Acts 28:29-31 Paul's Legacy

Paul's words had the usual effect, that the Jews departed significantly riled up. Evidently the Romans allowed him to continue to stay in civilian quarters for two more years before he was either heard by Caesar, thrown in jail, or executed. Paul's final outcome is not recorded in Scripture. But it appears that his access to people who would come to him was unhindered, either by Romans or Jews, and since he preached to all, he clearly had the opportunity to preach to Gentiles.

          And so this leaves us with an unfinished book. The gospel was preached, and continued to be preached, as of the completion of Luke's manuscript, and it continues to this day. Although Paul's time on earth eventually came to an end, the work of the Holy Spirit, the carrying of the gospel to the world, continues. The letter to the Ephesians must have been written in this period, as Ephesians 6:20 refers to Paul's chains. The second letter to Timothy gives indication that Paul's end was near, based on 2 Timothy 4:6, which follows Paul's challenge to Timothy.

2 Timothy 4:1-8 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Acts 28:23-28 Paul presents the gospel in Rome

Acts 28:23-24 Paul got his opportunity to present the gospel to at least the Jews in Rome, using apologetics that showed Jesus was the fulfillment of the promises in both the Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets. As in all the other venues where Paul preached, some received the message and some did not.

Acts 28:25-28 Paul's parting words seem oddly judgmental. He closed with a challenge to them that their hearts and minds were closed to what God was saying, quoting Isaiah 6:9-10 in Acts 28:26-27. This passage occurs immediately after Isaiah's vision of the glory of God, and his initial response, Isaiah 6:5,

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!

Because I am a man of unclean lips,

And I live among a people of unclean lips;

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

and the cleansing of his lips by a lump of glowing coal transported by one of the Seraphim. This suggests that Paul was attempting to communicate to the Jews the immediacy and directness of his commission from God, comparable to that of Isaiah, in terms they could relate to.

          Paul follows this quote with the same statement that got the Jews in Jerusalem agitated, that he was going to take the gospel to the gentiles since the Jews had rejected Jesus. 

Acts 28:11-22 Paul arrives in Rome

Acts 28:11-16 After three months in Malta, the centurion and Paul's traveling companions booked passage on an Egyptian ship, which had managed to survive the winter intact. The remainder of the voyage seems to have been uneventful. Their ports of call included Syracuse, on the southeastern corner of the island of Sicily, Rhegium, at the tip of the toe of the boot that is Italy, and Puteoli, on the west coast of Italy. From there they travelled overland to Rome. The legs of the voyages from Malta to Syracuse and Syracuse to Rhegium were both approximately 135 km, and from Rhegium to Puteoli approximately 320 km. The overland journey was approximately 230 km. There were some believers in Puteoli who offered them lodging, and then they proceeded on to Rome. By this time, the centurion apparently knew Paul well enough to trust him with a soldier but did not need the whole contingent. The whole journey from Jerusalem to Rome was approximately 3,400 km, not including whatever distance the boat took them during the storm that was off course.

Acts 28:17-22 Paul wasted no time in asking the leaders of the Jews in Rome to come to him. He recounted the reason for being a prisoner, although apparently he did not present the full gospel at this time. Oddly, they had not heard anything from the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem about him, but they were aware of the Christian sect and wanted to hear Paul's opinion of it. It seems uncharacteristic of the Jewish priests, the Pharisees and the Sadducees that they had not sent word to Rome of Paul and their accusations against him. Perhaps the winter had prevented them from sending messages as well, and Paul's journey, difficult as it was, had still beat their messenger.

Acts 28:1-10 The Gospel in Malta

Acts 28:1 They found out they had been shipwrecked on the island of Malta. The minimum distance between Cauda and Malta is approximately 767 km. This would not have required two weeks to cover with fair skies and following seas, but who knows where the ship had been driven in the storm. Certainly the sailors did not.

Acts 28:2-6 The natives of Malta showed great hospitality, this being the middle of the stormy season, and a storm. The irony of a minor miracle when the snake bit Paul and he was not affected (as promised by Jesus in Mark 16:18), the pagan superstition changed from thinking Paul was a murderer being punished by the gods to thinking that Paul was himself a god. The irony is that the storm demonstrated the power of the one true God, whom Paul served. The workings of God's justice were in the pagans' minds personified in a separate deity, but they had no concept of what had really happened. Paul was not in his glorified body, but he was under the protection of God and with the flow of the Holy Spirit, had been preserved with all who were on the ship with him. Whether it is the deception of Satan or the natural human tendency, it seems almost a universal tendency to assign the work of God to other agencies or beings. Of course, Paul had not yet had the opportunity to preach the gospel here, but he would over the next few months.

Acts 28:7-10 Paul's ministry that had been so effective in Asia and Achaia continued in Malta. Publius' father was healed, and then the rest of the people of the island came to Paul and were healed. We have to infer that Paul also preached the gospel while he was there, as this is not stated. But he would pray for healing in no other name than Jesus.

Acts 27:27-44 Shipwreck at Malta

Acts 27:27-32 After two weeks at sea in the storm (this was a really long-lasting storm!) the sailors recognized the signs that they were approaching land. A fathom is the distance fingertip-to-fingertip of an adult with arms outstretched to the sides, typically thought to be about 5 feet 6 inches to six feet, depending on the size of the person whose arms are used as a standard. Twenty fathoms would be about 110-120 feet or 33-36m of depth. The average depth of the Adriatic Sea is reported to be 250 m and of the Mediterranean Sea 1,500 m. The Syrtis shallows are not in the Adriatic, but in the southern part of the Med, off the north coast of Africa. So verse 27 indicates that somehow the sailors had figured out that they had been pushed north to the Adriatic.

          One has to wonder why the sailors thought they would be better off escaping from the ship in the small boat than staying with the big boat. Granted, it would only founder in very shallow water compared to the larger ship, but it would offer virtually no protection against the waves and wind. By this time, the centurion was apparently trusting of Paul, or at least recognized the wisdom of his words, and the soldiers thwarted the sailors' plan. The soldiers probably did not know that much about sailing, although perhaps they had learned a lot by observation. But they knew enough to know that without the sailors operating the ship, they would not be able to save it.

Acts 27:33-38 They had been on lean rations, no doubt, but Paul indicates they had eaten nothing for two weeks. Even under the best of circumstances, a two week fast would be trying and leave a person weakened. In order to survive being shipwrecked, they would need energy. So they ate and were encouraged by Paul's words that no one would perish.

Acts 27:39-44 After two weeks in a storm at sea, the trip ends with a scene of utter chaos. The guardian angels must have been working overtime to protect the lives of all 276 people as the ship hit a reef, the soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners, and everyone had to swim to shore or float to shore with a piece of debris. But they succeeded in getting to shore alive, all of them. 

Acts 27:18-26 The storm continues a long time

Acts 27:18-20 The storm continued; to lighten the ship they threw the cargo overboard. The day after that they threw the ship's tackle overboard. It is not clear to me why they did this. The tackle serves a purpose. Perhaps the ship was riding so low in the water that they feared being swamped and were willing to do anything to avoid that. But the storm continued, even though the ship was not swamped; the number of days is not stated here, but gradually everyone was losing hope.

          "The storms of life" is often used as a metaphor for trials and tribulations that we go through year in and year out. We do the things we know to do to try to avoid the shipwreck of life that we are certain is just ahead. But the storm continues. We lose hope because nothing we do seems to make any difference. This is not the same as the storm that struck the ship that Jonah was on, even metaphorically. In Jonah's case, he was running from God, and he knew full well that was impossible. (Jonah 1:10-12) Job was not at sea when his trials came, but he was also helpless before them; he gave evidence of losing hope. (Job 3:1-26)

Acts 27:21-26 Paul did not lose hope because he clung to the promise made by The Lord that he would testify in Rome. (Acts 23:11)  He was visited by an angel in this instance, who repeated the promise, and added that God would preserve the lives of all who were sailing on the ship. Perhaps we can infer that Paul was praying for this, that the lives of all who were with him in this storm would make it through. It may have been a bit of the human side showing up when he couldn't resist reminding them with an 'I told you so' comment. But God's grace can be seen in these circumstances. Paul's focus remained on his mission, that he would testify before Caesar. The captain of the ship lost his cargo, and would lose his ship. The price to be paid for ignoring the warnings of God's spokesperson. But they would all survive this test.  They would not run aground on the shallows of Syrtis, but on an island.

Acts 27:6-17 Stormy Seas

Acts 27:6-8 The centurion found a ship from Egypt that was bound for Italy. The next part of this segment of the trip took them close to Cnidus, which is at the tip of a peninsula on the southwest corner of modern Turkey. Cnidus is primarily known for the sea battle that took place there in 394 BC during the Corinthian war. The distance of this leg of the trip was approximately 200 km. At this point the captain of the ship probably wanted to sail due west for the shortest transit to Italy, but due to the prevailing winds was unable to, and so went essentially due south to Crete. Luke's comment that they sailed slowly and with difficulty from Myra to Cnidus suggests that they were beating into the wind, tacking back and forth, in order to sail against the wind. To sail crosswind to Crete would have been relatively quick, but would have gotten them no closer to their destination. Salmone, on the eastern end of Crete, was a voyage of approximately 200 km from Cnidus. From there they sailed on the south side of the island as far as Fair Havens, about 130 km, pretty much due west, and as Luke notes, again with great difficulty.

Acts 27:9-12 Paul was not trained as a sailor, but having seen day after day of sailing into the window, tacking back and forth, laboriously trying to advance upwind, even an observer could perceive that the voyage was difficult. Paul had the advantage of hearing from The Lord although he did not in this passage cite that The Lord had told him that the voyage would be accompanied with loss of cargo, ship, and life. (And in the end, no lives were lost, so it wasn't fully of The Lord). But Paul was an amateur so the captain of the ship and the pilot thought they could make it to Phoenix, a mere 55 km or so further west from Fair Havens.

Acts 27:13-14 So when they set out, the storm hit them. Euraquilo (Gr. eurokludon) was literally a violent east wind. Coming out of the east, one might think it would have pushed them more or less in the direction they wanted to go. Late in the fall, the weather turns nasty anywhere in the northern hemisphere. This storm is referred to as a tuphonikos, presumably to emphasize the severity of the storm as being like a tempest.

Acts 27:15-17   The ship was caught in the wind which was so violent the sailors were unable to steer it, so they were forced to simply run alee. This quickly brought them to the island of Clauda or Cauda, now called Gavdos, less than 40 km from the southern coast of Crete. The ship's boat was evidently a small boat being towed behind the larger ship, which was probably bobbing around at the end of its rope uncontrollably due to the heavy seas. So they brought it up and tied it to the main ship. It should be noted that this was a fairly large ship since it had 276 people on board (Acts 27:37). Passing by the island, they feared that the wind would drive them into the sandbars off the north coast of Africa known as Syrtis where they would founder. There is some confusion about what they let down; sea-anchor is the NIV rendering of skeuos, which could also be translated instrument or gear. In fact, according to Strong, this is a root of uncertain affinity, but is used in several other words, including things such as packing baggage, preparing equipment, preparing oneself, tackling of a ship. Lowering the sea-anchor and letting themselves be driven along could also be lowering the sail and letting themselves be driven along. The context does not seem to provide further guidance. If they lowered the sail, the wind would not be able to drive them as hard. If they let down the sea anchor, the current would have more influence on the direction of the ship than otherwise. If they did both, perhaps that would reduce the likelihood of being driven to the shoals of Libya. Whatever it was, the sailors felt this was the best way to reduce the risk of being driven southwest and running aground on the shallows of Syrtis.