Acts 27:1-26

Good News Translation

Paul Sails for Rome

27 When it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they handed Paul and some other prisoners over to Julius, an officer in the Roman army regiment called “The Emperor's Regiment.” ² We went aboard a ship from Adramyttium, which was ready to leave for the seaports of the province of Asia, and we sailed away. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. ³ The next day we arrived at Sidon. Julius was kind to Paul and allowed him to go and see his friends, to be given what he needed. ⁴ We went on from there, and because the winds were blowing against us, we sailed on the sheltered side of the island of Cyprus. ⁵ We crossed over the sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia and came to Myra in Lycia. ⁶ There the officer found a ship from Alexandria that was going to sail for Italy, so he put us aboard.

⁷ We sailed slowly for several days and with great difficulty finally arrived off the town of Cnidus. The wind would not let us go any farther in that direction, so we sailed down the sheltered side of the island of Crete, passing by Cape Salmone. ⁸ We kept close to the coast and with great difficulty came to a place called Safe Harbors, not far from the town of Lasea.

⁹ We spent a long time there, until it became dangerous to continue the voyage, for by now the Day of Atonement^[a] was already past. So Paul gave them this advice: ¹⁰ “Men, I see that our voyage from here on will be dangerous; there will be great damage to the cargo and to the ship, and loss of life as well.” ¹¹ But the army officer was convinced by what the captain and the owner of the ship said, and not by what Paul said. ¹² The harbor was not a good one to spend the winter in; so almost everyone was in favor of putting out to sea and trying to reach Phoenix, if possible, in order to spend the winter there. Phoenix is a harbor in Crete that faces southwest and northwest.^[b]

The Storm at Sea

¹³ A soft wind from the south began to blow, and the men thought that they could carry out their plan, so they pulled up the anchor and sailed as close as possible along the coast of Crete. ¹⁴ But soon a very strong wind—the one called “Northeaster”—blew down from the island. ¹⁵ It hit the ship, and since it was impossible to keep the ship headed into the wind, we gave up trying and let it be carried along by the wind. ¹⁶ We got some shelter when we passed to the south of the little island of Cauda. There, with some difficulty we managed to make the ship's boat secure. ¹⁷ They pulled it aboard and then fastened some ropes tight around the ship. They were afraid that they might run into the sandbanks off the coast of Libya, so they lowered the sail and let the ship be carried by the wind. ¹⁸ The violent storm continued, so on the next day they began to throw some of the ship's cargo overboard, ¹⁹ and on the following day they threw part of the ship's equipment overboard. ²⁰ For many days we could not see the sun or the stars, and the wind kept on blowing very hard. We finally gave up all hope of being saved.

²¹ After everyone had gone a long time without food, Paul stood before them and said, “You should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete; then we would have avoided all this damage and loss. ²² But now I beg you, take courage! Not one of you will lose your life; only the ship will be lost. ²³ For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship came to me ²⁴ and said, ‘Don't be afraid, Paul! You must stand before the Emperor. And God in his goodness to you has spared the lives of all those who are sailing with you.’ ²⁵ So take courage, men! For I trust in God that it will be just as I was told. ²⁶ But we will be driven ashore on some island.”