3rd Missionary Trip - Lorin

folks headed back to their homes. A rather sad moment for both groups.
In 21:7, Luke indicates that the next stop for the ship was Ptolemais: Ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸν πλοῦν διανύσαντες
ἀπὸ Τύρου κατηντήσαμεν εἰς Πτολεμαΐδα καὶ ἀσπασάμενοι τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ἐμείναμεν ἡμέραν μίαν παρʼ αὐτοῖς.
When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais; and we greeted the believersc and stayed with them
for one day. This port city, also known as Acre, is now in the northwestern corner of modern Israel in western
Galilee, and today is a center of the Baha’i religious tradition. It had a Roman colony present in the first century,
as well as a Christian community.
Luke’s beginning expression is somewhat confusing: Ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸν πλοῦν διανύσαντες ἀπὸ Τύρου
κατηντήσαμεν εἰς Πτολεμαΐδα. It seems on the surface to be saying after having finished the sea voyage from Tyre,
we arrived at Ptolemais. 274 But verse 8 clearly indicates that the sea voyage did not end until the group arrived in
Caesarea. It was some 31 miles down the coast from Tyre. One possibility, although nothing in Luke’s depiction
clearly signals this, is that the group traveled the next day from Ptolemais to Caesarea overland rather than by
ship. Another suggestion is that the ship they were on finished its voyage at Ptolemais, and then the group had
to find another ship on to Caesarea.
The group of missionaries made contact with the Christian community in the city and spent the entire day
with them. 275 As indicated in v. 8, this meant spending the night with the brothers in the city as well. Perhaps this
very brief stay was dictated by the travel schedule of the ship they were using. Which ever way they traveled, it
was approximately a 30 mile trip from Ptolemais to Caesarea, easily a single day’s travel by sea, but a two day
journey by land. This would strongly imply in light of the statement in verse eight of arriving in Caesarea in the
same day they left Ptolemais.
One observation from this ‘travel log’ of Luke covering Paul’s use of ships beginning at Philippi down
to Caesarea. Traveling by ship in ancient Rome was challenging, because apart from one or two short routes
around the Italian peninsula, passenger ships did not exist in that world. Merchant ships would carry passengers,
but passengers had to bring their own food. Only water to drink would be supplied. The best merchant ships were
the grain ships sailing between Alexandria Egypt and Rome along the eastern and northeastern Mediterranean
coasts. 276 Luke indicates that the group of missionaries had to change ships at least a couple of times in order to
find one traveling the right direction and to a workable designation. In today’s world to get from Philippi in Macedonia
to Caesarea would be less than a four hour flight
by airplane. But these men took several weeks to make
the trip, with multiple stops along the way. Even though
anxious to make Jerusalem by Pentecost, Paul and the
others took the occasions of these stops to greet Christian
friends wherever they were present in the port cities
along the way. What becomes clear from this narrative
of Luke is how God used the situation of the trip for continued
ministry and witness by Paul and his friends. To
be sure, some very sad farewells were spoken with the
brothers and sisters in Christ, but it was one last opportunity
for the esteemed and beloved apostle to give words
of instruction and encouragement to believers. And this
gave very special meaning to the stops along the trip to
Caesarea. Most all of the churches would remember and
cherish this opportunity for many years to come.
What an example of using the situation that life deals us in order to serve God and His people!
7.1.4.6 Farewell in Caesarea, Acts 21:8-16
274 “Πτολεμαΐδα where the sea voyage, as some think, may have ended. Ptolemais was ‘einst Haupthafen für Palästina’
(Preuschen 125). He cites Josephus, War 1:290, 394; Ant. 14:452; 15:199; 18:155. These do not seem to prove more than that Pt. was an
important port.” [C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, International Critical Commentary
(Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2004), 992.]
275What is fascinating is that Ptolemais was the hometown of Paul’s old Jewish rabbi Gamaliel (cf. Abodah Zarah 3:4). I suspect
his name at least came up in the discussions with the believers during their conversations that day.
276For a helpful discussion of this background see Lesley Adkins and Roy A. Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1998), 188-189.
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