Read The Jewish Annotated New Testament Online
Authors: Amy-Jill Levine
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So on the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then Festus gave the order and Paul was brought in.
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And Festus said, “King Agrippa and all here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish community petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.
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But I found that he had done nothing deserving death; and when he appealed to his Imperial Majesty, I decided to send him.
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But I have nothing definite to write to our sovereign about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that, after we have examined him, I may have something to write—
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for it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.”
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Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began to defend himself:
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“I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews,
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because you are especially familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews; therefore I beg of you to listen to me patiently.
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“All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem.
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They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I have belonged to the strictest sect of our religion and lived as a Pharisee.
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And now I stand here on trial on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors,
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a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, your Excellency,
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that I am accused by Jews!
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Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?
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“Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
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And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death.
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By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.
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“With this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,
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when at midday along the road, your Excellency,
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I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions.
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When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew
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language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’
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I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
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But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me
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and to those in which I will appear to you.
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I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you
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to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
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“After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,
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but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance.
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For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.
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To this day I have had help from God, and so I stand here, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would take place:
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that the Messiah
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must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”
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While he was making this defense, Festus exclaimed, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you insane!”
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But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking the sober truth.
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Indeed the king knows about these things, and to him I speak freely; for I am certain that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this was not done in a corner.
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King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.”
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Agrippa said to Paul, “Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?”
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Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that not only you but also all who are listening to me today might become such as I am—except for these chains.”
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Then the king got up, and with him the governor and Bernice and those who had been seated with them;
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and as they were leaving, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.”
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Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to the emperor.”
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When it was decided that we were to sail for Italy, they transferred Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan Cohort, named Julius.
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Embarking on a ship of Adramyttium that was about to set sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica.
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The next day we put in at Sidon; and Julius treated Paul kindly, and allowed him to go to his friends to be cared for.
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Putting out to sea from there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us.
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After we had sailed across the sea that is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia.
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There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy and put us on board.
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We sailed slowly for a number of days and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus, and as the wind was against us, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone.
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Sailing past it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the city of Lasea.
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Since much time had been lost and sailing was now dangerous, because even the Fast had already gone by, Paul advised them,
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saying, “Sirs, I can see that the voyage will be with danger and much heavy loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.”
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But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said.
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Since the harbor was not suitable for spending the winter, the majority was in favor of putting to sea from there, on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix, where they could spend the winter. It was a harbor of Crete, facing southwest and northwest.
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When a moderate south wind began to blow, they thought they could achieve their purpose; so they weighed anchor and began to sail past Crete, close to the shore.
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But soon a violent wind, called the northeaster, rushed down from Crete.
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Since the ship was caught and could not be turned head-on into the wind, we gave way to it and were driven.
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By running under the lee of a small island called Cauda
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we were scarcely able to get the ship’s boat under control.
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After hoisting it up they took measures
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to undergird the ship; then, fearing that they would run on the Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and so were driven.
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We were being pounded by the storm so violently that on the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard,
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and on the third day with their own hands they threw the ship’s tackle overboard.
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When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest raged, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.
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Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul then stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and thereby avoided this damage and loss.
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I urge you now to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
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For last night there stood by me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship,
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and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before the emperor; and indeed, God has granted safety to all those who are sailing with you.’
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So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.
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But we will have to run aground on some island.”
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When the fourteenth night had come, as we were drifting across the sea of Adria, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land.
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So they took soundings and found twenty fathoms; a little farther on they took soundings again and found fifteen fathoms.
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Fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.
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But when the sailors tried to escape from the ship and had lowered the boat into the sea, on the pretext of putting out anchors from the bow,
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Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”
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Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat and set it adrift.
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Just before daybreak, Paul urged all of them to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been in suspense and remaining without food, having eaten nothing.
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Therefore I urge you to take some food, for it will help you survive; for none of you will lose a hair from your heads.”
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After he had said this, he took bread; and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat.
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Then all of them were encouraged and took food for themselves.
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(We were in all two hundred seventy-six
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persons in the ship.)
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After they had satisfied their hunger, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea.