The Bible Says
Acts 27:9-12 Meaning

In Acts 27:9-12, decisions will be made whether to stay put or go on. Paul’s wisdom will be overruled by the centurion and the ship captain, to ruinous results.

After two years of imprisonment in Caesarea, Paul was finally put on a ship to sail to Rome, escorted by a centurion and his soldiers. It is late in the year and the winds are rising; sailing is slow. The first ship took Paul and company as far as Lycia (part of modern-day Turkey). In a port in Lycia, they boarded a second ship bound for Rome. The bad weather continued to slow their progress. Sailing down to Crete, they are at a decision point of how to proceed.

In the remote harbor of Fair Havens, Crete, Paul will voice his concerns about the voyage. It has been slow going so far, and based on the time of year, it will only get worse:

When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul began to admonish them (v. 9).

This moment where Paul began to admonish them (the centurion and the ship captain) appears to occur in Fair Havens. Verse 8 was the last instance where Luke marked their geographic location as Fair Havens, Crete, and he again references the harbor in verse 12, as well as explaining that the majority of the ship crew wanted to reach the Cretan harbor of Phoenix which was further west along the coast.

This occasion for Paul to interject his advice was When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous. This may mean they lingered for a while in Fair Havens, or Luke is summarizing the journey thus far since they left Myra, Lycia in this second ship.

It has taken considerable time for them to reach even Crete. Luke doesn’t specify how long, but in ideal conditions the voyage from Caesarea to Rome would have taken under a month. It seems to already be a couple of weeks into the journey and they have only made it halfway, to the island of Crete. In better conditions, they could have sailed from Myra, on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor, to Greece, and gone on to Rome from there. But this voyage began late in the year, and strong winds have troubled their going the entire time.

Paul makes note of the considerable time they have already been at sea, and thinking ahead, he perceives that the voyage was now dangerous. The sea weather was only going to get worse. Luke makes note of the time of year at this point: since even the fast was already over. The fast refers to the Jewish fast for Yom Kippur, “the day of Atonement,” which is celebrated on the tenth day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, sometime in either late September or early October (the Jewish calendar is based on moon cycles, not the movement of the sun). All of this is to say that it was autumn, and not a convenient time to sail on the Mediterranean Sea. Winds would worsen, storms would increase. Paul knows this, as do the sea captain and the centurion escorting Paul. The question at this point is “Where will the ship harbor for the winter?” There is no use in trying to finish the journey until spring.

Paul began to admonish them, the men in charge. He said to them, “Men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives” (v. 10).

Paul warns the centurion and the ranking crew members of the ship about what he thinks will happen if they try to keep sailing westward. It is not clear whether Paul was speaking just from his own personal opinion or if he was Spirit-led in his words. He relays the words of an angel later in the chapter, encouraging the crew during tough times. Whether from himself or God, Paul is right in what he warns those in charge: I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss. This will prove absolutely correct. The ship will experience the fullest extent of damage—it will be destroyed—and there will be great loss—the cargo will be thrown overboard and abandoned. This voyage will certainly be a total loss for the crew and their clients.

But Paul warns that it will not only be the cargo and the ship which will experience damage and great loss, but there will be damage and great loss also of our lives. This seems to indicate that Paul was speaking somewhat from personal intuition, because in the end, though the ship and cargo will be ruined, God will spare the lives of all two hundred and seventy-six souls on board (Acts 27:37).

However, in the coming weeks, Paul will speak a revelation from God, that the survival of everyone is conditional upon them following God’s commands. It is possible that some might die if they do not follow what God speaks through Paul. When some sailors try to sneak away in the ship’s spare boat, Paul warns the Romans that unless everyone stays together, the Romans won’t survive. Thus, the Roman soldiers cut loose the boat to prevent anyone from abandoning the ship, heeding Paul’s words (Acts 27:31-32).

At another point, the Roman soldiers draw their weapons to kill the prisoners, but their centurion commands them not to, out of devotion to his duty to bring Paul safely to Rome (Acts 27:42-43).

Paul’s implied advice here is that they should winter where they are; they should shelter in place and not go any further until the seasons change and the weather is suitable for long sea voyages.

Paul’s jailors favor the opinions of the sailors over his: But the centurion was more persuaded by the pilot and the captain of the ship than by what was being said by Paul (v. 11).

The centurion, Julius, is on board the ship to ensure that Paul and the other prisoners safely reach Rome. He is a soldier, not a sailor. So he naturally is more persuaded by the input from the pilot and the captain of the ship. The pilot is the sailor who steers the ship, who is theoretically an expert in navigation and weathering storms. The captain of the ship is the chief-ranking sailor, the highest chain of authority in decision-making; he would likely have been a seasoned and tested sailor.

It makes sense that the centurion would be more persuaded by their objectives than by what was being said by Paul, who was a prisoner in chains under his charge. Julius seemed to respect Paul, or at least trust him, since he let him go ashore to his friends in Sidon earlier on their journey (Acts 27:3). But he defers to the professional seafarers, not the imprisoned preacher in his care. However, the fact that they had begun this voyage so late in the year and now were being forced to spend the winter somewhere in the middle of the ocean implies that the pilot and the captain of the ship were not necessarily the wisest of sailors. They had taken a major risk in trying to sail to Rome in the autumn. Their original plan had already failed. It seems that they gave serious consideration to wintering in Fair Havens, and might have but the harbor was not suitable.

They reasoned that it was best to keep sailing before settling down for the winter:

Because the harbor was not suitable for wintering, the majority reached a decision to put out to sea from there, if somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there (v. 12).

It was Because the harbor was not suitable for wintering that they wished to press on. The harbor of Fair Havens provided protection from northern winds, but was exposed to southwestern and eastern winds. The captain and pilot weigh the risk of their ship being battered throughout the winter in Fair Havens against the risk of making for Phoenix, another harbor of Crete further west. Phoenix had a harbor facing southwest and northwest, a better geographical location to anchor a ship for an entire winter, safer from the weather patterns of winter on the Mediterranean. It is only about a thirty-mile journey, and they will be sailing along the coastline. So they decide to risk it.

It would be better to spend the winter there in Phoenix, so the majority of the crew reached a decision to proceed west along the coast. The words if somehow they could reach Phoenix hint that this decision was based more on hoping for the best than it was a reasonable choice. The crew is holding its breath and rolling the dice by putting out to sea once more, despite the already dangerous autumn weather building into the impassable winter season. It seems they are choosing between two poor options.

This decision will lead to two weeks of pain and despair for all aboard the vessel. But God will see everyone safely through to the other side, because it is His will for Paul to reach Rome. Through the chaos of the sea and the sailors’ loss of control, God’s mercy will deliver them, as long as they follow the words Paul speaks to them, given to him by an angel of God.