The Bible Says
Acts 27:27-32 Meaning

In Acts 27:27-32, after two weeks in the storm, the sailors will discover land approaching. Paul’s message from the angel will come true.

Paul is a prisoner on board an Alexandrian grain ship bound for Rome, which has been blown off course for many days in a violent storm. Though most aboard feared that they would die, Paul assured everyone that they would survive. An angel visited Paul and told him that the ship would be lost, but all its passengers would live, because they will run aground on an island.

Luke records that two weeks have passed since they were driven away from Crete by the fierce Euraquilo wind (Acts 27:14): But when the fourteenth night came, as we were being driven about in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors began to surmise that they were approaching some land (v. 27).

It was when the fourteenth night came that Paul’s prediction about finding land finally appeared to be coming true. For two weeks they had been adrift in the Mediterranean Sea, driven east from the coast of Crete where they had intended to stay the winter. The storm became so severe that they could not see the sun or stars (Acts 27:20).

It appears that the storm has lessened to the extent that their surroundings are more visible. At about midnight the sailors seem to be able to make out that there is land in front of them: they began to surmise that they were approaching some land. The strong winds are still driving them along, it would seem, but perhaps the rain and cloudy skies have lessened. What land or how big was yet to be determined, but after two weeks of stormy oceans, there was at last some land which they were approaching.

Luke notes that we were being driven about in the Adriatic Sea. This part of the Mediterranean was known as the sea of Adria in Paul’s time, and should not be confused with the later designation of the sea between Italy and Greece, which to this day is called the Adriatic. Paul and his ill-fated ship are south of Italy at this point, and the land which they are approaching will be revealed to be the island of Malta (Acts 28:1).

The sailors begin to measure the depth of the water to decide how close they might be to the approaching land:

They took soundings and found it to be twenty fathoms; and a little farther on they took another sounding and found it to be fifteen fathoms (v. 28).

To take a sounding is to measure the depth of sea by dropping a weight on a rope until it hits bottom, then measuring the length of the rope. So the sailors took soundings multiple times to learn if the sea was becoming shallower. From this they could discern the rate at which they were approaching land in order to predict the time they would wash ashore. It was the middle of the night, so they could not see the particulars of the approaching land, only some rough impression. Although it was a good sign that there was land nearby, they were in a dangerous position, driven by the winds in the dark of night, unable to see. Land is good, but with it comes rocks and reefs against which the ship can crash and wreck.

At their first measurement, they found it to be twenty fathoms. A fathom is equal to about six feet. So the depth of the water at the first sounding was 120 feet deep. The sailors then waited for a short period of time and took soundings again. It was a little farther on they took another sounding and found it to be fifteen fathoms: 90 feet. In only a short distance the seabed rose five fathoms (or thirty feet). The water was becoming shallower. They were fast approaching land.

Fearing that we might run aground somewhere on the rocks, they cast four anchors from the stern and wished for daybreak (v. 29).

This rapid decrease in depth caused the sailors anxiety that they would wreck. It was still the middle of the night, and the wind was apparently still driving them along. They were Fearing that we might run aground somewhere on the rocks.

This kind of wreck could cost men their lives. Rocks might be present far away from the safety of the shore, so if the ship struck a rock, it would knock a hole in the boat and cause it to sink. Then the only way of escape would be to swim ashore. In the middle of the night and without knowing how far the shore was, possibly losing direction of the shore, could lead to mass drownings.

To slow the ship down and drag against the wind, the sailors cast four anchors from the stern, the back of the boat, and wished for daylight. This seems to indicate that they had more recently been able to perceive the day; days earlier the storm was so intense that they could not see the sun or stars. Now the sailors wished for daylight, hoping that the four anchors they loosed would prevent the ship from running aground somewhere on rocks.

Some of the sailors grow desperate, and try to abandon their post and escape with their lives:

But as the sailors were trying to escape from the ship and had let down the ship’s boat into the sea, on the pretense of intending to lay out anchors from the bow (v. 30).

Their plan was to escape from the ship by sailing or rowing away in the ship’s boat, which was the lifeboat or skiff, a smaller vessel, attached to the ship. They did this on the pretense of intending to lay out anchors from the bow, the front of the ship. They had lied and said they would release more anchors to try to slow the ship down, which gave them cover for letting down the ship’s boat to escape, leaving the others for dead.

Paul somehow knows what they are up to. He intervenes. He had told his fellow passengers about the message that God sent him through an angel, to not be afraid, because God promised that Paul and everyone else on board would survive the storm, even though the ship would not. They would run aground on a certain island (Acts 27:22-25).

Now, as some of the sailors are trying to break away from the ship in the small boat, Paul warns the Roman soldiers that this will remove God’s protection from them:

Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, “Unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved” (v. 31).

Paul told Julius the centurion and his soldiers who were escorting Paul to Rome that this was an all-or-nothing scenario. Either everyone stuck together, or their lives would be forfeit. Paul directs this warning to the Romans specifically, that Unless the sailors do not jump ship but remain onboard, you yourselves (the centurion and the soldiers) cannot be saved from this storm or the coming shipwreck.

Paul’s life and survival had been assured by God, and the rest of the passengers were included in this mercy, “God has granted you all those who are sailing with you” (v. 25). But this seems to be a conditional grant: “But we must run aground on a certain island” (v. 26). The “we” apparently included everyone. If “we” do not run aground the island all together, then “all those who are sailing with” Paul will not be saved.

No one was allowed to abandon the ship. Presumably Paul’s friends, Luke and Aristarchus (Acts 27:2), would also have been spared along with Paul, even if others broke faith. Now the lives of the Romans were bound to the lives of the sailors and the other prisoners.

Julius the centurion seems to have believed in Paul’s claim that God promised to save everyone’s life, because he takes Paul’s warning completely seriously. The fact that land had been sighted was evidence that Paul had spoken the truth. They were near to the island where they would run aground, just as God had told him. Now was not the time to jump ship. The centurion’s men, probably at his command, take action to prevent the sailors from escaping:

Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it fall away (v. 32).

The Roman soldiers get rid of the ship’s boat permanently as they cut away the ropes which attached it to the ship. The temptation for anyone to abandon the ship was now removed. By cutting away the ropes, they let the little boat fall away to be lost in the stormy sea. The sailors must not have boarded the boat yet, but had only let it down, and were planning to climb down into it. Now the boat was gone, and all of the sailors were forced to remain aboard. The contrast is clear between the doubts and fears of the sailors and the faith of the Romans.

Safety is near. God will deliver on His promise to save everyone on the ship.