Assignment 11.8.09 to 11.14.09, Acts 28

[Irving]

Assignment 11.8.09 to
11.14.09
THE BOOK OF ACTS, CHAPTER 28.

PREFACE: Paul’s appeal to Rome for a trial as a Roman citizen, rather
than by the Jewish religious leadership, resulted in his being taken
by sea to Rome, under the guard of a centurion and a detail of
soldiers, who were also responsible for a a number of other prisoners
on their way to Rome for trial. Luke, Aristarchus and perhaps other
friends accompanied Paul, undoubtedly at their own expense. The voyage
started late in the year – Yom Kippur was the cutoff date for safe
sailing on the Mediterranean – and had difficulty and slow going right
from the beginning. They finally reached Fair Havens, a port on the
southern coast of Crete, where Paul counseled Julius, the centurion,
to stay put there for the winter. But the ship’s owner and the pilot,
knowing that Fair Havens was not a sheltered harbor and a poor place
to winter, insisted on trying for Phoenix some 50 miles away along the
same coast. A fortuitous and unseasonable south wind picked up and
that permitted coastal progress under a broad reach, but it didn’t
last. Instead a “northeaster” of hurricane force hit them and drove
them southeast, away from Crete. As they passed to the lee of the
small island of Cauda, they had some temporary reduction of wind that
allowed them to take some defensive measures. They hoisted the life
boat from its towed position onto the deck of the ship. They passed
stout ropes around the hull of the ship to keep it together in the
event of running aground. The put out sea anchors and threw much of
the cargo of grain overboard to lighten the ship. Paul had a vision
and prophesied to the other passengers that not one of the 276 of
them would be lost, but that the ship would be destroyed. On the 14th
day of being driven from Fair Havens, and their location unknown, the
sailors sensed the nearness of land and confirmed it by taking
soundings. Now the sailors fears of running upon rocks intensified and
under the pretense of putting additional anchors over the bow, they
lowered the lifeboat into the sea to make an escape. But Paul
perceived their intent and told the centurion that these men were
needed to help save the other passengers. The centurion ordered his
soldiers to cut the ropes that tethered the lifeboat to the ship and
it floated away empty. Paul then urged everyone to eat something
because they would need their strength for the ordeal that lay ahead.
They did so and then threw off all residual grain cargo. When daylight
came they saw that they were being driven to a sandy beach.
Relieved because there were no rocks, they cut away the anchors and
raised a small foresail to accelerate onto the sand; however, they
hit a submerged sandbar onto which the bow became stuck while the
stern was being pounded by the surf and breaking up. The soldiers were
about to kill the prisoners because for every prisoner who escaped, a
soldier guard’s life would be taken. However, Julius intervened,
primarily for the sake of Paul. Then he ordered all who could swim to
jump in the water and swim to the beach. The others he ordered to
grasp some of the wooden pieces of the ship that were floating all
around them and kick their way to shore. By this strategy, all 276
people on board made it safely to shore. Now we take up chapter 28,
beginning on the island of Malta, to which they had been driven.

Chapter 28.
verse 1. They discover that they are on Malta.

verses 2,3,4. Luke refers to the inhabitants of the island as
“Islanders”, which is another proof that Luke, a non Greek is the
author of this book. A Greek would have referred to them as
barbarians, a name Greeks used for all non-Greeks, whereas these
obviously Semitic peoples (they were of Phoenician extraction) would
not have been called “foreigners” (barbarians) by a Jew. The weather
is cold – it is late October or early November – and the survivors are
wet. The islanders make a fire for them. Paul helps by gathering
some brush wood lying about to put on the fire, and in so doing
uncovers a viper (any one of a family of poisonous Old World snakes)
that bit his hand and hung on. It may have been obvious to the
islanders that Paul was one of the prisoners of the Romans. They
expected Paul to die from this bite because they said to each other
that he must be a murderer, “for though he escaped from the sea
Justice will not allow him to live.“

verses 5, 6. Paul just shook off the viper and there were no apparent
effects, even after a long time. This caused the islander to conclude
that he was not a murderer, but a god!

verse 7. The chief official of the island , Publius, was very
hospitable. The account is sparse in detail. We doubt that Publius had
the ability to accommodate 276 people for three days in his home. The
passage probably refers to Paul and his friends. Julius obviously had
great respect for Paul and trust, so it is likely that he would have
allowed Paul to be free of a personal guard on this island.

verse 8. Publius’ father was ill with fever and dysentery, and Paul
prayed and healed him.

verse 9. When this healing became news, every one on the island who
was sick came to Paul and was cured.

verse 10. The three month winter stay in Malta was not an unpleasant
one. Although we are not told, Paul and his companions surely used the
opportunity to proclaim the Gospel to these hospitable folk.

verse 11. The three months stay brought them to the opening of the
sailing season in late February or early March. They now take passage
in an Alexandrian ship that bore the figure head of twin gods Castor
and Pollux, thought by the Greeks to be the guardian deities of
sailors. These twin brothers in Greek mythology were sons of Zeus and
Leda.

verse 12. The first port after Malta was Syracuse, in Sicily,where
they stayed three days, perhaps merely to unload and take up cargo.

verse 13. Two more stops on the way, Rhegium, the first on the Italian
mainland, and Puteoli , a port that during the first century A.D.
served as the place were grain ships unloaded their cargo to supply
the huge needs of the City of Rome.

verse 14,15. They found some brothers, evidently Christians, with
whom they spent a week. Either Julius, the centurion had some business
of his own to attend to, or he had the freedom to accommodate the
desires of Paul . The other prisoners would have to be incarcerated
in some kind of jail for this week. After this they made the remaining
land journey to Rome, about 50 or 60 miles. The Forum of Appius, known
as a market town, .was about 40 miles from the center of Rome and the
Three Taverns about 30. Both of these were located on the Domitiana, a
branch of the famous Appian Way, that connected Rome to Puteoli. The
Three Taverns was a way station along the Appian way. Brothers in
Christ, who had news of Paul’s coming with his companions traveled
down the Domitiana to meet them. This tells us something about the
high regard that the far flung new Christian Church had for Paul, and
how anxious they were to meet him. Paul himself was encouraged by this
display of regard, was encouraged and thanked God.

verse 16. Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard
him. We know from references in the Epistles that Paul received
support from many friends to maintain himself in his own house in
Rome. We are not told that he did work as a tent maker in this home to
help support himself, but we know from previous chapters of Acts, that
he was accustomed to do so.

verse 17. Paul does not waste time. Only three days in his house and
he calls together the leaders of the Jews in Rome. We remember from
Chapter 18 that when Paul was in Corinth on his third missionary
journey, he met Aquilla and Priscilla, Jews who were forced to leave
Rome because of the decrees of Emperor Claudius that some Jews must
leave Rome because of rioting. Either the decree had just been
allowed to lapse, or it did so automatically upon the death of
Claudius in 54 A.D. The date of Paul’s arrival in Rome is 60 or 61
A.D.

verse 18-22. Paul tells the Jewish leaders in Rome about the
background of his coming to Rome, and why he is a prisoner. We learn
that Paul, even though in his own house is tethered by a chain in
addition to being under the guard of a Roman soldier. The Jewish
leaders are noncommittal in their response, saying that they will have
to hear more from Paul because they have information that people
everywhere are talking against this sect. We assume that by this they
mean Jewish people are talking against it.

verses 230-28. A full day conference, from morning until evening, was
arranged, and an even larger number came to Paul’s house. Some were
convinced by Paul that Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecies of
old, but others were not. They disagreed among themselves and the
meeting began to break up after Paul said, “The Holy Spirit spoke the
truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah, the prophet
(Isaiah 6: 9,10. Paul then concludes by adding that he wants them to
know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and that
they will listen. Remember that this was the same kind of statement
that Paul made when he was speaking to the Jewish crowd from the steps
that led from the Temple in Jerusalem up to the adjacent Roman
garrison. They had become quiet as he spoke to them in Aramaic and
listened without disturbance until he uttered the lines, “Then the
Lord said to me, ‘Go, I will send you far away to the Gentiles.” This
was the last straw for the Jews, that Paul was taking the message to
Gentiles after they had refused it. In that earlier case the Jews had
become so agitated that the centurion had to send soldiers to protect
Paul and get him into the barracks at the garrison. In this case we’re
not told of any hostile action on the Jew’s part other than their
leaving, although some manuscripts of Acts add verse 29, which is:
After he said this, the Jews left, arguing vigorously among
themselves.
In this last sermon to the Jews, he adds the bitter note, from Isaiah,
that those who will not hear the word of God, shall not hear it.
verse 30. Paul welcomed all who came to see him in his rented house.

verse 31. Presumably to all of these visitors he preached about the
Kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ, and this
without hindrance other than his confinement under house arrest.

The subsequent history of Paul is not clear in the Scripture. There
are a number of indications that he was released from this
imprisonment. 1. Acts stops abruptly at this time. 2. Paul wrote in
some of his epistles from Rome, that he expected to visit them soon
(Philippians 2:24; Philemon 22) 3. A number of events mentioned in the
epistles do not appear in Acts. We are led to conclude that they might
have occurred after the events of Acts. They might refer to a return
to Asia minor, Crete and Greece, after which he returned to Rome where
he was beheaded in 67 A.D. Tradition tells us that Paul went to Spain.
(See map on page 1850 of the Concordia Reference Bible.). Some
scholars, on the other hand, believe that Paul was executed after his
imprisonment in Rome in 62 A.D.

Next week’s assignment will transmit a four-page summary of the
important events we have encountered in this book . You may wish to
download it for future reference to remind you of what we have
learned.

Study Questions for Acts 28

1. The stop at Malta lasted three months, until sailing season began
again. Their departure was on another grain ship that had wintered at
Malta. Paul, aided by the Holy Spirit, who provided the setting for
miracles that immediately enhanced Paul’ s status , used these three
months to evangelize the island. What lesson for us latter day
Christians is implicit in these events ?

2. What conclusions can we draw from the fact that a welcoming party
from Rome came to meet Paul, some thirty miles, probably on foot, at
the Three Taverns?

3. The first gathering Paul called for in his imprisonment in his on
home was for the leaders of the local Jews. Based on what we have
learned from our study in this Book of Acts, what can you say about
this priority of Paul’s ?

4. What emotions do you feel as you come to the end of Luke’s account
of this marvelous record of evangelism that contributed so much to the
growth of the Church?