Footnotes

1. Acts 27:1 A journey full of vicissitudes. For 15 days, the ship will drift from the coast of Crete to the island of Malta, without any planned direction because the mariners cannot rely on the stars or the sun, which supplied the only way of determining direction at that time (Acts 27:20). Paul very calmly takes control of the situation; he is used to the sea and has already experienced three shipwrecks (see 2 Cor 11:25).
   Paul evidently cannot think of founding a community on Malta, since it is a mere stopover, but he does effect cures. There are three more stopovers: Syracuse, Rhegium, and Puteoli. In the last-named place Paul has the joy of finding some brothers (Acts 28:13-14). In Rome, he finds a community of Christians of whose origin we know nothing, but which has already received from him the great Letter on salvation in Jesus Christ; the members of this community go to meet Paul at a place over 30 miles from the City (at the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns, north of Terracina: Acts 28:15-16). He was, therefore, known and expected.
2. Acts 27:1 This begins the final “we-section” in Acts (see note on Acts 16:9-15). Augustan cohort: a name identifying the Roman legion to which the centurion belonged.