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Acts 28: The beach gets a name, and the last stretch is walked

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the island was called MaltaTyrrhenian SeaIonian SeaAegean SeaMediterranean SeaSyrtis — Acts 27Adriatic Sea — Acts 27MaltaAlexandriaSyracusePuteoliRhegiumRomeForum of AppiusThree TavernsJerusalemAdriatic SeaMaltaSyrtis
Acts 27

Acts 27:27ESV

When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the , about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land.

Acts 28:1ESV

After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called .

Acts 28:11ESV

After three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of , with the twin gods as a figurehead.

Acts 28:12ESV

Putting in at , we stayed there for three days.

Acts 28:13ESV

And from there we made a circuit and arrived at . And after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to .

Acts 28:14ESV

There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to .

Acts 28:15ESV

And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the and to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage.

Acts 28:16ESV

And when we came into , Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him.

Acts 28:17ESV

After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from into the hands of the Romans.

Acts 28:21ESV

And they said to him, “We have received no letters from about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you.

Acts 28:30ESV

He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him,

Acts 27

The chapter opens by answering the one question Acts 27 could not: the island was called Malta. That single word closes a fortnight of drifting and puts the wreck on a map. Three months follow, through a sea nobody sails in winter, and then a third ship — another Alexandrian, wintering in the same harbour — takes the party north in short hops: three days at Syracuse, a day waiting on a wind at Rhegium, and a southerly that covers the rest in two. At Puteoli the voyage stops being a voyage. Rome is a road from there, and Luke names only two places on it, both of them measured out from the city by the people who walked out to meet a prisoner they had never seen. The chapter ends without a verdict — two years in his own lodging, teaching without hindrance, and no word of the trial he came for.

Map of Acts 28: The beach gets a name, and the last stretch is walked — 9 sites plotted
9 sites from Acts 28 on one frame. The map at the top of the page is the same drawing, and it walks the verses with you.

Regions on this map

Verses 1-10: the beach gets a name, and with it the storm's track gets an end. The ship is gone and the sea is shut for the winter, so the island keeps them until it opens.

Verses 11-13: a third ship, another Alexandrian, goes up the coast in short hops — three days at Syracuse, a day waiting at Rhegium, and then a south wind that does the rest in two.

Verses 14-16: the sea has finished with the story and the last stretch is walked. The two places named on that road are the two where Rome's Christians had come out to meet him.

Places the chapter names for other reasons — where the last ship was registered, and the city and province at the far end of the chain Paul is still wearing.

Acts 28, verse by verse

  1. Acts 28:1After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called .
  2. Acts 28:11After three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of , with the twin gods as a figurehead.
  3. Acts 28:12Putting in at , we stayed there for three days.
  4. Acts 28:13And from there we made a circuit and arrived at . And after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to .
  5. Acts 28:14There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to .
  6. Acts 28:15And the brothers there, when they heard about us, came as far as the and to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage.
  7. Acts 28:16And when we came into , Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him.
  8. Acts 28:17After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from into the hands of the Romans.
  9. Acts 28:21And they said to him, “We have received no letters from about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you.