Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
To look up a word in a dictionary, select the word with your mouse and press 'd' on your keyboard.
Paul Sails for Rome
1 When it was decided that we
should sail to Italy, they
handed Paul and some other prisoners
over to Julius, an officer in the
Roman army regiment called “The
Emperor's Regiment.”
2 We went
aboard a ship from Adramyttium,
which was ready to leave for the
seaports of the province of Asia, and
were sailed away. Aristarchus, a Macedonian
from Thessalonica, was
with us.
3 The next day we arrived at
Sidon. Julius was kind to Paul and
allowed him to go and see his
friends, to be given what he needed.
4 We went on from there, and because
the winds were blowing
against us, we sailed on the sheltered
side of the island of Cyprus.
5 We crossed over the sea off Cilicia
and Pamphylia and came to Myra in
Lycia.
6 There the officer found a
ship from Alexandria that was going
to sail for Italy, so he put us aboard.
7 We sailed slowly for several
days and with great difficulty finally
arrived off the town of Cnidus. The
wind would not let us go any farther
in that direction, so we sailed down
the sheltered side of the island of
Crete, passing by Cape Salmone.
8 We kept close to the coast and with
great difficulty came to a place
called Safe Harbors, not far from the
town of Lasea.
9 We spent a long time there, until
it became dangerous to continue the
voyage, for by now the Day of
Atonement note was already past. So
Paul gave them this advice:
10 “Men,
I see that our voyage from here on
will be dangerous; there will be
great damage to the cargo and to the
ship, and loss of life as well.”
11 But
the army officer was convinced by
what the captain and the owner of
the ship said, and not by what Paul
said.
12 The harbor was not a good
one to spend the winter in; so most
of the men were in favor of putting
out to sea and trying to reach Phoenix,
if possible, in order to spend the
winter there. Phoenix is a harbor in
Crete that faces southwest and
northwest. note
The Storm at Sea
13 A soft wind from the south began
to blow, and the men thought
that they could carry out their plan,
so they pulled up the anchor and
sailed as close as possible along the
coast of Crete.
14 But soon a very
strong wind—the one called “Northeaster”
—blew down from the island.
15 It hit the ship, and since it
was impossible to keep the ship
headed into the wind, we gave up
trying and let it be carried along by
the wind.
16 We got some shelter
when we passed to the south of the
-- --
little island of Cauda. There, with
some difficulty we managed to make
the ship's boat secure.
17 They pulled
it aboard and then fastened some
ropes tight around the ship. They
were afraid that they might run into
the sandbanks off the coast of Libya,
so they lowered the sail and let the
ship be carried by the wind.
18 The
violent storm continued, so on the
next day they began to throw some
of the ship's cargo overboard,
19 and
on the following day they threw part
of the ship's equipment overboard.
20 For many days we could not see
the sun or the stars, and the wind
kept on blowing very hard. We finally
gave up all hope of being
saved.
21 After the men had gone a long
time without food, Paul stood before
them and said, “Men, you should
have listened to me and not have
sailed from Crete; then we would
have avoided all this damage and
loss.
22 But now I beg you, take courage!
Not one of you will lose his life;
only the ship will be lost.
23 For last
night an angel of the God to whom I
belong and whom I worship came to
me
24 and said, ‘Don't be afraid, Paul!
You must stand before the Emperor.
And God in his goodness to you has
spared the lives of all those who are
sailing with you.’
25 So take courage,
men! For I trust in God that it will be
just as I was told.
26 But we will be
driven ashore on some island.”
27 It was the fourteenth night, and
we were being driven in the Mediterranean
by the storm. About midnight
the sailors suspected that we
were getting close to land.
28 So they
dropped a line with a weight tied to
it and found that the water was one
hundred and twenty feet deep; a little
later they did the same and found
that it was ninety feet deep.
29 They
were afraid that the ship would go
on the rocks, so they lowered four
anchors from the back of the ship
and prayed for daylight.
30 Then the
sailors tried to escape from the ship;
they lowered the boat into the water
and pretended that they were going
to put out some anchors from the
front of the ship.
31 But Paul said to
the army officer and soldiers, “If the
sailors don't stay on board, you have
no hope of being saved.”
32 So the
soldiers cut the ropes that held the
boat and let it go.
33 Just before dawn, Paul begged
them all to eat some food: “You
have been waiting for fourteen days
now, and all this time you have not
eaten a thing.
34 I beg you, then, eat
some food; you need it in order to
survive. Not even a hair of your
heads will be lost.”
35 After saying
this, Paul took some bread, gave
thanks to God before them all, broke
-- --
it, and began to eat.
36 They took
courage, and every one of them also
ate some food.
37 There was a total of
276 note of us on board.
38 After everyone
had eaten enough, they lightened
the ship by throwing all the
wheat into the sea.
The Shipwreck
39 When day came, the sailors did
not recognize the coast, but they noticed
a bay with a beach and decided
that, if possible, they would run the
ship aground there.
40 So they cut off
the anchors and let them sink in the
sea, and at the same time they untied
the ropes that held the steering
oars. Then they raised the sail at the
front of the ship so that the wind
would blow the ship forward, and
we headed for shore.
41 But the ship
hit a sandbank and went aground;
the front part of the ship got stuck
and could not move, while the back
part was being broken to pieces by
the violence of the waves.
42 The soldiers made a plan to kill
all the prisoners, in order to keep
them from swimming ashore and escaping.
43 But the army officer
wanted to save Paul, so he stopped
them from doing this. Instead, he ordered
all the men who could swim to
jump overboard first and swim
ashore;
44 the rest were to follow,
holding on to the planks or to some
broken pieces of the ship. And this
was how we all got safely ashore.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
|