20. Shipwreck Transfer Trip

Acts of the Apostles

 

We have reached the end of the story of the Acts of the Apostles. The last two chapters narrate the journey of transfer of Paul from Caesarea-Maritime to Rome. Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, transferred to Caesarea to await trial, the new governor Festus asks him if he wants to go to Jerusalem and Paul prefers to appeal to Caesar and therefore he will go to Caesar. When the opportunity arises, the prisoner is taken on board. Along with Paul, Luke and Aristarchus also embark; Paul is entrusted to the custody of a centurion named Julius.

The navigation follows the coast and starting from Caesarea they go to the north, the first stop is at the port of Sidon where Paul has the opportunity to visit the Christian community living there. Luke recounts this journey in the first person, citing travel notes that he had signed up during the same adventure. “We put out to sea and sailed around the sheltered side of Cyprus, because of the headwinds and crossing the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia we came to Myra in Lycia. Myra is much further along, it is on the southern coast of Turkey. “There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship that was sailing to Italy and put us on board.”

They do not have a military ship for this use; they probably use a merchant ship or a ship for transportation of passengers. That ship they had boarded was headed for Ephesus, but they want to go to Rome, so in Myra make the change; they will have touched many other ports because the navigations were only during the day, every night was spent in a port.

When they arrived at Myra, the prisoner and his companions got off and changed ships. because they found a ship that was heading to Italy. “For many days we made little headway, arriving at Cnidus only with difficulty” probably because there was little wind, so navigation was slow. “And because the wind would not permit us to continue our course we sailed for the sheltered side of Crete off Salmone. We sailed past it with difficulty and reached a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea. Much time had now passed and sailing had become hazardous because the time of the fast had already gone by, so Paul warned them.”

Before there was no wind, then there is too much wind and the ship is in danger. Passing under the island of Crete to be in the shelter of the tramontane, they realize that they have difficulty in mooring in some ports. The feast of atonement, Yom Kippur, has already passed, falling on the 10th of the seventh month, therefore, six moons after Easter and therefore we are in the months of September – October or early November. It is late fall. Navigation is becoming dangerous; in ancient times navigation was suspended in winter because the ships could not face the winter winds and the consequent sea storms.

Paul uses his intelligence to exhort those who have responsibility for his life: “Men, I can see that this voyage will result in severe damage and heavy loss not only to the cargo and the ship, but also to our lives.” This is common sense reasoning. The navigation can’t go on any longer, let’s stop. ‘We are moored in good port… let’s stop… if we have to spend the winter let’s do it here’. “The centurion, however, paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said. Since the harbor was unfavorably situated for spending the winter, the majority planned to put out to sea from there in the hope of reaching Phoenix, a port in Crete facing west-northwest, there to spend the winter.”

Probably the people in charge of the ship wondered: ‘What do we do all winter in this port hole? Let’s go at least to a bigger port where there is some entertainment.’ “A south wind blew gently, and thinking they had attained their objective, they weighed anchor and sailed along close to the coast of Crete.” The wind comes from the south and they have to go to Rome and therefore it is the favorable wind; the good opportunity to reach Italy seems to have arrived. “Before long an offshore wind of hurricane force called a ‘Northeaster’” struck.

It is a very strong wind. “Since the ship was caught up in it and could not head into the wind we gave way and let ourselves be driven. We passed along the sheltered side of an island named Cauda and managed only with difficulty to get the dinghy under control. They hoisted it aboard, then used cables to undergird the ship. Because of their fear that they would run aground on the shoal of Syrtis, they lowered the drift anchor and were carried along in this way.” Instead of going north, the ship headed south to Libya, where there is little depth and if the storm is a risk, is just as risky to beach the ship on a shallow bottom. “We were being pounded by the storm so violently that the next day they jettisoned some cargo, and on the third day with their own hands they threw even the ship’s tackle overboard. Neither the sun nor the stars were visible for many days, and no small storm raged. Finally, all hope of our surviving was taken away.”

It is worth listening directly to Luke’ story because he tells us almost live this journey with the storm and the shipwreck; it is a beautiful sailor’s story in which the apostle appears as one among the many inserts in a disaster story. “When many would no longer eat, Paul stood among them and said, ‘Men, you should have taken my advice and not have set sail from Crete and you would have avoided this disastrous loss. I urge you now to keep up your courage; not one of you will be lost, only the ship. For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood by me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You are destined to stand before Caesar; and behold, for your sake, God has granted safety to all who are sailing with you.’ Therefore, keep up your courage, men; I trust in God that it will turn out as I have been told. We are destined to run aground on some island.” Paul also with this pagan, secular, public, has a word of comfort and brings in his vision of faith in a dramatic situation in the midst of so many other people who do not even know him and do not share his faith.

His intercession obtained the salvation of all his fellow travelers. “On the fourteenth night, as we were still being driven about on the Adriatic Sea, toward midnight the sailors began to suspect that they were nearing land. They took soundings and found twenty fathoms; a little farther on, they again took soundings and found fifteen fathoms. Fearing that we would run aground on a rocky coast, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.

The sailors then tried to abandon ship; they lowered the dinghy to the sea on the pretext of going to lay out anchors from the bow. But Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.’ So the soldiers cut the ropes of the dinghy and set it adrift.’” The sailors try to get to safety and abandon the passengers, fortunately Paul realizes and the soldiers prevent the sailors from escaping. “Until the day began to dawn, Paul kept urging all to take some food. He said, ‘Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting, going hungry and eating nothing. I urge you, therefore, to take some food; it will help you survive. Not a hair of the head of anyone of you will be lost.’ When he said this, he took bread, gave thanks to God in front of them all, broke it, and began to eat.”

Did he celebrate Mass? Or was it simply a meal on board? Note that the narrator uses the technical verbs of the Eucharistic celebration: took the bread, ‘eukaristesen’ = makes Eucharist. He gave thanks, broke the bread and began to eat. Most probably the narrator alludes to a Eucharistic celebration. In that context of storm, while everyone is afraid, when the sailors try to escape, Paul invites them to eat and it is not simply a profane food, it is the celebration of the Eucharist as a food that gives strength and that it helps to face the storms of life. “They were all encouraged, and took some food themselves. In all, there were two hundred seventy-six of us on the ship.”

It’s not a small group, it’s a big ship. Luke has the precise information even of the number of passengers. “After they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea. They probably didn’t eat because of the nausea caused by the storm movement that had upset everyone’s stomach. “When day came they did not recognize the land, but made out a bay with a beach. They planned to run the ship ashore on it, if they could. So they cast off the anchors and abandoned them to the sea, and at the same time they unfastened the lines of the rudders, and hoisting the foresail into the wind, they made for the beach. But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow was wedged in and could not be moved, but the stern began to break up under the pounding of the waves. The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners so that none might swim away and escape, but the centurion wanted to save Paul and so kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to the shore, and then the rest, some on planks, others on debris from the ship. In this way, all reached shore safely.”

Paul had said, ‘We will all be saved, but we will miss the ship.’ He had thought well. It was a practice of the soldiers to kill the prisoners in case of shipwreck. The centurion Julius who has Paul in custody has become attached to him, has learned to appreciate this man and wants to save him, intercedes for him, trusting that he will not escape. “Once we had reached safety we learned that the island was called Malta.” They had sailed 15 days from Crete to Malta, 15 days at the mercy of the sea and in the end, although they lost the ship, they were all saved. “The natives—the inhabitants of the island—showed us extraordinary hospitality. they lit a fire and welcomed all of us because it had begun to rain and was cold. Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire when a viper, escaping from the heat, fastened on his hand.

When the natives saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to one another, ‘This man must certainly be a murderer; though he escaped the sea, Justice has not let him remain alive.’ But he shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no harm. They were expecting him to swell up or suddenly to fall down dead but, after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.” It is an important detail that recalls a promise of Jesus: “They shall take up serpents; if they drink any poison, it shall not hurt them” (Mk 16:18).

This image of the serpent that assaults Paul is a metaphor for the evil that tries to attack him in every way to suppress him, but cannot overcome this divine power operating in him. The shipwreck did not break him, the bite of the serpent did not kill him, on the contrary, in fact, he became famous suddenly. In the midst of those 276 passengers, one immediately emerges and the people of Malta consider him a god. “In the vicinity of that place were lands belonging to a man named Publius, the chief of the island.”

It is interesting how Luke is precise even in these things and also in this case he calls the chief of the island of Malta with the title used at that time: ‘the first’ – ‘πρώτῳ’ = protos. “He welcomed us and received us cordially as his guests for three days. It so happened that the father of Publius was sick with a fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and, after praying, laid his hands on him and healed him. After this had taken place, the rest of the sick on the island came to Paul and were cured. They paid us great honor and when we eventually set sail they brought us the provisions we needed.” The shipwreck was a misfortune and became a grace, it became the opportunity to evangelize Malta. And even today the Maltese are proud to have received Paul as the founder of their Christian Church, the first evangelizer of the island. They spent three winter months on the island of Malta. The spring of the year 61 “We set sail on a ship that had wintered at the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the Dioscuri as its figurehead.”

The ship they had used broke down and therefore they must try to board another ship. “We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days, and from there we sailed round the coast and arrived at Rhegium.” Accurate information is given on all stages and these cities are proud to have been named in the Acts of the Apostles and to have welcomed St. Paul. On the facade of the Rhegium Calabria Cathedral, it is written precisely in Greek characters this verse: “Round the coast and arrived at Rhegium.”

It is not a great phrase, but it is a quote from the Acts of the Apostles of that city and therefore the cathedral recalls it as a fundamental historical memory. “After a day, a south wind came up and in two days we reached Puteoli.” In a day they sail from Rhegium Calabria and arrive at the port of Puteoli. “There we found some brothers and were urged to stay with them for seven days.” It seems that it is Paul who commands the centurion and Julius is depending on Paul. Arriving in Pozzuoli there is a group of Christians who welcome Paul; they disembark from the ship and are guests of the community for a week.

The journey by sea is over; from Puteoli to Rome they follow the Appian Way and continue on foot. “And thus we came to Rome. The brothers from there heard about us and came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us.” Precise places on the southern outskirts of Rome that Luke saw and knows precisely because he is present on that last expedition with Paul. “On seeing them, Paul gave thanks to God and took courage. When he entered Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him.”

Paul in Rome is detained in the regime called ‘militia custody,’ that is, he must rent an apartment and is chained with handcuffs to a soldier who never leaves him; that is, he is kept under surveillance, in sight. The soldier changes, makes the work shifts, but always a soldier is present tied to Paul, therefore, never has a moment of privacy, serves only to prevent the prisoner from organizing his own defense and bribe judges or meet with people who might divert the trial.

Evidently the centurion Julius brought Governor Pontius Festus’ letter to Caesar’s court for a trial against this defendant, but the Roman state has nothing against this defendant; the accusers must come forward for a trial to take place; it is necessary that the authorities of the synedrion of Jerusalem send representatives to condemn Paul. It is evident that from Jerusalem they did not send anyone, they knew very well that if they were not able to make their argument in a local court, they would not convince a Roman court in Rome because the issues they had against Paul were only related to the Jewish beliefs and therefore, a Roman criminal trial could not be established on those charges.

Then Paul stayed in Rome waiting for the trial for another two years. Tradition places the house that housed Paul in the area of Via Arenula, in Rome, behind—irony of destiny—the current Ministry of Justice; and there is a small church called “San Pablo alla Regola”, built in the house that traditionally received the apostle under the military government. In that house Paul received many people. “Three days later he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had gathered he said a very important speech.” He told them what he had done, what sustained him, and he confronted the Jewish authorities in Rome. “So they arranged a day with him and came to his lodgings in great numbers.”

And Paul gave them a programmatic speech in which he summarized his Christian preaching to the Jews showing that Jesus is the Messiah, and ended his speech with a programmatic sentence: “Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.” ‘You, the first recipients, have not accepted it, but this word does not stop, will be addressed to all peoples and you will see that they will accept it.’ In this verse 28 of chapter 28, the word ‘σωτήριον’ = ‘sotérion’ is used, a word that is a bit strange which means salvation, and is considered by scholars as the great inclusion of Lucan’s work.

In Luke 3, John the Baptist’s presentation culminates in a quote from Isaiah that says “All flesh shall see this ‘soterion’ of the Lord.” On the other side of the Luke’s work, at the end of the Acts of the Apostles, Paul says: ‘this ‘soterion’ worked by God, will be seen by all peoples’. This strange word to indicate salvation is the cornice between the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. The great work of Lucan is framed by the theme of salvation for all peoples. The Acts of the Apostles ends openly. “Paul remained for two full years in his lodgings. He received all who came to him, and with complete assurance and without hindrance he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.”

How did the trial go? Did the accusers come forward? Paul does not tell us. Luke ends the story without telling us. He has no intention of telling us Paul’s life. He did it on purpose. Telling us he stayed for two years means that after two years he was released. The trial never took place, the accusers did not appear and Paul in the year 63 was freed and resumed life … the life of a shepherd, as a messenger of the gospel. He died in 67 when he returned to Rome during the persecution of Nero.

Luke knows this because in 67 he will be present in Rome and will accompany Paul in the last moment of his life, but he does not narrates the last few years because his intention is not to tell Paul’s biography. Just as he interrupted Peter’s story, so now he interrupts Paul’s. What Luke wanted, what he was interested in, was to tell the arrival of the gospel in Rome. Thus, the gospel came; and it ends in a programmatic way: Paul announces the kingdom of God with parresia and without impediment.

He is a man imprisoned, but without hindrance the kingdom of God is coming, and what had begun in the time of Jesus, thirty years later comes to the ends of the earth, reaches the center of the capital and without any impediment the kingdom of God is working and comes to us today, grateful to have been able to read the Acts of the Apostles that, like a family album, told us the first steps of our wonderful Christian experience.