New Testament in a Year

27 The date was set for us to depart for Rome, and Paul and some other prisoners were transferred to the custody of a Roman officer named Julius, a member of the Augustan Division. ² I, Luke, was permitted to join Paul for his journey to Rome, along with Aristarchus, a Macedonian brother from Thessalonica. We boarded a ship from Adramyttium that was stopping in ports along the coast of Asia. ³ We stopped the next day at Sidon, and Julius kindly allowed Paul to visit friends and be taken care of by them. ⁴ We sailed from there north of Cyprus because the winds were unfavorable. ⁵ We passed Cilicia and Pamphylia on our right and then came to Myra in Lycia. ⁶ There Julius found a ship from Alexandria heading directly to Italy, to which we transferred. ⁷ The winds were still contrary, so we made slow progress for a number of days and with difficulty passed Cnidus and sailed south toward Crete and past Cape Salmone on its eastern end. ⁸ Sailing conditions were adverse to say the least. Finally we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the city of Lasea on the south coast of Crete. ⁹ We had lost a lot of time already—it was late in the year for sailing—following the Day of Atonement, and conditions had deteriorated from adverse to dangerous. Paul tried to warn those in charge.

¹¹ But the officer ignored Paul and instead trusted the ship’s pilot and owner who felt they could proceed.

¹² We had two choices. We could anchor in the harbor at Fair Havens and spend the winter, or we could proceed west along the coastline, hoping to reach Phoenix and wait there for calmer spring weather. Fair Havens was not a good option, though, being vulnerable to winter storms; so most of us agreed we should try to reach Phoenix, whose harbor was more protected. ¹³ One day a moderate south wind began to blow, which made an attempt possible. We weighed anchor and sailed west, staying near shore. ¹⁴ Then things got scary. A violent northeaster, the Euraquilo, blew down across Crete. ¹⁵ We were caught. We couldn’t turn and sail into this fierce wind, so we had no choice but to let it drive us. ¹⁶ We briefly found a bit of shelter from the wind near the island of Clauda. We had been having trouble securing the ship’s lifeboat; ¹⁷ but we were able there to hoist it up and send down cables to brace the hull, which was in danger of breaking apart under the strain of the storm. The wind was relentless, and soon we were again being driven southwest at the mercy of the storm. We feared it would drive us all the way to the Syrtis Banks, down near the North African coast, so we threw out the sea anchor to slow us down. ¹⁸ All through the night, the storm pounded us violently. The next day, the crew threw the ship’s cargo overboard; ¹⁹ and the day after that, they discarded any of the ship’s equipment they could do without. ²⁰ Days passed without relief from the furious winds, without a single break in the clouds to see sun or stars, even for a moment. Despair set in, as if all hope of rescue had been cast overboard as well. ²¹ On top of all of this, the crew had been unable to eat anything because of the turmoil. Paul saw the crew had reached a critical moment. He gathered them.