Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 27:1-26, Sailing late in the season
Paul sails for Rome in the custody of a centurion named Julius, changing to an Alexandrian grain ship at Myra. With the Fast already past, the owner presses on against Paul's warning, and a northeaster drives the ship helpless for days until an angel promises Paul that all aboard will live.
Acts 27:1-26, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul and other prisoners are put in the charge of a centurion, Julius, who treats Paul kindly and transfers them to a grain ship from Alexandria headed for Italy. Progress is slow, and by the time they reach Crete the safe sailing season has passed, so Paul warns of disaster, but the officer follows the captain and owner instead. A fierce wind off the island drives them out to sea, and after days of storm and jettisoned cargo, with no sun or stars visible, they give up hope. Paul then reports that an angel has promised he will stand before Caesar and that everyone aboard will survive, though they will be wrecked on an island.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-sea\/","n":"The sea","s":"To ancient Israel the sea stood for chaos and danger that only God could command. The Gospel stories on the lake of Galilee lean on that old picture.","r":""}
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/roman-custody\/","n":"Prison, chains and Roman custody","s":"Roman prisons held people until trial or execution; they were not a punishment in themselves. How a prisoner was kept, in the stocks of an inner cell or lightly chained to one soldier, depended on his rank.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/day-of-atonement\/","n":"The Day of Atonement and the mercy seat","s":"Once a year the high priest went into the holy of holies with sacrificial blood, for his own sins and then the nation's. It was the one fast the law commanded, and the mercy seat on the ark was the place the blood was brought.","r":""}
Myra was a regular port of call for the grain ships (the Zondervan atlas). The cultural backgrounds notes and Keener make Alexandrian grain ships some 180 feet long, while the Zondervan Bible dictionary gives 140 feet for an exceptional one and puts most merchant ships far smaller. The Fast was the Day of Atonement; sailing was risky from mid-September and closed from about November into March (Keener and his notes; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). Wright puts the Day of Atonement on October 5 in AD 59, and Carson, Moo and Morris report an argument that the Fast's timing points to that year, an argument weakened if safe sailing ended on September 14, as Vegetius says. The CSB Study Bible says Paul's warning may have come from revelation or a seasoned traveler's judgment, and Wright notes Paul had already been shipwrecked three times (2 Corinthians 11:25). The wind's name joins Greek for east wind and Latin for north wind, a sailors' word for a northeaster (the dictionary). The Syrtis, shoals off Libya, had wrecked whole fleets (Keener and his notes). Wright sees the voyage as Luke's parallel to the trial and death of Jesus.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 27:2, 27:6, 27:9, 27:17 and 27:20
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 27:1, 27:6, 27:9, 27:10 and 27:17
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Acts 27:9
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Acts 27:7-9 and 27:10
- N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography, ch. 14, From Caesarea to Rome and Beyond
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part Two, comment on Acts 27:1-12
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 7, Paul, section The Chronology of Paul's Missionary Career, and its note on Acts 27:9
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, The Journeys of Paul, Paul's Journey to Rome
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entries Euroclydon and ships
