Whence, going in a circuitous course, we arrived at Rhegium; and after one day, the wind having changed to south, on the second day we came to Puteoli,
Read Full Chapter →Commentary for this Verse
These few lines close the sea journey to Rome. Luke names the ports, the wind and the days — and then, at the last harbour, names something no one expected: fellow believers.
The ship and the season
Spring came, and the company boarded another ship from Alexandria. One commentator notes what that ship had escaped, and what the voyage did to Paul's standing among the men travelling with him:
In the early spring they boarded a ship again. This one was also from Alexandria, and it had escaped the storm that wrecked their earlier ship — a ship lost because the captain and crew had ignored the apostle's warning. We do not hear of any preaching, though we can be sure that the grace of Christ and love for souls were not asleep in the hearts of His servants. But we see the place given to them, and to Paul above all, rising higher and higher because of what the others had been through with them, as God chose to use every situation where human wisdom or power could do nothing.
Rhegium and Puteoli
Luke names two ports. One commentator places them on the map and explains how Puteoli got its name:
They soon reached Syracuse, a famous city in Sicily. After a stay of three days they followed the coast round to Rhegium, and the next day to Puteoli. Rhegium lay at the south-west tip of Italy, a port of Bruttium on the sea. Puteoli, in the Bay of Naples, was famous for its thirty-three mineral wells, which in fact gave it its name. It was famous too for its earth, still valued for its uses today.
Another writer listens to what the names themselves mean, and hears force in them:
At Syracuse they land and stay for three days. Syracuse means "dragging unwillingly," and says enough about the use of arbitrary power; Rhegium, which means "forcing the way through," makes that thought stronger. It is striking, at least, that here the Dioscuri — the gods believed to guide the ship's course — were once again its patron gods. Puteoli ends the voyage. Puteoli was Rome's chief harbour, though it lay some distance from the city.
Commentators differ here: others simply trace the route and the welcome waiting at the end of it.
Seven days — a settled pattern
The stop at Puteoli was not the first of its kind. Twice earlier in Acts, Luke records the same seven days after a sea voyage:
This is the third recorded occasion in Acts when Paul and his company, after a sea voyage, stay with the believers in the place where they landed for just seven days, and then start their journey again at once.
So why seven days? One commentator links the visit to what believers did together on the Lord's day:
Here they found believers, who begged the apostle and the rest to stay with them seven days. That was the usual length of a visit, and it came naturally to Christians who valued above all the joy of fellowship on the Lord's day and at His Supper, along with the many chances for building up, prayer and the word in between. "Then we went to Rome." What a contrast with the great men of the earth, winner or loser, who had so often taken the same road!
What the delay produced
The week cost Paul time, but it did work he could not have arranged. One commentator shows how God used it to strengthen him:
Here the Lord works not by a vision, as He had done when Paul was in danger of giving way to depression (Acts 23:11), but by the faith and love of the believers from Rome. It seems that the delay at Puteoli, caused by believers there who wanted him to stay a week among them, gave time for the news of his arrival in Italy to reach the Christians in Rome, and for them to come and meet him. Clearly the authorities who held him prisoner raised no objection. Such was the moral respect he stirred in the Roman officials, and not least in the centurion, who had watched his ways and words the whole journey from east to west.
Summary
- Wind. After the shipwreck, a south wind carries the same prisoner on. The voyage that nearly killed him ends in a two-day run to Rome's harbour.
- Harbour. Puteoli, named for its mineral wells, was Rome's chief port; the land journey to the capital began there.
- Welcome. At the landing place they found believers, and it was those believers who asked for the week.
- Week. This is the third seven-day stop in Acts after a sea voyage. Commentators see believers waiting for the Lord's day and His Supper.
- Result. The week let news of Paul reach Rome, and believers came out to meet him. God strengthened His servant by their love, not by a vision.