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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Travel by sea
Outside winter, ships were the quickest and cheapest way to travel, but they were built for cargo, not passengers, and from mid-September the sea grew dangerous. The great grain ships of Alexandria fed Rome.
You did not book a cabin; you found a freighter going your way, brought your own food and slept on deck. In Paul's world a ship could cover in a day what took a week on foot, and it cost less. But ships were built to carry goods. Passengers brought their own bedding and food and slept on deck. The sea was safe only part of the year: from mid-September it grew risky, and from about November to March almost no one sailed. The biggest ships of all were the grain carriers that took Egypt's wheat to Rome.
Except in winter, travel by sea was quicker and cheaper than by land, perhaps a hundred miles a day. Ships were built for cargo, so passengers brought their own food and slept on deck. Sailing was risky from mid-September and shut down from about November 10 into March. In a good year, Keener says, it could reopen as early as February 8. Some scholars estimate that a fifth of long voyages met serious danger. The remains of over a thousand ancient wrecks are known. Rome took much of its grain from Egypt. The Alexandrian ships, some 180 feet long, made up what Keener calls the largest merchant fleet known to Europe before the 1700s. Because of the winds they sailed north to Asia Minor before turning west. Imperial policy rewarded owners who brought grain even in the dangerous season. Owners were usually wealthy though of low status, and most sailors were poor men or slaves. Without sun or stars a crew could not fix its position. Pagans believed the souls of the drowned "wandered aimlessly forever above the waters in which they perished" (Keener). Ships were named for a protecting god whose image stood at the bow. Castor and Pollux were the sailors' patrons. Josephus himself was wrecked in the Adriatic on a ship with some six hundred aboard. In Jewish tradition the sea stood for chaos and danger, and Paul planned his journeys so as not to sail in winter (Wright).
An analogy: hitching a ride on a long-haul freight truck before the mountain passes close for winter. It is fast and cheap while the weather holds, the driver decides when to risk it, and nobody built the cab with you in mind.
The sailing season explains why a voyage after the Fast was already dangerous in Acts 27:9. Paul plans to stay the winter where he is in 1 Corinthians 16:6, and Keener reads his plan to winter in one place, in Titus 3:12, against the same calendar.
Not a ride where you can pull over and wait out the weather. A truck can stop on the shoulder. A ship caught by a storm could not, and without sun or stars the crew could not even fix its position. Some scholars estimate a fifth of long voyages met serious danger. There were no passenger lines either; travelers rode cargo ships.
Is the voyage of Acts 27 an eyewitness account? Keener follows the mariner James Smith in finding the nautical details exact. The cultural backgrounds notes say they fit the weather and geography too precisely to be invented. The CSB Study Bible calls an eyewitness author the most natural conclusion. Keener notes that some scholars regard the we passages as a literary device of sea stories.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-27-27-44\/","n":"Acts 27:27-44, Shipwreck off Malta","s":"On the fourteenth night the sailors sense land, drop anchors from the stern and try to slip away in the ship's boat. Paul urges everyone to eat and gives thanks over bread, and when the ship breaks up the centurion stops the soldiers from killing the prisoners; all 276 reach the shore.","r":"Acts 27:27-44"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-28-1-10\/","n":"Acts 28:1-10, Malta: the viper and the goddess Justice","s":"The islanders of Malta welcome the shipwrecked with a fire. When a viper fastens on Paul's hand they decide that Justice will not let a murderer live; when he takes no harm they call him a god. Publius, the island's chief man, takes them in, and Paul heals his father and many others.","r":"Acts 28:1-10"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-28-11-16\/","n":"Acts 28:11-16, The Twin Brothers and the road to Rome","s":"After three months they sail in an Alexandrian ship with the Twin Brothers as its figurehead, land at Puteoli and walk the Appian Way toward Rome, where believers come out to meet Paul. In Rome he is allowed to live on his own with a soldier guarding him.","r":"Acts 28:11-16"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1corinthians-16-1-24\/","n":"1 Corinthians 16:1-24, The collection and final greetings","s":"Paul arranges a weekly setting aside of money for the believers in Jerusalem, plans his travels, commends Timothy, Apollos and the household of Stephanas, and closes with greetings, a line in his own hand and the Aramaic prayer Marana tha.","r":"1 Corinthians 16:1-24"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2corinthians-11-16-33\/","n":"2 Corinthians 11:16-33, The fool's boast and the basket over the wall","s":"Forced to boast like a fool, Paul matches his rivals' Jewish credentials and then lists sufferings instead of achievements: lashes, rods, stoning, shipwreck, the dangers of the road, hunger and cold, and a night escape down the wall of Damascus.","r":"2 Corinthians 11:16-33"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2timothy-4-9-22\/","n":"2 Timothy 4:9-22, The cloak, the scrolls, the first defense, and before winter","s":"Paul asks Timothy to come quickly and bring Mark, the cloak he left at Troas and his scrolls; Alexander the metalworker did him great harm, no one stood with him at his first defense, but the Lord rescued him from the lion's mouth, and Timothy must come before winter.","r":"2 Timothy 4:9-22"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/titus-3-9-15\/","n":"Titus 3:9-15, A divisive person, winter at Nicopolis, and Zenas and Apollos","s":"Titus is to avoid foolish controversies, genealogies and quarrels about the law, and to warn a divisive person twice before having nothing more to do with him; Paul plans to winter at Nicopolis and asks Titus to send Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way with everything they need.","r":"Titus 3:9-15"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/revelation-18-9-24\/","n":"Revelation 18:9-24, kings, merchants and the cargo list","s":"The kings, the merchants and the sea captains stand far off and mourn as Babylon burns, because no one buys their cargoes any more, a long list of luxuries that ends with human beings. An angel hurls a great millstone into the sea, and the sounds of music, craftsmen, the mill, the lamp and the wedding fall silent in the city where the blood of prophets and saints was found.","r":"Revelation 18:9-24"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-dioscuri\/","n":"The Dioscuri","s":"Twin gods who protected sailors, carved on the ship that carried Paul to Rome.","r":"Acts 28:11"}
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 16:11, 18:18, 27:1-8, 27:6, 27:9, 27:20 and 28:11
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 27:1-44, 27:2, 27:6, 27:9, 27:11, 27:20 and 28:11
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Acts 27:20 and 28:11
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Acts 27:1, 27:7-9, 27:20 and 28:11
- Josephus, The Life of Flavius Josephus 3, trans. William Whiston
- N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography, ch. 14, From Caesarea to Rome and Beyond
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Corinthians 16:5 and 16:6
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on 1 Corinthians 16:6
