Acts 27

Chapter 27 is the story of Paul’s journey to Rome. It proves to be a difficult and arduous journey by land and by sea. There is an extended storm and finally the boat is shipwrecked. Paul demonstrates both his profound faith and trust in Jesus Christ and his extraordinary leadership ability by setting an example for the sailors and, ultimately, convincing the Centurion to not kill the prisoners and so everyone makes it to land safely.


There is on interesting textual problem in 37. It says that there were 276 persons in the ship. The sailing vessels of that time would not have been large enough for 276 people and cargo and still stay afloat. Many early copies of Acts say 76 persons (a much likely number) or “about 76” persons. Luke, having shown such precision in his writing to this point would have likely counted the passengers and crew and so I would go with 76.