And when it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they
delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan Cohort
named Julius. 2 And embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was about to sail
to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by
Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica. 3 The next day we put in at Sidon.
And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be
cared for. 4 And putting out to sea from there we sailed under the lee of
Cyprus, because the winds were against us. 5 And when we had sailed across the
open sea along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia. 6
There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy and put us on
board. 7 We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off
Cnidus, and as the wind did not allow us to go farther, we sailed under the lee
of Crete off Salmone. 8 Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place
called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea.
9 Since much time had
passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast [1] was already
over, Paul advised them, 10 saying, “Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be
with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our
lives.” 11 But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner
of the ship than to what Paul said. 12 And because the harbor was not suitable
to spend the winter in, the majority decided to put out to sea from there, on
the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing
both southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there. (Acts 27:1-12 (ESV)
Paul advises that the voyage will not be a good one, but the
centurion doesn’t pay attention to him. Paul wasn’t inexperienced in travel and
does note that he himself had suffered shipwreck three times. Yet it would make
sense to listen to the ship owner and pilot.
I don’t know what to read into Paul’s perception. The truth
is that the sea was rough on boats at that time of year, and everyone knew it.
Yom kippur falling in October, there are many storms. So Paul could just be
going off of common knowledge and knowing that travelling at this time of year
wasn’t a good idea. But no one wanted to stay in Fair Haven. On the other hand, it could be Paul
prophesying. In any case they go and Paul proves prescient.
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