Luke

Theophilus, this one's for you. Lots of people have written it down already. I went back to the very beginning, checked everything carefully, and put it in order. So you can be sure.

Start with Zechariah, an old priest, and his wife Elizabeth. Good people. No children, and now they're both getting on. Then one day Zechariah's name comes up to go into the temple and burn the incense.

Six months on, up in Nazareth. A young woman called Mary, engaged to Joseph, from David's family line. An angel comes to her and tells her she's highly favoured, the Lord is with her. She's shaken, trying to work out what kind of greeting that is.

Replying to @luke

He tells her she'll have a son and she's to call him Jesus, and his kingdom will never end. She asks how, when she's never been with a man. The Holy Spirit, he says. Nothing God says is impossible. And she says yes. She's the Lord's servant, and she's ready for it to happen just the way he's said.

Caesar orders a census, so Joseph goes to Bethlehem, David's town, with Mary, who's expecting. The baby comes while they're there. No room for them in the guest room, so she wraps him up and lays him in a manger.

When the time comes, they take him up to the temple to present him to the Lord. Their offering is two pigeons. A detail I noticed: that's the offering the law allows for families who can't afford a lamb.

And he grows up. Wiser, taller, and loved by God and by people.

I like to be precise, so: the fifteenth year of the emperor Tiberius, with Pilate governing Judea. That’s when God’s word comes to John, Zechariah’s son, out in the desert.

John calls Herod out for taking his brother's wife, Herodias, and for everything else he's done. Herod's answer: lock John up.

Jesus is baptised too. While he's praying, heaven opens, and the Holy Spirit comes down on him in a form you could actually see, like a dove. Then a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love. I'm so pleased with you.”

He’s about thirty when he starts. People think he’s Joseph’s son. I traced the family tree back, name by name, all the way to Adam. And Adam was the son of God.

Forty days in the desert, nothing to eat. Three offers from the devil: 1. Turn this stone into bread. 2. Every kingdom in the world, if you worship me. 3. Jump off the temple, the angels will catch you. Three answers from Scripture. The devil leaves, until another chance.

Home to Nazareth, synagogue, Sabbath. He reads from Isaiah: good news for the poor, freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind. Rolls up the scroll, sits down. Every eye on him. Then he tells them it's come true, today, right as they were listening.

Then he brings up Elijah and Elisha being sent to foreigners, and the whole synagogue turns on him. They drive him to the edge of the hill to throw him off. He walks right through the middle of them and leaves.

At daybreak he slips off somewhere quiet. The crowds track him down and try to stop him leaving. He says he has to take the good news to the other towns too. That's what he was sent for.

The more the news spreads, the bigger the crowds. And the more often he slips away to quiet places to pray.

I asked around about this one. It was his right hand.

A man with a withered hand@stretchedout · A synagogueSabbath, synagogue, me with a shrivelled hand, and everyone watching him. He told me to stretch it out. I did. It was as good as the other one.

Replying to @luke

They're furious. And now they're talking among themselves about what they might do to Jesus.

He spends the whole night on a mountain praying. In the morning he picks twelve and calls them apostles. Simon, who he names Peter, is one. So is Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Replying to @centurioncapernaum

Jesus was amazed at him. Turned to the crowd and said he hasn't found faith like this anywhere, not even in Israel. The friends went back to the house and found the servant well.

Dinner at a Pharisee's. A woman everyone in town knows as a sinner walks in with a jar of perfume. She's crying at his feet, wiping them with her hair, kissing them, pouring the perfume on them.

Replying to @luke

Jesus told Simon about two people whose debts were cancelled, one big, one small, and asked which would love more. Then he pointed out Simon hadn't even given him water for his feet, and she's washed them with her tears.

Something I found out: she was his only daughter. About twelve years old.

Jairus@jairusMy daughter had just died. I knelt in front of him and asked him to come and put his hand on her, so she’d live. He got up and came.

He sends the Twelve out to heal the sick and tell people about God's kingdom. Packing list: nothing. No stick, no bag, no bread, no money, no spare shirt.

Replying to @lawexpert

Worth knowing: he'd stood up to test him. And that last question? He was trying to justify himself.

You won't find this one in the other accounts.

Jesus@jesusA man is beaten by robbers on the Jericho road and left half dead. A priest sees him and walks past on the other side. So does a Levite. Then a Samaritan stops, bandages him, takes him to an inn and pays for his care.

Replying to @marthaofbethany

His answer: Martha, Martha. You're worried and stressed about so much, and only one thing actually matters. Mary's chosen the better thing, and he's not taking it away from her.

Replying to @crowd.theory

He knew what they were thinking. A kingdom fighting itself falls apart, he said. And if he drives spirits out by the finger of God, then God's kingdom has come to you.

Replying to @spokeup

He said the ones who are really blessed are the people who hear God's word and do it.

Dinner at a Pharisee's. Jesus sits down without doing the ceremonial wash first, and the host is surprised.

Replying to @jesus

When he leaves, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees go at him hard, firing questions, waiting to catch him out.

Sabbath dinner at a leading Pharisee's, all eyes on him. A man with dropsy right in front of him. Allowed to heal on the Sabbath or not? Silence. He heals him. Who wouldn't pull their son or ox out of a well on a Sabbath? More silence.

Replying to @jesus

He followed it with this: nobody starts building a tower without first working out whether they can finish it. Count the cost. None of us can be his disciple unless we give up everything we have.

Replying to @jesus

The Pharisees, who love money, heard all this and sneered at him.

Replying to @onewhocameback

Jesus asked where the other nine were. Weren't all ten healed? Was this foreigner the only one who came back to thank God?

Replying to @jesus

Why he told that one: so they'd always pray and never give up. If even that judge gives in, won't God see that his people get justice when they cry out to him day and night?

Replying to @jesus

Who he told that one to: people who were sure of how good they were, and looked down on everyone else.

He was a ruler, I found out. And extremely rich.

A rich young man@whatdoistilllackAsked him what I was still missing. He said sell everything, give it to the poor, and follow him. I went away sad. I have a lot.

As the city comes into view, he weeps over it. If only they'd known today what would bring them peace, he says. Not one stone will be left on another, because they didn't recognise the time God came to them.

After that he taught in the temple every day. The chief priests wanted him dead. They just couldn't work out how, because the people hung on his every word.

Someone in Jerusalem@jerusalem.local · The temple courtsDid you hear what happened at the temple? He’s overturned the money changers’ tables. Drove the sellers out. Tables. Over.

I found out how this one was set up. They'd been watching him, and sent men pretending to be sincere, to catch him out in something he said so they could hand him over to the governor. It didn't work. They just went quiet, amazed at his answer.

A student of the Pharisees@pharisees.student · The temple courtsWe went to him in the temple courts with some of Herod’s supporters. Started by saying we know he’s honest and doesn’t care what anyone thinks. Then asked: is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? He asked to see the coin for the tax. Whose face is this? Caesar’s. So, he said, give Caesar what’s Caesar’s, and God what’s God’s.

His routine now: teaching in the temple all day, nights out on the Mount of Olives. And everyone's up early to hear him.

Passover's close, and the chief priests are looking for a way to get rid of him. Then Satan enters Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve. Judas goes to them about handing Jesus over. They're delighted, and agree to pay him.

Then the day comes when the Passover lamb has to be sacrificed. The meal Moses gave Israel the night they left Egypt.

Moses@mosesEvery household: a lamb. Its blood on the doorframe. Eat it that night with sandals on and staff in hand, ready to leave. It’s the LORD’s Passover.

At the table he takes bread, gives thanks, and breaks it: “This is my body, given for you. Do this to remember me.”

Replying to @luke

After supper, the cup: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for you.” A covenant is a binding agreement. This one is new.

Mount of Olives, like always. He kneels and prays: Father, if you're willing, take this cup away from me. But not what I want. What you want. An angel strengthens him. He's in such anguish that his sweat is falling to the ground like drops of blood.

Replying to @luke

A note: some of the oldest copies of my account don't have the angel or the sweat like blood. Many others do, and they've been read for a very long time, so they're here.

The men guarding him mock him and beat him. They blindfold him and keep demanding, “Prophesy! Who hit you?”

At daybreak, the council. They tell him, if you're the Messiah, say so. He says from now on the Son of Man will sit at the right hand of God's power. So you're the Son of God, then? He says they're the ones saying he is. That's enough for them. They've heard it from his own mouth.

They take him to Pilate. Charges: misleading the nation, opposing taxes to Caesar, claiming to be the Messiah, a king. Pilate asks if he's the king of the Jews. He says, you've said so. Pilate tells them he can't find anything to charge him with.

Replying to @herodantipas

A detail I found: Herod and Pilate had been enemies. That same day they became friends.

Replying to @pontiuspilate

They all shout together: “Get rid of him! Give us Barabbas!” Then, over and over: “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

Replying to @pontiuspilate

Pilate asks them a third time what crime he's committed. They shout louder. And their shouting wins. He releases Barabbas, in prison for rebellion and murder, and hands Jesus over to what they want.

A large crowd follows him, including women mourning and wailing for him. He turns to them and tells them not to cry for him. Cry for yourselves, he says, and for your children.

They crucify him at the place called the Skull, a criminal on each side. Jesus says, “Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.” They divide up his clothes by casting lots.

Replying to @luke

A note: “Father, forgive them” isn't in some of the oldest copies of my account. It's in many others, and it's been read for a very long time, so it's here.

The people stand there watching. The leaders sneer that he saved others, so let him save himself, if he's really God's Messiah. The soldiers mock him too. Above him there's a sign: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

About noon, darkness comes over the whole land until three in the afternoon. The sun stops shining. The curtain in the temple is torn in two. Jesus shouts, “Father, I put my spirit into your hands.” And he dies.

The crowds who came to watch go home beating their chests. Everyone who knew him, and the women who'd followed him from Galilee, stand at a distance, watching.

He leads them out as far as Bethany, lifts up his hands and blesses them. While he's blessing them, he's taken up into heaven. They go back to Jerusalem full of joy, and they're in the temple all the time, praising God.

Theophilus, book two. Book one was Jesus: everything he did and taught. This one picks up after he’d died and come back. Forty days of him turning up alive, proof after proof, talking about God’s kingdom.

Back in the upstairs room: the eleven, some of the women, Mary his mother, and his brothers. All of them praying, together, day after day.

Pentecost, the harvest festival, and Jerusalem’s packed with Jews from every country. The believers are all together in one room. Then a sound like a violent wind fills the whole house, and something like flames of fire comes to rest on each of them.

Replying to @luke

Every one of them is filled with the Holy Spirit and starts speaking in other languages.

About three thousand people were baptised that day. One day.

What the church looks like now: 1. Learning from the apostles. 2. Eating together, in each other’s homes. 3. Praying. 4. Selling what they own so nobody goes without. Every single day the Lord adds more people.

The priests, the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees turn up, furious that they’re telling people Jesus rose from the dead. Peter and John are locked up overnight. But the number of men who believe is now about five thousand.

Ananias and Sapphira sold some land, kept back part of the money, and brought the rest as if it was all of it. Peter: “You haven’t lied to people. You’ve lied to God.” Ananias fell down dead.

Replying to @luke

Three hours later Sapphira came in, not knowing, and told the same lie. She died too. They buried her beside her husband.

Replying to @temple.officer

Then someone runs in: the men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts, teaching. An angel of the Lord had opened the doors in the night and told them to go and do exactly that.

Replying to @gamaliel

They took his advice. Mostly. They still had them flogged before they let them go.

Replying to @greekspeaker

The Twelve’s answer: choose seven people everyone knows are full of the Spirit and wisdom, and put them in charge of it. Everyone’s happy with that. Stephen is one of them. Philip too.

Stephen’s been dragged in front of the council. Men who couldn’t win an argument with him put people up to saying he’d insulted Moses and God.

Everyone in the council is staring at him. His face looks like the face of an angel.

Stephen’s answer is the whole history. Joseph, sold by his brothers. Moses, pushed away by his own people. The same thread all the way through: God sends someone, and they push him away.

They cover their ears, yell and rush at him. They drag him out of the city and stone him. The witnesses leave their coats at the feet of a young man called Saul.

Replying to @luke

Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he went down on his knees and asked the Lord not to hold this sin against them. And then he died.

And Saul was there, approving of it all. Now he’s going house to house, dragging believers, men and women, off to prison. Everyone except the apostles scatters.

In Lydda, Peter meets a man called Aeneas who’s been paralysed and in bed for eight years. Peter tells him Jesus Christ is healing him, so get up and make his bed. He gets up.

Tabitha has died in Joppa. She was always doing good and helping the poor. When Peter gets there, the widows are all crying, showing him the tunics and clothes she made them.

Replying to @luke

He sent everyone out, knelt and prayed. “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes.

Peter’s still mid-sentence when the Holy Spirit comes down on everyone listening. The Jewish believers who came with him can’t believe it. Non-Jews, speaking in other languages and praising God.

A whole year of teaching in Antioch. And it’s in Antioch that the followers are first called Christians.

Replying to @agabus

It came, when Claudius was emperor. The believers in Antioch each sent what they could to the brothers and sisters in Judea.

King Herod starts going after people in the church. He has James, John’s brother, put to death with the sword.

He sees it goes down well with the people, so he arrests Peter too. Four squads of soldiers guarding him. And the church is praying hard for him.

The church in Antioch is worshipping and fasting when the Holy Spirit says: set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work I’ve called them to. So they pray, lay their hands on them, and send them off.

Saul also goes by Paul. From here on, that’s what I’m calling him.

Replying to @barnabas

The non-Jews who hear that are overjoyed. The city’s leaders get Paul and Barnabas thrown out of the area, and the two of them shake the dust off their feet and move on. The new believers? Full of joy and the Holy Spirit.

Then men arrive from Antioch and Iconium and win the crowd over. The same crowd stones Paul and drags him out of town, thinking he’s dead. The believers gather round him. He gets up and walks back into the city.

Back home in Antioch they gather the church and tell them everything God did, and how he’s opened a door of faith for non-Jews.

Replying to @stricterside

Paul and Barnabas are not having that. It turns into a sharp argument, and they’re sent up to Jerusalem to settle it with the apostles and elders.

Replying to @antioch.church

It was over Mark. Barnabas wanted to take him. Paul didn’t think he should come, after he’d left them in Pamphylia.

The Spirit won’t let them into Asia, then won’t let them into Bithynia. So, Troas. That night Paul sees a man from Macedonia in a vision: “Come over and help us.”

Personal news: I’ve joined Paul. From here on it’s “we”.

Replying to @lydiaofthyatira

She wouldn’t take no for an answer.

A slave girl with a spirit that tells fortunes follows us around for days, shouting that we’re servants of the Most High God. Eventually Paul gets so fed up he turns round and orders the spirit out of her in the name of Jesus Christ. It goes.

Notice what they left out. Their income walked out with that spirit. That’s what this was really about.

The fortune-teller's owners@fortune.ownersThese men are Jews, and they’re throwing our city into chaos. Pushing customs that we, as Romans, can’t accept or practise.

Replying to @paul

They did. The magistrates were alarmed when they heard we were Roman citizens. They came in person to smooth things over, walked us out, and asked us to leave the city.

The people in Berea are a different sort. They take the message eagerly, and they check the Scriptures every day to see if it’s true. A lot of them believe.

Replying to @proconsulgallio

He threw them out of court. Then the crowd grabbed Sosthenes, the synagogue leader, and beat him right there in front of the court. Gallio couldn’t have cared less.

It’s got to the point where people take handkerchiefs and aprons that have touched Paul to the sick, and they get better.

Word gets round Ephesus. People who’d practised magic bring their scrolls and burn them in front of everyone. Someone added up what they were worth: fifty thousand silver coins.

Replying to @eutychus

He was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw his arms round him: “Don’t be alarmed. He’s alive.” Then Paul went back upstairs, broke bread, ate, and kept talking until dawn. They took the young man home alive, and everyone was hugely comforted.

Caesarea. We’re staying at the home of Philip, one of the Seven chosen back in Jerusalem. The last we’d heard of him, he was preaching his way up the coast to here. Turns out he made his home here.

Philip@philipthesecondNext thing I knew I was in Azotus.

Replying to @luke

He has four unmarried daughters, and all four of them prophesy.

Replying to @paul

We’d all begged him not to go. In the end we stopped. Whatever the Lord wants, then.

Replying to @asia.temple

He hadn’t. They’d seen him around the city with Trophimus from Ephesus and assumed.

From the barracks steps, Paul speaks to the crowd in Aramaic and they go quiet. They listen to the whole Damascus story, right up to the point where he says the Lord sent him to the non-Jews. Then: “Get rid of him! He’s not fit to live!”

“When I find the time.” That was when Paul got onto doing right, self-control and the judgement to come, and Felix got frightened. He kept sending for him after that, hoping Paul would offer him a bribe. Two years went by.

Governor Felix@governorfelix · CaesareaDrusilla and I had the prisoner Paul in to hear about faith in Christ Jesus. I sent him away in the end. I’ll call for him again when I find the time.

King Agrippa and Bernice arrive with great pomp, into the audience hall with the commanders and the city’s leading men. And then Paul is brought in.

Sailing season’s almost over. Paul warns them: this voyage is going to be a disaster, for the cargo, the ship, and our lives. The centurion listens to the pilot and the ship’s owner instead.

A hurricane-force wind, the northeaster, comes down off Crete. We throw the cargo overboard, then the ship’s gear with our own hands. Many days with no sun and no stars. In the end we gave up all hope of being saved.

Some of the sailors tried to sneak off in the lifeboat, pretending they were letting down anchors from the front of the ship. Paul told the centurion. The soldiers cut the ropes and let it drift away.

Before dawn Paul gets everyone to eat. Fourteen days of this and nobody’s eaten. He takes bread, thanks God in front of everyone, breaks it and starts eating. We all cheer up and eat too. Two hundred and seventy-six of us on board.

And so we came to Rome. The believers there heard we were coming and walked out as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. When Paul saw them, he thanked God, and you could see it lift him.

Two whole years Paul lives there in a place he rents, and welcomes everyone who comes to see him. Telling them about God’s kingdom and the Lord Jesus Christ. Boldly. And nobody stops him.

Paul calls me “the dear doctor” in this one. I’ll take it. Hello from me.

Replying to @paul

Still here.

Replying to @jameszebedee

An angel came and strengthened him. He prayed harder, in agony, and his sweat fell to the ground like drops of blood.

I asked about this one. He stood over her and ordered the fever out, the way he’d ordered the spirit out in the synagogue. And she got up that minute and started serving them.

Simon’s mother-in-law@simonsmotherinlaw · CapernaumRight. I’m up. Who’s hungry?

He puts his hands on each one. Every single person they bring to him, one at a time. And heals them.

Replying to @capernaum.nextdoor

Because they knew he was the Messiah.

Replying to @crowd.capernaum

He told them he had to take the good news of God’s kingdom to the other towns as well. That’s what he was sent to do.

Replying to @mark

And he keeps slipping away to quiet places to pray.

A detail I found: Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting in there too. Not just local ones. They’d come from every village in Galilee, from Judea, from Jerusalem. And God’s power was with him to heal.

Worth saying: he welcomed them. Then he talked to them about God’s kingdom and healed everyone who needed it.

Then he told the Twelve to get everyone sitting down in groups of about fifty.

Theophilus, this one’s for you. Plenty of people have written about these things. I went back to the very beginning, talked to the people who were there, checked everything, and put it in order. So you can be sure.

Start with an old couple in the hill country of Judea. Zechariah, a priest, and his wife Elizabeth. Good people, both of them, the kind who keep every one of God’s commands. No children, and now they’re both getting on in years.

So what had happened to Mary? Here’s what I pieced together. Not long before, up in Nazareth, God sent the angel Gabriel to her. She’s engaged to a man called Joseph, from David’s family line. The angel says she’s highly favoured and the Lord is with her. She’s shaken, trying to work out what kind of greeting that is.

Elizabeth@elizabethMary’s here. My relative from Nazareth. The moment I heard her say hello, the baby jumped inside me.

Replying to @luke

He tells her not to be afraid. She’ll have a son, and she’s to name him Jesus. He’ll be called the Son of the Most High, God will give him David’s throne, and his kingdom will never end.

Replying to @luke

She asks how, when she’s a virgin. The Holy Spirit, he says. The power of the Most High. And her relative Elizabeth, the one everyone said couldn’t have children, is six months pregnant. Nothing God says will ever fail.

Replying to @luke

And Mary says yes. She tells him she’s the Lord’s servant. Let it happen the way he’s said.

Replying to @thehillcountry

God was with him. You could see it.

Replying to @zechariah

The boy grows up strong in spirit and lives out in the wilderness, until the day he steps out in front of Israel. That’s another story.

When the days of purification the law of Moses sets are over, Mary and Joseph bring him up to the temple in Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. The law says every firstborn son belongs to the Lord.

Replying to @luke

Their offering is two young pigeons. A detail I found: that’s the one the law allows if you can’t afford a lamb.

And the child grows up strong, and full of wisdom. God’s grace is on him.

And he grows. Wiser, taller, and loved by God and by people.

Picking up where the Gospels stop. Jesus has been taken up into heaven from the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem. Before he went, he told his friends not to leave the city. Wait, he said. In a few days you’ll be baptised with the Holy Spirit. So they’re waiting.

The believers@thebelieversHe led us out as far as Bethany, lifted his hands and blessed us. And while he was blessing us, he was taken up. A cloud hid him, and he was gone.

If you’re just joining: that’s Saul. A young Pharisee from Tarsus, trained here in Jerusalem. He stood and approved while they stoned Stephen, and every breath he takes now is a threat to kill Jesus’ followers.

Luke@luke · JerusalemThey cover their ears, yell and rush at him. They drag him out of the city and stone him. The witnesses leave their coats at the feet of a young man called Saul.

And then, quiet. The church right across Judea, Galilee and Samaria has peace. Growing stronger, growing in numbers, living in awe of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.

Personal news. I’m Luke, I write things down, and I’m going with them. We’re getting ready to sail for Macedonia. So from here on, when I tell this story, it’s “we”.

Out of Troas and straight across to Samothrace, the island in the middle. Next day, Neapolis, the port on the Macedonian side.

Up the road from the port to Philippi. It’s a Roman colony and the leading city of this part of Macedonia. Very Roman. We’re staying a few days.

Replying to @philippi.local

That’s us. Sabbath tomorrow. We think there’s a place of prayer outside the gate, down by the river.

Sabbath, the weekly day of rest. Out through the city gate, along the river, and there it is: the place of prayer. Some women had gathered. We sat down with them and started talking.

She was listening. Then the Lord opened her heart and she responded to what Paul was saying. That’s the only way I can put it.

Lydia@lydiaofthyatira · By the riverLydia here, if you don’t know me. From Thyatira, I deal in purple cloth, and I worship God. I was down at the river to pray today when Paul started talking. God opened my heart to what he was saying.

Replying to @lydiaofthyatira

She persuaded us. It turns out you don’t say no to Lydia.

Walking out to the place of prayer again and a slave girl starts following us. She has a spirit in her that tells fortunes.

Replying to @timothy

Paul’s getting more and more annoyed.

Replying to @paul

It left her. That very moment.

They’ve taken Paul and Silas. Beaten in public and thrown in prison.

And then they left the city. Paul and Silas, back on the road.

We’re sailing for Italy. Paul’s been handed over, with some other prisoners, to a centurion called Julius, from the Imperial Regiment.

Our ship’s from Adramyttium, working its way along the ports of the Asian coast. Aristarchus is with us. He’s from Thessalonica.

Put in at Sidon. Julius has been decent to Paul. He’s let him go and see his friends here so they can look after him.

Wind’s against us. We’ve had to go round the sheltered side of Cyprus instead of the straight way.

Replying to @luke

Then across the open sea past Cilicia and Pamphylia. Now we’re at Myra, in Lycia.

Change of ship at Myra. The centurion’s found one from Alexandria sailing for Italy, and put us all on it.

Days and days of crawling along. We barely made it level with Cnidus, then the wind stopped us again. So we’ve gone down and round the sheltered side of Crete, past Cape Salmone.

In harbour at last. A place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea, on Crete.

We’ve lost a lot of time. The Fast has already been and gone, the Day of Atonement, in the autumn, and after that it gets dangerous to be at sea.

Most of them want to sail on and try for Phoenix, a harbour on Crete that looks out south-west and north-west, and spend the winter there. Somehow.

Can’t point the ship into it. We’ve stopped fighting it and we’re letting it drive us wherever it wants.

A few minutes’ shelter behind a little island called Cauda. It took everything we had just to haul the lifeboat up on board.

We’re being thrown about so badly that the crew have started throwing the cargo over the side.

Haven’t seen the sun in days. No stars at night either. That’s what they steer by. Nobody knows where we are.

The storm won’t stop. I’ll say it plainly. We’ve given up any hope of getting out of this alive.

Fourteen nights now, driven back and forth across the Adriatic.

Four anchors down from the back of the ship. The sailors are praying for morning.

So the sailors had been trying to get off the ship. Paul told the centurion and the soldiers, and that was the end of it.

Then he took some bread, thanked God for it in front of everyone, broke it, and started eating.

Two hundred and seventy-six of us on board, and every one of us had something to eat.

Anchors cut loose and left in the sea. The ropes on the steering oars untied. Foresail up to the wind. Heading for the beach.

The front of the ship is stuck fast and won’t move. The back is being smashed to pieces by the waves.

Replying to @prisoner.to.rome

The centurion stopped them. He wanted to save Paul’s life.

Everyone made it. Every single one. Two hundred and seventy-six people standing on a beach.

Found out where we are. The island’s called Malta.

Replying to @malta.islander

I don’t think I’ve ever been shown such kindness. They took every one of us in.

Replying to @malta.islander

He shook it off into the fire.

Replying to @aristarchus

And it didn’t do him any harm at all.

Replying to @publiusmalta

Publius, the island’s chief official. Three days he looked after us, and properly.

Replying to @malta.islander

They honoured us in all sorts of ways while we were here.

Three months on Malta. Now there’s another ship from Alexandria that wintered here, the one with the Twin Brothers carved on the front, and we’re on it.

Syracuse, three days. Then on to Rhegium.

Replying to @luke

A day at Rhegium, then a south wind came up. Next day, Puteoli.

Replying to @rome.church

When Paul saw them coming, he thanked God. You could see the courage come back into him.

And so we came to Rome.