Acts 27:1

Acts 27:1 – (NIV) – “When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment.”

Note 1: Julius

The group, including the prisoner Paul, was delivered over to a Roman centurion, who as the official representative of Caesar and Roman power, would control everything about getting them to Rome from Caesarea. I find it interesting Luke, mentions the Roman centurion by name, Julius. Luke, will generally refer to him as “the centurion”, which sounds more official and formal.

I am not quite sure why Luke mentions his name at all since he does not use his name much or develop his character later. The centurion actually does play a role in the events.    In his capacity as commander he will also save Paul and the other prisoners lives.    It is also interesting to note that Julius, by name, is never mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.

Note 2: Imperial Regiment

Also, Luke mentions that Julius belonged to the Imperial Regiment.  I am unsure why he mentions this fact. It has no apparent bearing on the story.

The Imperial Regiment (Legion) is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible and there is no specific reference to it in any other historical documents.

It appears that Luke mentions the Legion he was attached to simply because that was information he knew and he was recording the facts he had available to him.

This fact itself is not important to the events or to his account, but including them is part of his style of presenting complete information.

Note 3: Luke’s Style

Luke seems to mention this information just because they were part of the trip and he was simply writing down what he encounter along the way.  There seems to be no ulterior motive to either mention or not mention theses facts, he is just relating the facts of the trip.  In this entire story we find time and again that Luke records information simply because he made the observations during the trip and writes the observations as part of his narrative.  Many times the facts he relates will have no bearing on the story at all.

These passages are beginning to establish the normal writing style for Luke.

John