and kept at bailing while the storm continued to have its way.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
(Acts 27:20)
Days Four to Twelve: Neither Sun Nor Stars
On the fourth day, heavy clouds blanketed the sky with such darkness that the sailors could scarcely discern day from night. The days of Sukkot passed by, but when they were at an end, none on board could say. As one tossing day washed into another without sun or stars or moon to separate, the crew and passengers began to despair. They had no means of knowing where the storm had driven them, nor did they have hope of ever seeing land. The tossing of the ship did not allow them to eat or sleep properly. Nine or ten days passed in that rocking oblivion. The howl of the wind, the crash of the waves, the creaking of the timbers never ceased. They felt like dead men, already doomed to their fate.
Despite the circumstance, Paul did not lose hope.
Not only had he survived three previous shipwrecks, he also had the tales of the Master to tell. He reminded his traveling companions of the time that the Master had been asleep in the boat. A sudden storm on the Galilee nearly capsized them, but the Master rebuked the wind and stilled the sea. On another occasion, when the disciples had spent the whole night in a boat fighting against the wind, unable to row against the storm, the Master came to them, striding on the backs of the waves.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
(Acts 27:22-23, ESV Bible)
Day Thirteen: Message from an Angel
The storm kept the crew and passengers from eating-the constant pitching of the boat made them all seasick and prevented food preparation. Paul took advantage of the opportunity and devoted himself to fasting and prayer.
More than twelve days after the storm began, an angel of the LORD appeared to Paul in the night. He said, "Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you" (Acts 27:34). The angel contradicted Paul's own pessimistic prediction that the voyage was doomed to end in the loss of the lives of those on board.
Paul called together the soldiers, sailors, and crew. He was not above saying, "I told you so." They should have taken his advice and stayed in the harbor at Fair Havens. Nevertheless, he was now confident that God would spare their lives. He explained, "For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me."
Seafarers in the ancient world took omens from the gods seriously. Roman sailors would not set out on a voyage until the ship's officers had offered a pre-voyage sacrifice to the gods and consulted the various augurs and signs of divinations. Certain days were considered unlucky for starting a voyage. Sailors strictly forbade blaspheming the gods while onboard a ship, and seafarers carefully observed a variety of superstitions.
Like Jonah, who said, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land" (Jonah 1:9), Paul identified himself as a servant of the God of the Jews. He relayed the message he had heard from the angel, and he encouraged the men to be strong and courageous. Paul deduced that, since the angel had not said, "The ship will be spared," that they could anticipate a shipwreck. He said, "We must run aground on a certain island."
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
(Acts 27:29, ESV Bible)
Day Fourteen: Close to Land
Within twenty-four hours, the sailors sensed the approach of land. It was midnight. They could see nothing at all in the darkness, but the pitch and roll of the waves had changed. The waves began to break and froth. The storm had driven the grain carrier for two weeks, and the sailors had no way of knowing where they were.
The sailors dropped lead weights attached to ropes to take soundings and discovered that they now coasted at a depth of only twenty fathoms (120 feet). A short time later, they dropped the lead weights again and found that the water depth had dropped to fifteen fathoms (go feet). This could only mean that the wind was driving them ashore. The sailors feared that they were about to be torn up on a reef or wrecked upon the rocks. They peered into the blackness but could see nothing. Panic spread through the crew. They dropped all anchors to try to slow the ship as much as possible. As they longed for the light of dawn, they strained their ears to try to discern the sound of waves breaking upon rocks.
The sailors felt certain that they must escape or be dashed to bits on the rocks ahead. In a ruse intended to deceive the passengers and prison-ers, the crew members lowered the landing boat on the pretense that they needed to use it to attach more anchors to the bow of the ship. In reality, they intended to escape in the landing craft. Paul was anxiously prowling the wave-washed deck at the time, and he saw them and discerned their intention. He alerted Julius and his men, "Unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved." The Roman soldiers drew their swords and slipped and staggered to the bow of the ship where the sailors had lowered the boat. They were not too late. They hacked at the ropes before any crew members had an opportunity to board it. The landing boat fell away into the sea and disappeared into the darkness.
In the last hour of the night, just before the sky began to lighten, he gathered the frightened crew and urged them all to eat: "Today is the fourteenth day that you have been constantly watching and going without eating, having taken nothing. I encourage you to take some food, for this is for your preservation." Paul encouraged them to break out all the remaining food. He comforted them, saying, "Not a hair from the head of any of you will perish." This he knew because of the angel's prophecy.
With the soldiers and crew gathered about him on the deck, Paul took bread from the remaining provisions and made the blessing for bread. He broke it and shared it among them. The men felt encouraged by his confidence, and they themselves took food and ate.
After eating, everyone went to work lightening the ship. If they were to run aground, they wanted the ship riding as high as possible. Although they had already dumped most of the cargo, the ship's holds still carried a heavy load of grain. They spent the last hours until morning tossing the heavy, sodden bags overboard. Slowly, the sky began to brighten, and every eye searched the grey horizon ahead for some discernible shadow of rock or land.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
(Acts 27:41, ESV Bible)
Day Fifteen: Running Aground
When at last the light of morning had dispelled enough darkness to make out the shoreline, they saw a sandy bay ahead. They did not recognize the land, but the absence of large, sharp, jagged rocks encouraged them. The sailors decided to try to buck the storm and land in the bay. Scrambling all over the deck while the captain shouted orders, the sailors cut the anchors loose, untied the rudders, and hoisted the foresail. The sailors took hold of the steering paddles as the sail caught the wind. The ship suddenly lurched for the beach, and the crew cheered. After two weeks of being helplessly driven by the wind and currents, they had control of their vessel again. Riding high in the water, it seemed as if they might be able to run up on the beach.
Then suddenly, the ship came to an abrupt, reeling halt, and men staggered and sprawled across the deck. Her bow buried itself deep into a sandbar or reef that lay hidden under the waves some distance from shore. The ship's stern, meanwhile, took the assault of the crashing surf. Blow after blow, each wave struck like a battering ram, and the timbers began to groan, pop, and splinter. The landing craft was gone. The ship was breaking up. They had no options left except to leap overboard.
They had run aground close enough to land to hazard leaping overboard and swimming the rest of the distance. Some of them might even sur-vive. The Roman soldiers realized that they would be hard-pressed to save themselves, much less guard the prisoners of Rome. Soldiers who allowed prisoners to escape received the death penalty. As a last rite of their sacred duty, they prepared to slaughter the prisoners. While they unsheathed their swords to carry out the grisly business, the ship buckled and snapped apart around them.
Julius realized that butchering the prisoners would be the end of Paul as well. He had grown to respect the stubborn Jew, and he could not now bear to see him killed. Had not Paul predicted that they would all survive? Shouting over the din, Julius stayed his soldiers and ordered them to sheathe their weapons. "The centurion prevented [the slaughter] from happening especially because of Paul, that he might save him" (Acts 27:43, Western Text).
As the panicked crew and passengers clung to the deck, grabbing onto ropes and planks to steady themselves, rain began to fall. Julius ordered those men who could swim to leap into the water. He encouraged those who could not swim to cling to planks and pieces of the swiftly collapsing ship. While the ship folded up about them and the sea rushed in, the last of the men on board leapt into the surging waves. Some swam, others floated along on the planks and wreckage of the grain hauler. One by one, they felt the sand beneath their feet and staggered ashore. All two hundred and seventy-six survived, just as the apostle had predicted.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.