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To parapharse:
"And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.This is unlikely the first time that ancient sailors were forced to take such action, and on the other side of the world, early Polynesian voyagers no doubt had comparable experiences.
The centurion commanded that they which could swim, and the rest on boards, should cast themselves into the sea, and get to land.
And so it came to pass, to pass, that they escaped all safe to land."
Whereas the technical
(as opposed to the theological) events appear a credible account of such
a disaster, its verasity as an historical document is somewhat questionable.
Initially, note
that modern biblical scholarship indicates that while "Luke the author"
composed both The Gospel According to Luke and The
Book of Acts, he was probably not, as often assumed, the apostle
Luke as identified in the New Testament Gospels.
Given the consistent
imposition of a religous context on the recorded events, it is possible
that some aspects of Acts are manufactured to enhance the story.
Finally, as a literate
and educated man, the author was no doubt familiar with other written accounts
of ancient shipwrecks and his report does contain elements of some of these
earlier works.
In particular there
are strong similarites with the earliest and best known account by Homer
in The Odyessy, circa 800
B.C.
Selections from
other ancient accounts of shipwrecks are included below.
For a map of Paul's
final mission, see:
http://www.biblestudy.org/maps/paul-to-rome-map.html
For some images of
surfing in Malta, circa 2008, see:
http://buntsblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/some-surfing-pics-from-malta.html
41. And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
42. And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.
43. But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land.
44. And the rest,
some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship.
And so it came
to pass, to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.
Quintus Curtius Rufus, History of Alexander, 4.3.16-18 (9 lines)
Tacitus, Annals 2.23-24. (3 lines) 2.23-24)
Herodotus, The Histories, 3.318; 7.188 — (3 lines and 13 lines)
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War,
2.6.26; 6.20.104; 8.24.31 and 8.24.24
– I cannot locate any of these references,
although cited by several Christian Commentary websites.
Thucydides, Pelop. 2.6.26; 6.20.104; 8.24.31; 8.24.34;
Herodotus, Pers. Wars 3.138; 7.188)
Josephus, Jewish War 1.279-80
There are echoes in Chapters 27-27 of motifs from ancient literary voyages (e.g. Lucian, Achilles Titus, Petronius, Charition
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/1*.html
[255 B.C.]
Page103
10 In the
early summer the Romans, having launched three hundred and fifty ships,
sent them off under the command of Marcus Aemilius and Servius
Fulvius, who
proceeded along the coast of Sicily making for Libya.
11 Encountering
the Carthaginian fleet near the Hermaeum they fell on them and easily routed
them, capturing one hundred and fourteen ships with their crews.
12 Then having
taken on board at Aspis the lads who remained in Libya they set sail (1)
again for Sicily.
(1)
they sailed: It is often necessary to use the word "sail," but it should
be borne in mind that the ships were propelled chiefly by oars.
37 They had crossed
the strait in safety and were off the territory of Camarina when they were
overtaken by so fierce a storm and so terrible a disaster that it is difficult
adequately to describe it owing to its surpassing magnitude.
2 For of their
three hundred and sixty-four ships only eighty were saved; the rest either
foundered or were dashed by the waves against the rocks and headlands and
broken to pieces, covering the shore with corpses and wreckage.
3 History tells
of no greater catastrophe at sea taking place at one time.
4 The blame must
be laid not so much on ill-fortune as on the commanders; for the captains
had repeatedly urged them not to sail along the outer coast of Sicily,
that turned towards the Libyan sea, as it was very rugged and had few safe
anchorages: they also warned them that one of the dangerous astral periods
was not over and another just approaching (for it was between the rising
of Orion and that of Sirius (4) that they undertook the voyage).
(4)
between the rising of Orion and that of Sirius: Sirius rises in July, Orion
early in December.
5 The commanders,
however, paid no attention to a single word they said, they took the outer
course and there they were in the open sea thinking to strike terror into
some of the cities they passed by the brilliancy of their recent success
and thus win them over.
6 But now, all
for the sake of such meagre expectations, they exposed themselves to this
great disaster, and were obliged ...
p105
...to acknowledge
their lack of judgement.
7 The Romans,
to speak generally, rely on force in all their enterprises, and think it
is incumbent on them to carry out their projects in spite of all, and that
nothing is impossible when they have once decided on it.
They owe their
success in many cases to this spirit, but sometimes they conspicuously
fail by reason of it and especially at sea.
8 For on land
they are attacking men and the works of man and are usually successful,
as there they are employing force against forces of the same nature, although
even here they have in some rare instances failed.
9 But when they
come to encounter the sea and the atmosphere and choose to fight them by
force they meet with signal defeats.
10 It was so
on this occasion and on many others, and it will always continue to be
so, until they correct this fault of daring and violence which makes them
think they can sail and travel where they will at no matter what season.
Even the Jewish historian Josephus mentions a sea voyage
and a shipwreck in his biography. And little surprise it is that he shifts
from first person singular to first person plural as he recounts it:
I reached Rome after being in great jeopardy at sea. For our ship foundered in the midst of the sea of Adria, and our company of some six hundred souls had to swim all that night. About daybreak, through God's good providence, we sighted a ship of Cyrene, and I and certain others, about eighty in all, outstripped the others and were taken on board (3; sections 14-16).
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(King James Edition) Eyre and Spottiswoode Limited, London. Luke: The Acts of the Apostles. Chapter 27 Verses 41 to 44, page 190. |
 |
Bible Society in Australia Inc Locked Bag 3, Minto NSW, 2566, 2002. |
 |
introductory notes are from: Knowels, Andrew: The Bible Guide.
|
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Page 42
(After establishing colonies on Iceland,
circa 900 AD)
Further west, other Norsemen were already
building another outpost.
From reports by storm-driven sailors,
the Icelanders knew of land some 280 km (I75 miles) to the west almost
as soon as they settled in their new country.
It was a ...
Page 41
... Norwegian outlaw who found it was fit for habitation.
Erik (or Eric, or Eirik)Thorvaldsson,
nick- named Erik the Red, was not a man to cross.
He had been brought to Iceland by his
father, who had been outlawed from his native Norway for murder.
Erik clearly inherited his father's
violent tendencies.
So dedicated was he to feuding- he
had his slaves engineer a landslide to flatten a neighbour's farm - that
he was himself outlawed for three years.
He decided to explore the unknown icy
land to the west.
As it turned out, it was rather less
icebound than it is today.
Erik rounded the point now known as
Cape Farewell in 983, and to his astonishment discovered fjords, kept ice-free
in spring and summer by a finger of the Gulf Stream current.
Here were grassy slopes, bears, foxes,
caribou, fish- and no inhabitants.
The place was his for the taking.
For three years, he and his crew explored.
Returning, he painted a glorious picture
of a place ripe for colonization.
To enhance its appeal, he called it
Greenland.
This was good news for his countrymen,
for they had just come through ten years of famine, and in any case their
habitable patches were all occupied.
In 986, 25 ships set out for the new
land.
It was a rough trip.
Only 14 survived the journey, landiing
some 350 people around today's Julianehab, the area they would soon call
the Eastern Settlement.
Here Erik and his wife and three sons
settled in a fjord named after him, on his farm Brattahlid.
By 1000, some Norsemen had pushed 500
km (300 miles) north to today's Godthab (the Western Settlement) and grown
to some 1,000 strong.
The two communities were exporting
furs, hides, woollens, and narwhal and walrus tusk in exchange for corn,
iron, timber and clothes they needed from Iceland and Norway.
This was the beginning for the communities
that would eventually have outposts another 650 km (400 miles) to the north.
They were to live well for over 200
years.
But then the climate turned harsher,
crops failed, ice increasingly hemmed them, and hostile Inuit moved south-
wards.
When one last ship called in 1540,
the crew found only deserted farms, and one unburied body.
Luke: The Acts of the Apostles 27:41- 44.
The Holy Bible
(King James Edition)
Eyre and Spottiswoode Limited, London.
Chapter 27 Verses 41 to 44, page 190.
ACTS 27: 41- 44.
41. And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground;
and the forepart stuck
fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with
the violence of the waves.
42. And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.
43. But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose;
and commanded that they
which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get
to land.
44. And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship.
And so it came to pass, to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.
Commentary
One of the earliest (purported) first-person reports of a shipwreck
in ancient times, Luke's account includes the use of boards to negotiate
the surf zone and return safely to the beach.
Following a hearing before Herod Agipa III in Ceaserea, Paul is sent
to Rome as a prisoner, in the company of
fellow evangelists Aristarchus and Luke.
After several short voyages, they sailed from Myra on a grain transport
ship bound for Rome but extreme weather forced them to the south of Crete
and across the southern Meditteranean where the ship was wrecked on the
coast of Malta, still named St. Paul's Bay.
To paraphrase:
"On encountering a place where two seas met,
the ship ran aground.
The bow stuck fast and the stern was
broken by the violence of the waves.
The centurion commanded that those who could
swim to jump into the sea.
Those unable to swim should support themselves
with boards salvaged from the damaged ship.
Thus they all escaped safe to land."
This is unlikely the first time that ancient sailors were forced to
take such action, and on the other side of the
world, early Polynesian voyagers no doubt had comparable experiences.
The connection between the use of a timber plank as a floatation device
to succesfully traverse the surf zone
and surfboard riding is obvious.
Whereas the technical (as opposed to the theological) events appear
a credible account of such a disaster, its
verasity as an historical document is questionable.
Initially, note that modern biblical scholarship indicates that while
"Luke the author" composed both The Gospel
According to Luke and The Book of Acts, he was not, as commonly assumed,
the apostle Luke as identified in the text of the New Testament Gospels.
Given the consistent imposition of a religous context on the recorded
events, it is possible that some aspects of
Acts are manufactured to enhance the story.
Finally, as a literate and educated man, the author was no doubt familiar
with other written accounts of ancient
shipwrecks and his report does contain elements of some of these earlier
works.
In particular there are strong similarites with the earliest and best
known account by Homer in The Odyessy,
circa 800 B.C.
For a map of Paul's final mission, see:
http://www.biblestudy.org/maps/paul-to-rome-map.html
For some images of surfing in Malta, circa 2008, see:
http://buntsblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/some-surfing-pics-from-malta.html
Geoff Cater
www.surfresearch.com.au