Acts 28:11-15

Journey from Malta to Rome.Three months brings us to the middle of February, which is before the opening of navigation. They had doubtless seen the Dioscuri, Heavenly Twins, a ship like that in which they were wrecked, and making the same voyage from Alexandria to Italy. A day's sail would bring them to Syracuse. From Syracuse to Rhegium they had not a S. wind, and if the text is correct they had to tack. The mg., they east loose, adopted by WH, is too trivial a statement. After a day at Rhegium (now Reggio), the wind sprang up which they wanted, and they sailed in a day to Puteoli, where the passengers landed.

The journey is not like that of a prisoner on his way to trial, as Preuschen remarks, but like that of a missionary whose time is at his own disposal. The centurion has disappeared out of the story, and only comes forward again in Acts 28:16 (mg.). Paul is twice said to have come to Rome (Acts 28:14 and Acts 28:16). Ramsay suggests that the first time it is to the Ager Romanus that he comes, the Roman territory, marked, no doubt, in some way at its border. But Acts 28:15 is against this; the brethren did not come from the Roman territory to meet Paul, but from Rome itself, we must presume. The writer seems to be working from two sources, the one telling of Paul's coming to Rome as Acts 28:14 f. does, and the other which presents him as a prisoner in Acts 28:16. Appii Forum on the Appian Road is 40 miles, Three Taverns 30 miles, from Rome. We may suppose Paul to have been glad to meet some of those he had lately addressed in the greatest of his letters, but the narrative is abbreviated. We find the centurion again (Acts 28:16), who in some codices (mg.) hands over his prisoners to the stratopedarch, i.e. not the commander of the præ torian guard but the officer in charge of the communications between the legions of the provinces and headquarters. Paul's confinement is easy; he must have been in command of resources (p. 772). He lives in a lodging of his own, chained, no doubt to the soldier who guarded him.