SHOW NOTES: - Head to our Start Page for all you need to begin! - Join the RECAPtains - Check out the TBR Store - Show credits FROM TODAY’S RECAP: - Photo: Anchor - Article: Searching for Paul’s Shipwreck on Malta - Article: Mamertine Prison - Video: Colossians Overview - Video: Philemon Overview BIBLE READING & LISTENING: Follow along on the Bible App, or to listen to the Bible, try Dwell! SOCIALS: The Bible Recap: Instagram | Facebook | TikTok D-Group: Instagram | Facebook TLC: Instagram | Facebook D-GROUP: D-Group is brought to you by the same team that brings you The Bible Recap. TBR is where we read the Bible, and D-Group is where we study the Bible. D-Group is an international network of Bible study groups that meet weekly in homes, churches, and online. Find or start one near you today! DISCLAIMER: The Bible Recap, Tara-Leigh Cobble, and affiliates are not a church, pastor, spiritual authority, or counseling service. Listeners and viewers consume this content on a voluntary basis and assume all responsibility for the resulting consequences and impact. Links to specific resources and content: This is not an endorsement of the entire website, author, organization, etc.. Their views may not represent our own.
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Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. If you're doing our New Testament plan, today we finished our 12th book, and if you're doing the whole Bible, we finished our 51st book.
Paul defended himself in front of King Agrippa and Governor Felix yesterday, and today we launch into the aftermath of that trial, where he's being transported to Rome to appeal to Caesar like he requested. He has to be taken there by sea, and the authorities are kind enough to let his friends travel with him, including our narrator Luke.
This is a bigger ship with sails and anchors, not a little fishing boat, and there are nearly 300 people on board. At this point, it's approximately 59 AD, roughly 30 years after Jesus rose from the dead, and it's autumn. The trip is taking them longer than it normally would because they hit some rough winds and have to reroute along the way.
Around this time of year, most of the shipping expeditions are halted because the weather is so bad on the seas in winter. Paul tells them, By the way, we don't have any evidence that this is a message from God. It could just be Paul speaking from experience. Either way, they don't listen to him. He's a prisoner after all. Sure enough, they hit a storm.
On day two of the storm, they start throwing the ship's cargo overboard, which probably includes exports like wheat. On day three of the storm, they start throwing their actual tools and maybe even parts of the ship itself overboard. They're getting desperate. The sky is dark and stormy for days, and they're feeling hopeless. And probably seasick, too, I'm guessing.
They haven't had anything to eat in days, but I'm not sure if that makes things better or worse. At one point, Paul stands up and says, I wish you would have taken my words to heart. But hopefully now that you've seen me give good advice, you'll listen to me. Especially because this new message is actually from an angel. He told me that no one is going to die.
We'll lose the boat, but we'll all live. So be encouraged. God is going to get us all to Rome, but a shipwreck is part of the journey. After two weeks of this nightmare, they're finally approaching land. They start to make preparations to go to shore by dropping anchors from a dinghy, but Paul tells them, nope, stay in the boat. They listen to him this time and cut the dinghy free.
Paul starts calling the shots on the boat, and they're actually listening to him. The next day, they shipwreck into the island of Malta, just south of Sicily. In the late 1960s, some divers found four anchors off the coast of Malta that date back to 1st century Rome.
The site where the anchors were discovered fits with the criteria listed in the text, so it's possible that these may be the anchors from Paul's ship. We've posted a photo and an article about this in the show notes.
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