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The Acts of the Apostles 27

27 Soon the governor decided it was time to send Paul by ship to Italy. I, Luke, traveled with him. He put Paul and some other prisoners under the control of a military officer whose name was Julius. This man was part of a group of soldiers who reported directly to the emperor. 2 So Julius put us aboard a ship from the city of Adramyttium in the province of Asia. This ship was about to sail to various places along the coast of Asia. In this way we began our journey by sea. Aristarchus, a man from the city of Thessalonica in the province of Macedonia, went with us. 3 The next day we arrived at the city of Sidon. There Julius treated Paul generously. He gave him permission to go see his friends in Sidon so they could help him with whatever he needed. 4 Then the ship sailed away from Sidon. We went along the coast of Cyprus, which was sheltered from the wind, because the wind was against us. 5 After that, we crossed over the sea close to the coasts of Cilicia and Pamphylia. The ship arrived at the city of Myra in the province of Lycia. We got off the ship there. 6 In Myra, Julius found a ship that had come from the city of Alexandria. It would soon sail to Italy. So he arranged for us to go aboard that ship and we left. 7 The winds were still against us, so we sailed slowly for many days. It was difficult, but we finally reached the city of Cnidus. From there the wind was so strong that the ship could not sail straight westward. So we sailed along the coast of the island of Crete instead, where the wind was not blowing strongly. We sailed past Cape Salmone, an area of land sticking out into the water. 8 The wind was still strong, and it prevented the ship from moving ahead fast. So we moved slowly along the coast of Crete. We eventually arrived at a port whose name was Fair Havens. It was near the city of Lasea.

9 Because the wind was blowing from the west, the journey from Caesarea to Fair Havens had taken much more time than the captain and centurion had planned. It had become dangerous to sail because it was late in the year and the stormy season was approaching. So Paul said to the men on the ship, 10 and said to them, “Friends, God has shown me that if we continue sailing, we will suffer harm and lose many things. A great storm will destroy the ship and its cargo and kill all of us.” 11 But the Roman officer did not believe what Paul said. Instead, he believed the pilot and the captain when they told him the ship would be safe. 12 The harbor of Fair Havens did not protect the ships in it very well from winter storms. So most of the sailors recommended leaving Fair Havens. They hoped that they could reach Phoenix and spend the winter there. Phoenix is a city on the island of Crete with a good harbor. The harbor protects ships well from winds that blow from the southwest and northwest. 13 Because only a gentle wind was blowing from the south, the ship’s crew thought that they could reach Phoenix safely. So they lifted the ship’s anchor up out of the sea and sailed the ship close to the coastline of the island of Crete. 14 After a little while, however, a stormy wind blew down from the island. It was the kind of wind that the sailors called the Northeast Wind. 15 This stormy wind blew so strongly against the front of the ship that we could not sail into it. So the sailors decided to sail in the direction that the wind was blowing. It pushed us across the sea very quickly. 16 However, the sailors were able to sail the ship on the side of a small island that was sheltered from the wind. The name of the island was Cauda. It was very difficult, but the sailors were finally able to gain control of the lifeboat. 17 The sailors hoisted the lifeboat up onto the ship. Then they wound its ropes around the hull of the ship. They became concerned that they would get stuck in the soggy sand at Syrtis. So they took down the sails to go more slowly. This meant they could not steer the ship, and it went wherever the wind blew it. 18 But the wind and the waves continued to toss the ship about roughly. So on the next day, the sailors began to throw overboard the things that the ship was carrying. 19 Then, on the third day of the storm, the sailors threw overboard most of the ship’s sails, ropes, and poles. They did this deliberately in order to make the ship lighter. 20 But the wind continued to blow very strongly against the ship. The sky was always full of dark clouds so that the sailors could not see the sun or the stars to navigate. After all this we lost hope that we would even survive.

21 None of us on the ship had eaten for many days. Then one day, Paul stood up in front of us and said, “Friends, you should have listened to me when I said that we should not set sail from Crete. Then, we would not have suffered all this damage. 22 But now please do not be afraid, because none of us will die. The storm will destroy the ship but it will not destroy us. 23 I know this because last night an angel came and stood by me. The God who protects me and who told me to tell others about him sent this angel. 24 The angel said to me, ‘Paul, do not be afraid. You will reach Rome safely and have the opportunity to testify to the emperor. I want you to know that God is being kind to you. He will make sure that everyone who is traveling with you will also survive.’ 25 So cheer up, my friends, because I believe that God will make this happen exactly as the angel told me. 26 However, the ship will crash on some island, and we will go ashore there.”

27 Now on the fourteenth night after the storm began, the storm was still blowing the ship across the open sea. At about midnight, the sailors thought that the ship was getting close to land. 28 So the sailors lowered a rope with a weight on the end to measure how deep the water was. When they pulled the rope up again, they measured it and saw that the water was 40 meters deep. A little later, they measured again and found that the water was 30 meters deep. 29 Because the water was getting shallower, the sailors were afraid that the ship might crash onto some rocks. So they threw four anchors into the water from the end of the ship. Then they prayed that it would soon become light so that they could see where the ship was going. 30 Some of the sailors were planning to escape from the ship. They did not want anyone to know what they planned to do. So they pretended that they needed to put the lifeboat in the water so they could use it to lower some anchors from the ship’s front. 31 But Paul said to the Roman officer and the soldiers, “If the sailors do not stay in the ship, you will not survive.” 32 So the soldiers cut the ropes and the lifeboat dropped into the sea.

33 Just before dawn, Paul encouraged everyone on the ship to eat something. He said, “For the past 14 days you have been waiting and watching and not eating anything. 34 So now I urge you to eat some food, because you must do this to live. The storm will not kill any of you, but if you do not eat, you will die.” 35 Then after Paul said that, while everyone was watching, he took some bread and thanked God for it. Then he broke the bread into pieces and began to eat some of it. 36 Then they all cheered up and ate some food. 37 Altogether there were 276 of us on the ship. 38 When everyone had eaten enough, the sailors made the ship lighter by throwing the rest of the wheat into the water.

39 At dawn we could see land, but the sailors did not know what it was. However, they could see a bay that had a beach. They decided to try to run the ship up onto this wide area of sand at the water’s edge. 40 So they cut the ropes that attached the anchors to the ship and let the anchors fall loose into the water. They also untied the ropes that held the rudders to the ship. They raised a sail to the top of the mast so that the wind would blow into it. Then they steered the ship toward the shore. 41 But the ship sailed into turbulent waters and ran onto a sandbank that was just under the waves. The front of the ship stuck there and could not move. Big waves beat against the back of the ship and it began to break apart.

42 The soldiers wanted to kill all the prisoners so that none of them could swim away and escape. 43 But the Roman officer wanted to save Paul. So he stopped the soldiers from killing the prisoners. Instead, he commanded everyone who could swim to jump off the ship first into the water and swim to shore. 44 Then he told the ones who could not swim to hold onto something that would float and drift toward the shore. Some held onto wooden boards that the waves had broken loose from the ship. Some held onto articles from the ship that would float. We did what he said, and in that way all of us made it safely to the shore.

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