Acts 27:5-6

AT MYRA. Acts 27:5-6.

Acts 27:5

And when we had sailed across the sea which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia.

Acts 27:6

And there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy; and he put us therein.

Acts 27:5. The southwest wind which, at the start, had been favorable for sailing now made the voyage painfully tedious since they turned west-ward after running north for a time from Sidon, but at last they reached Myra, their next port of call. (Cunningham Geikie, Vol. III, pages 475-476).

Here is a fine quotation concerning the town of Myra (Cf. 476, Geikie): One of the chief towns of Lycia, it lay where the coast forms a slight bay just before it turns north as the west face of Asia Minor, bordering the Aegean or, as we say, the Grecian Archipelago. An open-air theatre, 355 feet in diameter, many fine public buildings, and numerous stately tombs, enriched with statues and elaborate carving, then attracted the eye on entering its, portAndriaca, two and a half miles from the town itself, which lay on the slope of a hill, setting off its every detail. The old name is still known, though the Turks call it Dembre; but its present squalor contrasts painfully with the splendour of the ruins which speak of what it was under the Romans.

974.

Give two facts about Myra.

Acts 27:6. But what was a ship from Alexandria Egypt doing here? And this ship was sailing for Italy. Was it not away off its course? Indeed, it was. The same wind that troubled the ship from Adramyttium had blown this great vessel off its course.

As to what the ship looked like, I refer you again to Geikie:
Ships, in Paul's day, were as various in their size, within certain limits, as they are now, that in which on this voyage, he was wrecked at Malta carrying two hundred and seventy-six persons and a cargo of wheat; a dangerous one even now; I, myself, having narrowly escaped shipwreck between the Dardanelles and Malta, by its shifting. Josephus tells us that the vessel in which he was sailing to Italy carried 600 persons and it, like that of Paul, was lost, going down in the Adriatic so suddenly that Josephus and the rest -swam for their lives all that night-' just as Paul had once done. Lucian further helps us to realize the marine of those days by the account he gives of a corn-ship of Alexandria, which had come to the Piraeus-a large, indeed an immense ship-'. The ship carpenter told him, he says, that it was 120 cubitsthat is, say, 180 feet long; its breadth over 30 cubits, or over 45 feet, and its depth 29 cubits or, say, 43 feet. Its lofty mast, for he mentions only onewas wonderful and so was its yard. The ropes from it to the hull were a sight to see and so was the curved stern rising high, like a bird's neck, at the one end and the prow, of similar shape to balance it at the other end, Its name-The Goddess Isis'Shone out on both sides of the bow with such artistic ornamentation, while the top he said was of flame color and on the deck the eye was attracted, in the fore part of the ship, by the anchors, the windlasses and such like, and on the poop by the cabins and offices. The great merchantmen of the Phoenicians known as Tarshish ships had been famous in the day of Ezekiel and it is not probable that shipbuilding had lost its skill in the advance of 600 years, and hence we may safely conclude that the docks and harbors of that first century saw vessels which, for costliness and splendor, though not in outline or scientific structure, would even now have been the pride of their owners and of their crews. (pp. 469-70, III)
This ship from Alexandria was to complete its voyage and it was the very one Julius wanted for their destination. So Paul and his companions were put aboard. All together there were 276 persons on board this wheat ship.

975.

How would it be possible to find a ship from Egypt at this place?

976.

Give three facts concerning the ship on which Paul was to sail.