The early part of Paul’s journey to Rome was by sea, but his voyage was not an easy one, primarily because he had set forth so late in the sailing season (Acts 27:9). Travel from east to west in the Mediterranean is often against the easterly prevailing winds, and Paul’s vessel had to tack (zig-zag) twice: off the southern coasts of both Asia Minor and Crete (see Acts 27:4, 7).
After Crete, Paul’s vessel was involved in a terrible storm (Acts 27:13-44), ending in shipwreck on Malta (Acts 28:1-11). The soldiers accompanying Paul hired another ship and sailed to Syracuse in Sicily and then Rhegium (Acts 28:11-13a), Paul finally made it to Italy, landing at Puteoli (Acts 28:13b), the harbor town of Napoli (modern Naples). His journey over land to Rome (Acts 28:14) was by the Appian Way.
Including his three-month stay in Malta over the winter, Paul’s entire journey probably took about five months (October to March).
Want to dive deeper?
For purchase
Linford Stutzman, Sailing Acts: Following an Ancient Voyage. (Good Books/Skyhorse Publishing, 2006). paperback, 330 pp. Ebook edition
This book is perfect for those who love sailing and you-are-there travel literature, also for those who enjoy studying the life and times of the Apostle Paul–but definitely for those who love adventure, or at least reading about it!
Seafaring isn’t for the faint of heart. It wasn’t for the Apostle Paul in the first century A.D.—shipwrecked, imprisoned, and often a stranger in foreign lands.
And it turned out to be a heart-stopping task some two thousand years later, when a religion professor and his wife undertook a 14-month journey by sailboat! They stopped in eight countries, visiting every site where Paul stopped on his tumultuous missionary journeys.
SailingActs traces this 21st-century voyage from Volos, Greece, to Rome, Italy, by car, by foot, by motorized scooter, but mostly on a 33-foot boat, logging more than 3600 nautical miles over two sailing seasons.
Stutzman’s knowledge of the socio-political setting in the first-century Roman empire provides an informative backdrop to understanding Paul and reading his epistles in a new light.
The book includes dozens of photos, maps showing the couple’s travel routes, a list of all the repairs and replacements Stutzman made to the aging boat which he bought sight-unseen, and an itinerary of places they visited.
Linford Stutzman is an Associate Professor of Culture and Mission in the Bible and Religion Department at Eastern Mennonite University. Stutzman also teaches seminary courses and is the director of the John Coffman Center for Evangelism and Church Planting. He and his wife, Janet, a Development officer at the school, are frequent leaders of undergraduate cross-cultural trips to the Middle East. In May 2004 the couple embarked on a Mediterranean sail that would retrace the Apostle Paul’s route and last until August 2005.
For online reading
Vernon K. Robbins, “By Land and By Sea: The We-Passages and Ancient Sea Voyages,” orig. publ. in: Perspectives on Luke-Acts, C. H. Talbert, ed. (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University, 1978), 215-242.
James Smith, The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul. 3rd ed.: (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1866).
William Falconer, Dissertation on St. Paul’s Voyage from Caesarea to Puteoli and on the Apostle’s Shipwreck on the Island Melite, 2nd ed. (London: C. W. Reynell, 1870).