The shipwreck survivors were probably on Malta from mid-November to mid-February or the beginning of March. Then Paul and the rest of the passengers and crew put out to sea again. At one of Malta's large harbors they had found an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux. Twin sons of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, the Dioscouroi had been immortalized as gods from the union of Leda, queen of Sparta, and Zeus. Seeing their constellation, the Gemini, while on the high seas was thought to be a sign of good fortune. They were the patron deities of sailors and protectors of innocent seafarers, and their cult had devotees in Egypt as well as Italy (Epictetus Discourses 2.18.29). Euripides presents them as guardians of truth and punishers of perjurers (Electra 1342-55).

It is probably with an intended ironic twist that Luke notes Paul's embarkation on "The Castor and Pollux." For though the unbelieving ancients would have attributed Paul's rescue to "the Twins" and taken it as a token of his innocence, Paul has made clear he belongs to, serves and believes in the one true God, who was his protector and deliverer (27:23-25). So today, though others tout the gods of non-Christian religion or secular technopolitical ideology as protectors and saviors, the Christian knows who is really in gracious control.

After a sixty-mile voyage north, the ship put in at Syracuse, on the southeast coast of Sicily, the triangular island at the tip of the boot of the Italian peninsula. They stayed for three days at this provincial capital city, famed for fishing, shipbuilding and bronze work.

The seventy-mile passage to Rhegium was uneventful. This Italian port is six or seven miles from Messina, across the strait that separates Sicily from Italy. On the strength of a south wind the ship moved northward and in two days covered the 175 nautical miles (overall speed five knots) to Puteoli.

Puteoli, because of its location in the Bay of Naples and its man-made jetties, was at this time, in Strabo's words, "a very great emporium," Rome's main port of entry from the east (Strabo Geography 5.4.6; Seneca Epistles 77.1). Since Josephus mentions a Jewish colony at Puteoli (Jewish Wars 2.104), it is not surprising that Paul and his Christian companions found some [Christian] brothers. Their invitation to spend a week with them of course presupposed a request to the centurion and his consent (compare 27:3).

What an attractive picture of the worldwide network of support and encouragement that Christians know! To the cosmopolitan Roman then, and the sophisticated but unconnected urbanite now, Paul's experience of instant but genuine intimacy and full-orbed mutual commitment in the company of brothers at Puteoli is a refreshing picture of what they long for and can have in the gospel (compare 16:15, 33-34; 21:7; 27:3).

And so we came to Rome. The word so brings out two themes in Acts. It looks back and climactically marks the precise fulfillment of God's promise to Paul (23:11; 27:24). But it also points forward, telling the reader to note the way Paul and his party came to Rome: in the company of Roman Christians who came to give them the kind of welcome reserved for dignitaries (apantesis; Cicero Letters to Atticus 16.11).

Paul made his way twenty miles up the Via Compana to its intersection with the Via Appia, the Appian Way. Statius called this Roman road "the worn and well-known track of Appia, queen of the long roads" (Silvae 2.2.12). The 130-mile trek to Rome probably took five days. Moving through hill country and returning to the coast only three times, this road passed through the Pontine Marshes, in which a canal had been constructed in an attempt at draining them. At the northern end of the marsh, forty-three miles from Rome, was the Forum of Appius, "crammed with boatmen and stingy tavern-keepers" (Horace Satires 1.5.3-6). Ten miles farther was Three Taverns (Cicero Letters to Atticus 2.10). At both these "halting stations" Christian brothers from Rome, who had heard that Paul and the others were coming, greeted him and provided a reception and escort to Rome fit for an emperor.

What an irony: Paul the imperial prisoner makes a triumphal procession to the capital of the Empire! Thus proceeds the advance of the gospel in fulfillment of Acts 1:8, a demonstration of the truth of its declaration that it would be proclaimed in all nations.

At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged (literally, "took courage"). Why? From his letter to the Romans and from Acts we know that one of Paul's long-standing desires was to bear witness in Rome (19:21; Rom 1:10-12; 15:22-24, 30-32). Along the way to that goal, he had anticipated and met some significant obstacles. When, with God's help, we achieve divinely appointed goals, the only proper response is thankfulness.

And as for the future? Paul "took courage" especially at the sight of the Roman Christians. Because the Judaizing opposition either followed Paul to Rome or greeted him there (Phil 1:15-19), this show of support was surely most significant to him. As Christians today face the future, they too need support from one another, especially in prayer, if they are to "take courage."

As Paul and his companions got to (better "entered") Rome, they were no doubt struck with, as Horace says, "the smoke, the riches and the din of wealthy Rome," the ancient world's largest city, capital and hub of the Empire (Odes 3.29.12). Here Paul experienced a more lenient form of custody, his own rented quarters, where he remained chained at the wrist to one soldier of the Praetorian guard, who served a four-hour shift (Phil 1:13; Josephus Antiquities 18.169).