As Paul, however, had previously appealed to Caesar, his case was
already removed from any inferior jurisdiction, and his hearing before
Agrippa was intended only to gratify the king himself, and to cause
the particulars of his complicated case to be more fully drawn out
before his royal hearer, who was so accomplished in Hebrew law, that
his opinion was very naturally desired by Festus; for, as the governor
himself confessed, the technicalities and abstruse points involved in
the charge, were altogether beyond the comprehension of a Roman judge,
with a mere heathen education. The object, therefore, of obtaining
a full statement of particulars, to be presented to his most august
majesty, the emperor, being completely accomplished by this hearing of
Paul before Agrippa,――there was now nothing to delay the reference of
the case to Nero; and Paul was therefore consigned, along with other
prisoners of state, to the care of a Roman officer, Julius, a centurion
of the Augustan cohort. Taking passage at Caesarea, in an Adramyttian
vessel, Julius sailed with his important charge from the shores of
Palestine, late in the year 60. Following the usual cautious course of
all ancient navigators,――along the shores, and from island to island,
venturing across the open sea only with the fairest winds,――the vessel
which bore the apostle on his first voyage to Italy, coasted along by
Syria and Asia Minor. Of those Christian associates who accompanied
Paul, none are known except Timothy, Luke, his graphically accurate
historian, and Aristarchus of Thessalonica, the apostle’s long-known
companion in travel. These, of course, were a source of great enjoyment
to Paul on this tedious voyage, surrounded, as he was, otherwise, by
strangers and heathen, by most of whom he must have been regarded in
the light of a mere criminal, held in bonds for trial. He was, however,
very fortunate in the character of the centurion to whose keeping
he was entrusted, as is shown in more than one incident related by
Luke. After one day’s sail, the vessel touching at Sidon, Julius here
politely gave Paul permission to visit his Christian friends in that
place,――thus conferring a great favor, both on the apostle and on the
church of Sidon. Leaving this place, their course was next along the
coast of Syria, and then eastwards, along the southern shore of Asia
Minor, keeping in the Cilician strait between that province and the
great island of Cyprus, on account of the violence of the southwesters.
Coasting along by Pamphylia and Lycia, they next touched at Myra, a
city in the latter province, where they were obliged to take passage
in another vessel, bound from Alexandria to Italy. In this vessel, they
also kept close to the coast, their course being still retarded by head
winds, until they reached Cnidus, the farthest southeastern point of
Asia Minor, and thence stretched across the Carpathian sea, to Crete,
approaching it first at Cape Salmone, the most eastern point at the
island, and then passing on to a place called “the Fair Haven,” near
Lasea, probably one of the hundred cities of Crete, but mentioned in no
other ancient writer. At this place, Paul, whose experience in former
voyages was already considerable, having been twice ship-wrecked, had
sagacity enough to see that any further navigation that season would
be dangerous; for it was now the beginning of October, and the most
dreadful tempests might be reasonably expected on the wintry sea,
before they could reach the Italian coast. He warned the centurion
accordingly, of the peril to which all their lives were exposed; but
the owner and commander of the vessel, anxious to find a better place
for wintering than this, persuaded Julius to risk the passage to the
south side of the island, when they might find, in the port of Phoenix,
a more convenient winter harbor. So, after the south wind had nearly
died away, they attempted to take advantage of this apparent lull, and
work their way, close to the shore along the south side of Crete; but
presently they were caught by a tremendous Levanter, which carried
them with great velocity away to the west, to the island of Clauda,
which lies south of the west end of Crete. Here the danger of the
ship’s breaking in pieces was so great, that having with much ado
overhauled their boat, they undergirded the ship with cables, to keep
it together,――a measure not unknown in modern navigation. Finding that
they were in much danger of grounding among the quicksands on the coast
of the island, they were glad to stand out to sea; and taking in all
sail, scudded under bare poles for fourteen days, during a great part
of which time, they saw neither sun, moon nor stars, the whole sky
being constantly overcast with clouds, so that they knew nothing of
their position. The wind of course carried them directly west, over
what was then called the sea of Adria,――not what is now called the
_Adriatic_ gulf, but that part of the Mediterranean, which lies between
Greece, Italy and Africa. In their desperation, the passengers threw
over their own baggage, to lighten the ship; and they began to lose all
hope of being saved from shipwreck. Paul, however, encouraged them by
the narration of a dream, in which God had revealed to him that every
one of them should escape; and they still kept their hopes alive to
the fourteenth night, when the sailors, thinking that the long western
course must have brought them near Sicily, or the main-land of Italy,
which lay not far out of this direction, began to heave the lead, that
they might avoid the shore; and at the first sounding, found but twenty
fathoms, and at the next fifteen. Of course, the peril of grounding was
imminent, and they therefore cast anchor, and waited for day. Knowing
that they were now near some shore, the sailors determined to provide
for their own safety, and accordingly undertook to let down the
boat, to make their escape, and leave the passengers to provide for
themselves. But Paul represented to the centurion the certainty of
their destruction, if the ship should be left without any seamen to
manage it; and the soldiers of the prisoners’ guard, determined not
to be thus deserted, though they should all sink together, cut off the
ropes by which the boat was held, and let it fell off. All being thus
inevitably committed to one doom, Paul exhorted them to take food, and
thus strengthen themselves for the effort to reach the shore. They did
so accordingly, and then, as a last resort, flung out the wheat with
which the ship was loaded, and at day-break, when land appeared, seeing
a small creek, they made an effort to run the ship into it, weighing
anchor and hoisting the mainsail; but knowing nothing of the ground,
soon struck, and the overstrained ship was immediately broken by the
waves, the bows being fast in the sandbank, while the stern was heaved
by every surge. The soldiers, thinking first of their weighty charge,
for whose escape they were to answer with their lives, advised to kill
them all, lest they should swim ashore. But the more humane centurion
forbade it, and gave directions that every man should provide for his
own safety. They did so; and those that could not swim, clinging to the
fragments of the wreck, the whole two hundred and seventy-six who were
in the vessel, got safe to land.
“‘When sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was already
past.’ verse 9. There is no question but that this is the great
fast of expiation, Leviticus xvi. 29, the description of which
we have in Isaiah lviii. under the name of a sabbath, verse 13.
The precise time of this sabbatic fast is on the tenth day of
the seventh month, _Tizri_, which falls on the same time very
nearly with our September, the first day of Tizri on the seventh
of that, and so the 10th of Tizri on the 16th of September, that
is, thirteen days before our Michaelmas. This being premised,
the apostle’s reasoning becomes clear; for it is precisely the
same as though he should have said, _because it was past the
twentieth_ (the day Scaliger sets for the solemnization of the
fast,) _of September_; it being observed by all sailors, that
for some weeks before and after Michaelmas, there are on the sea
sudden and frequent storms, (probably the equinoctial,) which
have in modern times received the name of Michaelmas flaws,
and must of course make sailing dangerous. Hesiod himself tells
us, that at the going down of Pleiades, which was at the end of
autumn, navigation was hazardous.” (Williams.)
“_Undergirding the ship._’ verse 17. We learn from various
passages in the Greek and Roman writers, that the ancients
had recourse to this expedient, in order to save the ship from
imminent danger; and this method has been used in modern times.
The process of undergirding a ship is thus performed:――a stout
cable is slipped under the vessel at the prow, which can be
conducted to any part of the ship’s keel, and then fasten the
two ends on the deck, to keep the planks from starting. An
instance of this kind is mentioned in ‘Lord Anson’s Voyage round
the World.’ Speaking of a Spanish man-of-war in a storm, the
writer says, ‘They were obliged to throw overboard all their
upper-deck guns, and _take six turns of the cable round the ship,
to prevent her opening_.’ (p. 24, 4to. edition.) Bp. Pearce and
Dr. Clarke, on Acts xxvii. 17. Two instances of undergirding the
ship are noticed in the ‘Chevalier de Johnstone’s Memoirs of the
Rebellion in 1745‒6, London, 1822, 8vo. pp. 421, 454.”
(Williams’s notes on Pearson, p. 85.)
They now found that they had struck on the island of Melita, (now
Malta,) which lies just south of Sicily, in the direct track in which
the eastern gale must have blown them. The uncivilized inhabitants of
this desolate spot received the shipwrecked voyagers with the kindest
attention, and very considerately kindled a fire, to warm and dry them,
after their long soaking in cold water. The dripping apostle took hold
with the rest to make the fire blaze up, and gathered a bundle of dry
sticks, for the purpose; but with them he unconsciously gathered a
viper, which was sheltering itself among them from the cold, and roused
by the heat of the fire, now crept out upon his hand. He, of course,
as any other man would, gave a jerk, and shook it off, as soon as he
saw it,――a very natural occurrence; but the superstitious barbarians
thought this a perfect miracle, as they had before foolishly considered
it a token of divine wrath; and having looked on him as an object of
horror, and a wicked criminal, they now, with equal sense, adored him
as a God.
Another incident of more truly miraculous character, occurred to Paul
soon after, in the part of the island on which they were wrecked, which
had the effect of gaining him a much more solid fame. The father of
Publius, the Roman officer who governed the island, as the deputy of
the praetor of Sicily, was at that time very sick of the dysentery;
and Paul, going to see him, laid his hands on him and prayed,――thus
effecting a complete recovery. This being known, other diseased persons
were presented as the subjects of Paul’s miraculous powers, and the
same cures following his words, he with his associates soon became the
objects of a far more rational reverence than had been excited by the
deliverance from the viper. The reverence too, was extended beyond mere
empty honor. The shipwrecked apostolic company having lost all their
baggage and provisions, were abundantly provided with everything that
they needed, by the grateful contributions of the islanders;――and when,
after a stay of three months, Paul and his companions departed, they
were loaded with things necessary for the voyage.
Illustration: PUTEOLI. Acts xxviii. 13, 14.
Sailing, on the return of spring, in another Alexandrine vessel, of
the same very common name borne by that in which they were shipwrecked,
they came next to Syracuse, on the east side of the island of Sicily,
and after a stay of three days, turned through the Sicilian strait
to Rhegium, on the main-land directly opposite the island. There Paul
first saw the soil of Italy, but did not leave the vessel for his land
journey, till they came, with a fresh south wind, to Puteoli, a port
in the bay of Naples. Here they found Christians, who invited them to
rest among them for a week; after which they journeyed along the coast,
on the noble road of Pozzuoli and Baiae, for about a hundred miles, to
Appius’s Forum, a village about eighteen miles from Rome. At this place,
they were met by a number of brethren from the church of Rome; and
having journeyed along the Appian way, to the Three Taverns,――a little
stopping place a few miles from the city,――they were received by still
another deputation of Roman Christians, come out to greet the great
apostle, whose name had long been known among them, and whose counsels
and revelations they had already enjoyed by his writings. This noble
testimony of the esteem in which they held him, was a most joyful
assurance to Paul, that, even on this foreign shore, a stranger and
a prisoner, he had many near and dear friends; and his noble spirit,
before probably depressed and melancholy, in the dark prospect of his
approach to the awful seat of that remorseless imperial power that was
to decide his doom, now rose to feelings of exultation and gratitude.
Entering the vast imperial city, the prisoners were remanded by the
centurion to the custody of Burrhus, the noble and influential praefect
of the praetorian guard, who was, _ex-officio_, the keeper of all
prisoners of state, brought from the provinces to Rome. Burrhus however,
was as kind and accommodating to Paul as Julius had been, and allowed
him to live by himself in a private house, with only a soldier as an
attendant guard.
After three days, Paul invited to his lodgings the chief men of the
Jewish faith, in Rome, and made known to them the circumstances under
which he had been sent thither, and his present relations to the heads
of their religion in Jerusalem. In reply, they merely stated that they
had received no formal communications respecting him, from Jerusalem,
nor had those of their brethren who had arrived from Judea spoken
ill of him. They expressed also a great desire to hear from him the
peculiar doctrine, for entertaining which he had been thus denounced,
of which they professed to know nothing, but that there was a universal
prejudice against it. A day was accordingly appointed for a full
conference on these very important subjects,――and at the set time, Paul,
with no small willingness, discoursed at great length on his views of
the accomplishment of all the ancient prophecies respecting the Messiah,
in the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. His hearers were very
much divided in opinion about these points, after his discourse was
over,――some believing and some disbelieving. Leaving them to meditate
on what he had said, Paul dismissed them with a warning quotation
from Isaiah, against their prejudices, and sternly reminded them, that
though they did reject the truth, the waiting Gentiles were prepared
to embrace it, and should receive the word of God immediately. They
then left him, and made his words a subject of much discussion among
themselves; but the results are unrecorded. Paul having hired a house
in Rome, made that city the scene of his active labors for two whole
years, receiving all that called to inquire into religious truth, and
proclaiming the doctrines of Christianity with the most unhesitating
boldness and freedom; and no man in Rome could molest him in making
known his belief to as many as chose to hear him; for it was not till
many years after, that the Christians were denounced and persecuted by
Nero.