Assignment 10.25 to 10.31.09

[Irving]

Assignment 10.25 to
10.31.09
Acts 27:
1-12

Preface:
Paul was one of several prisoners who were being taken from Caesarea
to Rome for trial, under guard of a Roman centurion, Julius, and
soldiers under his command. The voyage began late in the sailing
season. Commercial sailing was suspended in the winter because of
unpredictable weather, frequently dangerous. The fall cutoff date
corresponded to the Jewish Fast of Atonement – called Yom Kippur by
modern Jews. Friends accompanied Paul, including Luke, the author of
Acts, and Aristarchus, a member of the congregation at Thessalonica
which had contributed to a great collection among the congregations
Paul had started in Asia Minor and Macedonia. Aristarchus had
accompanied Paul to Jerusalem to deliver and present the collection to
the needy Christians there. He had remained with Paul and was now on
the ship with him to Rome. He undoubtedly had to pay his own fare.
Sailing at this time of the year was difficult because of prevailing
winds in the wrong direction. Roman commercial ships were not good at
tacking; therefore, they made slow progress at first northward to
Sidon, no doubt on a broad reach. At Sidon, they stopped, and Julius
allowed Paul to go ashore and have his needs supplied by his Christian
friends. Needs were probably clothes, laundered and/or replaced.
The pilot of the ship wanted to go directly across the sea to Greece,
but was forced by the wind to hug the shore, passing to the lee of
Cyprus, then by strenuous tacking to Myra. They proceeded along the
coast to Cnidus, but very slowly, then turned south , on a broad reach
again, passing on the lea of the island of Crete. Turning westward
again they tacked along the southern coast of Crete and finally
reached Fair Havens. Paul was convinced that they would meet disaster
if they continued and counseled the centurion to stay the winter at
Fair Havens. The ship’s pilot and its owner both stated that Fair
Havens was not a good harbor in which to winter, being unprotected,
and that they would try to make Phoenix, not very far distant and a
safe harbor. This brings us to verse 13 of chapter 27, on the way from
Fair Havens to Phoenix.

Chapter 27.
verse 1. We don’t know exactly how or by whom the departure date for
taking Paul to Rome for trial before the Imperial Court was decided.
Perhaps someone in the military command structure decided on the basis
of competing tasks and the availability of a suitable officer to be in
charge of guarding Paul. A centurion is put in charge of Paul. His
name is Julius. Note the use of the pronoun “we” indicating that Luke
is with the travelers.
Who paid the fare?

verse 2. The commercial ship that was chosen had its home port in
Adramyttium ( See Notes on Roman Ships ). Adramyttium, now known as
Edremit, was a city on the northwest coast of Turkey. Aristarchus
was among the friends of Paul who were on this voyage. We first heard
of him in Acts `19: 29, then in 20:24. Philemon 24 and Colossians
4:10 tell us that Aristarchus was one of those aiding Paul in Rome
during his house arrest.

verse 3. A day’s voyage along the coast put them in the port of
Sidon, a Phoenician city about 70 miles north of Caesarea. Julius,
the centurion allowed Paul to leave the ship and go to his friends so
that they might provide for his needs. These needs might have been
laundering his clothes or providing some new clothes.

verse 4. They passed to the lee of Cyprus. The wind pattern in this
area was from the west. They might have preferred to sail in open sea
south and east of the island to make faster progress. As it was they
had to go up the coast on a broad reach, a capability they had with
the square-rigged sail typical of Roman commercial ships. .

verse 5. Perhaps some shift in the wind allowed them to sail west to
Myra. The map in the Concordia Self-Study Bible shows a wiggly path,
indicating that the cartographer who made the map felt that much
tacking was necessary on this leg of the journey. Myra at this time
was becoming more important because of so much grain shipping from
Alexandria to Rome. Ships were now daring to make voyages over open
water instead of hugging the coasts, as they had in previous times.

verse 6. Note that it was up to the centurion, Julius, to find a ship
to move his prisoners along the course to Rome. They probably could
have stayed with the first ship, which was, most likely – headed for
some port in Macedonia, and from this point they could have gone
overland to Rome. Undoubtedly, the centurion had an easier time
keeping his prisoners from escaping on shipboard and chose to avoid,
as much as possible, long trips overland.

verses 7, 8. It took many days to sail the short distance from Myra
to Cnidus because of unfavorable winds, so they sailed south on a
broad reach to the lee of Cyprus and tried again to sail west along
its southern coast. As before, going west was difficult, but they
made it to Fair Havens, about halfway along Cyprus.

verse 9-13. Because they had lost so much time, they found themselves
still enroute after the date when most commercial sailing stopped on
the Mediterranean. For the Jews this date coincided with the Jewish
Day of Atonement (today known as Yom Kippur). After this date sailing
became dangerous because of storms. Paul advised the crew and the
centurion not to proceed, but the centurion ignored this advise and
pressed on, in part, because Fair Havens was not a good protected
harbor in which to winter. They aimed for Phoenix, a more protected
harbor, also on Cyprus, and not very far away.

Notes on Roman Ships.

1. Based on cargo capability, Roman commercial ships typically ranged
from a capacity of 20 tons to 100 tons, although there are numerous
examples of them (found among submerged wrecks) in the class of 100 to
300 tons capacity. There are a few in the category of 1000 tons. The
largest Roman commercial ships might reach 180 feet long and 45 feet
wide. Smaller boats of this era were rigged with triangular lateen
sails, which were much better for tacking against the wind, but the
large commercial ships had a large square mainsail that was not
effective for tacking. Some large ships carried a small triangular
sail above the large square one, and this helped a little in tacking.
The absence of deep keels to react the wind forces on the sails
contributed to the difficulties. The Emperor Caligula ( 12-41 a.D.)
had a huge ship built expressly for the transport of the Egyptian
obelisk from in front of the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis to the
Caligula Circus in Rome, now the site of the Vatican. He had it
erected there during his short reign. Some time after the Roman
Church became the official religion of the Roman Empire around 390
A.D. , what had been the Caligula Circus became Vatican City . After
the start of building of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in the early
1500s, It was decided that the obelisk was not properly located with
respect to the Basilica. Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590) ordered it to be
taken down and re-erected in St. Peter’s Square in front of the
Basilica., which was still under construction. The obelisk stands
there still. No remains of the large ship that transported it from
Egypt have ever been found.

Study Questions for Acts 27:
1-13

1. We find, again, that Paul is able to establish a beneficial
relationship with a Roman military officer, Julius, who even allows
him to leave the ship at Sidon to visit friends. Why do you think he
granted such freedom to his prisoner, considering the punishment he
would receive if Paul escaped ?

2. Travel by sea was dangerous , even as late as 1912 when the
Titanic sunk in the North Atlantic. Paul was not unfamiliar with sea
voyages. Parts of three of his missionary journeys were traversed
under sail. After Julius transferred his prisoners to the Alexandrian
ship, undoubtedly delivering wheat to Rome, Paul was bold, even as a
prisoner, to warn against setting sail from Fair Havens. Comment on
the fact that although they acted contrary to Paul’s advice,
indications are that they took his advice under consideration. What
concerns of the ship’s owner and the pilot caused them to act
contrary to Paul’s advice?