Bible Study Lesson for Acts 27:1-12: Paul Sails for Rome

This chapter describes the first part of Paul's journey to Rome.

Verses 1-12 describes how Paul and his companions set sail for Rome.
Verses 13-26 describes a fierce storm and how God promises Paul that all will be spared.
Verses 27-44 describes the shipwreck

This first part of the chapter is filled with more names of places as we read about the beginning of Paul's journey to Rome. { Hand out books with maps; ask group where Paul is currently }

Read Acts 27:1. One of my references says that this journey probably began early autumn of AD 60. Firstly we note that the "we" narrative begins again, indicating that Luke is now traveling again with Paul. My commentary said that it is likely that Luke spent Paul's two years of imprisonment in Caesarea nearby, and therefore is now ready to travel with Paul. We do not know anything more about Julius, the centurion here, beyond what we will read about him in this chapter. Just to review your Roman history a bit: there were about 6,000 men in the Roman legion, divided into 10 regiments, each of which had a designation. Julius' regiment is the Imperial regiment, meaning "belong to the empire." A centurion commanded about 100 men and was carefully selected for the post. I don't think Julius had all 100 soldiers with him, but he would have had some men under his command to guard the prisoners. We don't know anything specific about the other prisoners here, either; my guess is that they would have to be of some importance or status (either because of their rank or because of their crime) for the Romans to take the time and effort to transport them to Rome.

Read Acts 27:2. { Put up ship symbol on flannel map } More proper names! Where is "Adramytiium"? This is a harbor of the east coast of Asia. { Ask people with "The Macmillan Bible Atlas" to find it on their maps; point out spot on flannel map & show how ship would have traveled along the coastline & now was planning on sailing back. } We learn now that Paul and Luke had another traveling companion, Aristarchus. { Point out Macedonia & Thessalonica on the map } This is not the first time we have seen Aristarchus with Paul. The first time he is mentioned is in reference to the riot at Ephesus. Read Acts 19:28-31. That must have been an experience! Aristarchus as released, unharmed, but it must have been pretty frightening. But the guy keeps going! We see him next in chapter 20 (Acts 20:4) as one of the delegates who travel with Paul back to Jerusalem with the offerings for the Jerusalem church. Now, two years later, he is still willing to travel with Paul, even though he knows that is only going to mean more trouble and hardship! J We know that he was with Paul in Rome, later. Read Colossians 4:10. Though nothing else much is written about him, we can see from all this that he is a courageous man and a faithful friend to Paul.

Read Acts 27:3. This ship, remember, has other priorities besides transporting this Roman and his prisoners; it's main purpose is to pick up and sell cargo up and down the major ports of the coast. So the next major port on its route is Sidon, only a day's travel away, or 70 miles north. { Point out Sidon on map } We get a glimpse into the relationship between the centurion and Paul: Julius trusts Paul enough to accept his parole so that he can visit friends and fellow believers in Sidon. Luke mentions them providing for his needs; perhaps this meant he was given extra provisions or clothes or writing supplies, etc. for the long journey to Rome. I'm sure he was also prayed over, which would have met some of his spiritual needs. Many of these people, I'm sure, never saw Paul again.

Read Acts 27:4. { Point out island of Cyprus } "passed to the lee of Cyprus" meant that they sailed north on the eastern side of the island, then west along the northern side. The prevailing winds of this time were westerly, that is coming from the west, so the island would help block those winds so that they could navigate around the island.

Read Acts 27:5. More proper names! Cilicia, Pamphylia, and Lycia are the names of provinces. { Point out provinces on flannel map } Myra is a city in the province of Lycia. My commentary said that the trip from Sidon to Myra along the coast would normally take 10 to 15 days. "The growing importance of the city of Myra was associated with the development of navigation. Instead of hugging the coast from point to point, more ships were daring to run directly from Alexandria in Egypt to harbors like Myra on the southern coast of Asia Minor. It was considerably out of the way on the trip to Rome from Egypt, but the prevailing westerly wind would not allow a direct voyage toward the west. Myra became an important grain-storage city as well." { Point out Alexandria on flannel map }

Read Acts 27:6. { Read description of Alexandrian ship from "Paul's Missionary Journeys", pg. 26 } "Paul and the others could have remained on the first ship and continued up the coast to Macedonia, then taken the land route over the Egnatian Way across Greece and on to Rome, entering Italy at the port of Brundisium. But Julius chose to change ships here, accepting the opportunity of a voyage direct to Rome. Some suggest that Aristarchus from Macedonia stayed with the first ship and went to his home area to tell of Paul's coming imprisonment in Rome. If so, he later joined Paul in Rome"

Read Acts 27:7. From my commentary: "From Myra to Cnidus at the southeast point of Asia Minor was about 170 miles. The trip probably took another 10 to 15 days. Crete. An island 160 miles long. Rather than cross the open sea to Greece, the ship was forced to bear south, seeking to sail west with the protection of the island of Crete on the north ("to the lee of Crete"). Salmone. A promontory on the northeast point of Crete." { Point out places on flannel map & ask group to look at their maps }

Read Acts 27:8. The coast mentioned here is the coast of Crete. Fair Havens is a port about midway on the southern coast of Crete and Lasea is about 5 miles away. (Neither are mentioned any where else in scripture.)

Read Acts 27:9-10. "The Fast" is another name for 'the Day of Atonement" or "Yom Kippur." "The Jewish Day of Atonement fell in the latter part of September or in October. The usual sailing season by Jewish calculation lasted from Pentecost (May-June) to Tabernacles, which was five days after the Fast. The Romans considered sailing after Sept. 15 doubtful and after Nov. 11 suicidal." It was very late in the sailing season, therefore, and moving into a time of extreme danger for the voyage to continue.

It is not specifically spelled out here that Paul is given a supernatural warning from God, but I tend to believe that is what happened. Common sense, as we will see in the next two verses, is going to say that they need to sail on a little bit further.

Read Acts 27:11. The centurion decides to disregard Paul's warning and listen to the pilot and the owner of the ship. After all, they were sailors and Paul wasn't, as the centurion undoubtedly told himself. And what they suggest, as we will read in the next verse, did have a certain amount of logic, and perhaps didn't seem all that risky. The owner of the ship, of course, would also tend to think about how he can protect his ship and his investment.

Read Acts 27:12. All the sailors wanted to do was to sail the ship perhaps a day's sail down the coast of Crete to a safer harbor, Phoenix. The harbor at Fair Havens, apparently, was not a safe place to leave a ship over the winter, while Phoenix was a major city with a protected harbor. If the centurion had listened to Paul, and stayed in Fair Havens, the ship may have been destroyed when the winter storms hit, but none of the following hardships would have afflicted the people on board. (And they probably would have saved the cargo.) In the end, as we will see later, the ship was destroyed anyway, and they lost the cargo as well.

To be continued...

Sources
Editors. Compton's Interactive Bible (software)
Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford (notes). The Student Bible. NIV Version
Aharoni & Avi-Yohan. The Macmillan Bible Atlas.