Geoff Hudson

The above quote from Ken Olson on Crosstalk almost implies he thinks the shipwreck never occurred. I would agree. The shipwreck served at least two purposes for the editor of Acts 27. First it makes Paul (imo James) into a prophet figure predicting the imminent disaster if they continued with the voyage (Acts 27:10). I somehow think that if the ship was about to sail into danger, the pilot and owner would have ignored anything a landlubber such as [Paul] {James} had to say. The pilot made his own decision, and that was to stay in the very “suitable” harbour to winter until the weather improved, rather than hazard his ship. Of course the pseudo shipwreck is then made to occur in the story. The editor then has the opportunity to further dramatise by introducing the incident with the snake which miraculously has no effect on our intrepid missionary. But possibly, the real purpose is that the editor gets rid of a rather embarrassing cargo of grain. Why do I say embarrassing? Well, was the grain destined for Italy or Israel? I would suggest it was the latter. I believe that the following text from Ant. 20:2:5 was originally about Agrippina and her son Nero, but that an editor substituted queen Helena for Agrippina and Izates for Nero.

I am suggesting that a scheme was established by Arippina for sending shipments of food to the poor of Israel, and that the cargo of grain mentioned in Acts 27:38 was one such shipment. In Acts 27: 6, the centurion didn’t “find” an Alexandrian ship, he chartered it, and paid for the grain – which is not mentioned in verse 6.

The centurion of the Imperial Regiment and his 80 or so soldiers, were not holding [Paul] {James} and his companions as prisoners (Acts 27:1), but were to be their bodyguard on arrival in Israel. The ship from “Adramytttium” (Acts 27:2) was not about to sail along the coast of Asia, but along the coast of Africa to Alexandria where the centurion could arrange for the shipment of grain. If they were journeying from Italy, and sailing against the wind (Acts 27:4), then the wind would be southerly. Instead of passing to the lee of Cyprus (Acts 27:4), they would pass to the lee of Sicily which would shield them from southerly wind. Then they would enter the open sea (Acts 27:5), and with a southerly wind, they could easily sail eastwards along the coast of Africa (not Cilicia and Pamphylia) to Alexandria in Egypt (not Myra in Lycia). Here the centurion chartered his shipment of grain as Agrippina commanded.

They set sail in the grain ship from Alexandria heading for the main port of Israel, Caesarea. The wind had changed - I presume it was the north-easter that appears in the pseudo shipwreck (Acts 27:14). From the start, they made slow headway for many days and they were blown off course (Acts 27:7), so it must have been a strong wind. They would have been blown westwards. Unable to make for the port of Caesarea, they were forced to sail further north, and the pilot probably knew exactly where he could find a safe harbour to winter in. They sailed to the lee of Cyprus (not Crete) opposite Salamis (not Salmone) to the harbour now called Kato Paphos (not Fair Havens) NEAR the town of Paphos (not Lasea) which is about one mile inland (the town of Paphos was built by people who migrated inland from the older harbour area). Here the ship could winter safely.

In the harbour of Kato Paphos, I saw that the Cyprus coastline faces south-west and the old harbour wall faces north-west, exactly as described in Acts 27:11. From April 23 to May 7 of this year, I was on holiday in Kato Paphos. It is a place with many preserved historical (World Heritage) sites. Near to the harbour, there are ruins of third and fourth century roman mansions with beautiful mosaic floors. Perhaps one of them was built on the first century residence of Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus (Acts 13:7). No doubt [Paul] {James} stayed with his old friend through the winter months. Here is a map of the harbour:

http--www.intercyprus.com-maps-map-of-paphos.jpg.url

Geoff