Five Centurions from the Bible - 2
Julius, the shipwrecked centurion with St Paul (Acts 27:9-15) along the coast at Phoinix
Perhaps you’ve already guessed that the point of looking into five centurions from the Bible is to show what the gentile’s role in ones own personal faith as a christian is and visa versa. The Roman centurion of Capernaum had a perfect faith, well, let us now look into the relationship between a second centurion and the Apostle Paul. The apostles were at the establishment of the Christianity, because that they had been with Jesus himself and, in particular, seen him resurrected from the dead. What the right positioning vis-à-vis the Early Church is, may indeed be a crucial matter. This is a very long posting but I think that it's well worth the read through, because at the end one gets an indication of how and where one may get the power to overcome tremendous difficulty and hardship, even if one is a non-christian like our centurion here yet again.
Some think that the centurion Julius shipwrecked with Paul was named because he was a follower of Jesus, some think that a conversion took place during the voyage itself, and some claim that he was in fact Julius Priscus the later praefect of the praetorian guards whose ending of life Tacitus describes as done out of shame rather than necessity. Paul was during his voyage to Rome under the charge of the said Julius, a centurion of the Cohors I Augusta, a Roman unit made up of native Samaritan auxiliaries attested by inscriptions to have been garrisoned in Syria and then Batanea (Bashan, east of Galilee) in the time of Herod Agrippa II, and whose detachment of the cohort may have been stationed at the port of Caesarea itself. Personally, I like to put forward that Julius was of Abraham’s stock, a Hellenic Samartian, and therefore someone who understood the Christians to be a Jewish religious sect.
Luke’s account of Paul’s voyage to Rome in Acts stands out as one of the most vivid pieces of descriptive writing in the whole Bible. The traditional view is that the Gospel of Luke and Acts were written by the physician Luke, a companion of Paul, and not the Apostle Luke. Many scholars believe the first to be a Gentile Christian, though some scholars think Luke was yet again a Hellenic Jew. Just why Julius was moved to show such kindness towards Paul and his companions Luke didn't state. Julius could have been under orders from the Roman procurator Porcius Festus to give Paul special treatment. Or perhaps having become familiar with the circumstances of Paul’s arrest, he may simply have admired Paul’s courage and integrity. In any event, he seemed to appreciate that Paul was no ordinary prisoner, not even for a Roman citizen one.
Luke didn’t mention either what kind of the large vessel it was that they eventually boarded to sail to Rome, but he did state its cargo contained grain. Since it was heading from Egypt to Italy, we may surmise that it may have belonged to a fleet of imperial grain carriers. He explained also why the eastern Mediterranean was so stormy: “Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement” (27:9). Navigation in this part of the Mediterranean was deemed dangerous after September 14, and enitrely impossible after November 11. Paul was a seasoned traveler and he had experienced dangers at sea, so he knew something about the treacherous waters. Despite Paulus warning the pilot and owner against leaving Kali Limenes (Fair Havens in Ancient Greek) and because it was after all an exposed harbor, most of the crew wanted to go on to Phoinix, only 40 miles west up the coast of Crete, and spend the winter there.
The ship was caught soon thereafter in a really tempestuous wind that threatened to run it aground on the sandbanks off the shore of northern Africa. In the midst of this tempest, Paul stood up and assured the frightened passengers that not a soul of them would be lost, only the boat. Julius was quick to learn from his mistakes, and went along with Paul’s guidance. In both matters of the sailors who wanted to abandon the ship, and soldiers who wanted to kill the prisoners, he took Paul’s advice. The result was that, eventually, they did all arrive safely ashore again in Malta. Putting the story into our own lives a storm could be a financial hardship, a personal loss, a sickness, a troubled relationship, etc. We can’t always predict them, and we can’t outrun them. But we can navigate through them by having a high regard for real spirituality. Moreover, it may draw oneself even closer to gaining a proper personal relationship with God sailing through them and emerging stronger and bolder in the faith.
Julius initially listened to the owner and pilot of the ship over Paul’s advice. This was a natural response even for a christian, since Paul was indeed only a tentmaker by trade and a prisoner by position. Later, when the disaster Paul had predicted arrived, Julius showed great humility and wisdom by paying real attention to Paul. Moreover, here one also may claim that Paul's exemple of how he was towards Julius payed off. Paul had been humble and wise to speak up and then accept the majority view. The crew tried to deceive others and bail out and save themselves, obviously listening to only their raw emotions and utter desperation. Fear is to be expected and is quite natural, but it's one's own reaction to fear and desperation that will dictate what happens next. Everyone on board was fearful, but Paul felt then also encouragement and a prophetic word. And because God understands us all perfectly, he gave Paul a promise that everyone on the ship would be saved.
Finally, even the very best amongst us may still feel a constant anxiety in storms of our own making or not, but then again one should always try look for some sort of spirtual guidance too so that it may strengthen and encourage ourselves. We're never alone so there's no need to get stuck on feeling lonely. The story of our second centurion has this key message: there's a true difference in being lonely and lowly. Indeed, Paul's own lowliness by staying humble and unimportant, whilst his opinion of staying in port was completely ignored, cancelled out his loneliness in opinion later on. Soon his example was followed by the centurion who saw that it was the clear and only way out of the storm. As christian and non-christian together there's nothing wrong in putting both our faiths in something higher than ourselves, in God's hands as a christian would know it. Nothing wrong in praying to Him in need, nor in seeing His Holy Spirit in anything that crosses ones path daily as mere human being.
Perhaps you’ve already guessed that the point of looking into five centurions from the Bible is to show what the gentile’s role in ones own personal faith as a christian is and visa versa. The Roman centurion of Capernaum had a perfect faith, well, let us now look into the relationship between a second centurion and the Apostle Paul. The apostles were at the establishment of the Christianity, because that they had been with Jesus himself and, in particular, seen him resurrected from the dead. What the right positioning vis-à-vis the Early Church is, may indeed be a crucial matter. This is a very long posting but I think that it's well worth the read through, because at the end one gets an indication of how and where one may get the power to overcome tremendous difficulty and hardship, even if one is a non-christian like our centurion here yet again.
Some think that the centurion Julius shipwrecked with Paul was named because he was a follower of Jesus, some think that a conversion took place during the voyage itself, and some claim that he was in fact Julius Priscus the later praefect of the praetorian guards whose ending of life Tacitus describes as done out of shame rather than necessity. Paul was during his voyage to Rome under the charge of the said Julius, a centurion of the Cohors I Augusta, a Roman unit made up of native Samaritan auxiliaries attested by inscriptions to have been garrisoned in Syria and then Batanea (Bashan, east of Galilee) in the time of Herod Agrippa II, and whose detachment of the cohort may have been stationed at the port of Caesarea itself. Personally, I like to put forward that Julius was of Abraham’s stock, a Hellenic Samartian, and therefore someone who understood the Christians to be a Jewish religious sect.
Luke’s account of Paul’s voyage to Rome in Acts stands out as one of the most vivid pieces of descriptive writing in the whole Bible. The traditional view is that the Gospel of Luke and Acts were written by the physician Luke, a companion of Paul, and not the Apostle Luke. Many scholars believe the first to be a Gentile Christian, though some scholars think Luke was yet again a Hellenic Jew. Just why Julius was moved to show such kindness towards Paul and his companions Luke didn't state. Julius could have been under orders from the Roman procurator Porcius Festus to give Paul special treatment. Or perhaps having become familiar with the circumstances of Paul’s arrest, he may simply have admired Paul’s courage and integrity. In any event, he seemed to appreciate that Paul was no ordinary prisoner, not even for a Roman citizen one.
Luke didn’t mention either what kind of the large vessel it was that they eventually boarded to sail to Rome, but he did state its cargo contained grain. Since it was heading from Egypt to Italy, we may surmise that it may have belonged to a fleet of imperial grain carriers. He explained also why the eastern Mediterranean was so stormy: “Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement” (27:9). Navigation in this part of the Mediterranean was deemed dangerous after September 14, and enitrely impossible after November 11. Paul was a seasoned traveler and he had experienced dangers at sea, so he knew something about the treacherous waters. Despite Paulus warning the pilot and owner against leaving Kali Limenes (Fair Havens in Ancient Greek) and because it was after all an exposed harbor, most of the crew wanted to go on to Phoinix, only 40 miles west up the coast of Crete, and spend the winter there.
The ship was caught soon thereafter in a really tempestuous wind that threatened to run it aground on the sandbanks off the shore of northern Africa. In the midst of this tempest, Paul stood up and assured the frightened passengers that not a soul of them would be lost, only the boat. Julius was quick to learn from his mistakes, and went along with Paul’s guidance. In both matters of the sailors who wanted to abandon the ship, and soldiers who wanted to kill the prisoners, he took Paul’s advice. The result was that, eventually, they did all arrive safely ashore again in Malta. Putting the story into our own lives a storm could be a financial hardship, a personal loss, a sickness, a troubled relationship, etc. We can’t always predict them, and we can’t outrun them. But we can navigate through them by having a high regard for real spirituality. Moreover, it may draw oneself even closer to gaining a proper personal relationship with God sailing through them and emerging stronger and bolder in the faith.
Julius initially listened to the owner and pilot of the ship over Paul’s advice. This was a natural response even for a christian, since Paul was indeed only a tentmaker by trade and a prisoner by position. Later, when the disaster Paul had predicted arrived, Julius showed great humility and wisdom by paying real attention to Paul. Moreover, here one also may claim that Paul's exemple of how he was towards Julius payed off. Paul had been humble and wise to speak up and then accept the majority view. The crew tried to deceive others and bail out and save themselves, obviously listening to only their raw emotions and utter desperation. Fear is to be expected and is quite natural, but it's one's own reaction to fear and desperation that will dictate what happens next. Everyone on board was fearful, but Paul felt then also encouragement and a prophetic word. And because God understands us all perfectly, he gave Paul a promise that everyone on the ship would be saved.
Finally, even the very best amongst us may still feel a constant anxiety in storms of our own making or not, but then again one should always try look for some sort of spirtual guidance too so that it may strengthen and encourage ourselves. We're never alone so there's no need to get stuck on feeling lonely. The story of our second centurion has this key message: there's a true difference in being lonely and lowly. Indeed, Paul's own lowliness by staying humble and unimportant, whilst his opinion of staying in port was completely ignored, cancelled out his loneliness in opinion later on. Soon his example was followed by the centurion who saw that it was the clear and only way out of the storm. As christian and non-christian together there's nothing wrong in putting both our faiths in something higher than ourselves, in God's hands as a christian would know it. Nothing wrong in praying to Him in need, nor in seeing His Holy Spirit in anything that crosses ones path daily as mere human being.
