And when it was day, they knew not the land: but they discovered a creek; which however they could not enter, but ran aground, before the island of Melita (now called Malta); where the forepart of the ship stuck fast, but the hinder part was broken in pieces by the waves. Verses 39–41. Here the soldiers held a council and decided to kill the prisoners, including Paul, lest any of them should swim out, and escape. The centurion, however, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose: and commanded that they who could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land which was done; and the rest floated, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, so that all, namely, one hundred and seventy souls, escaped to land. Verses 42–44. Thus was fulfilled what Paul had foretold them, namely, that they should suffer shipwreck, and yet escape with their lives. Here Paul was first pronounced a murderer, but afterwards a god, by the inhabitants of the island; and this, because they observed a viper fastening itself on his hand, which he shook off into the fire, without suffering any harm. Acts 21:3–6. After three months they sailed for Italy in a ship which had wintered in the isle; yet they arrived first at Syracuse, in Sicily, and then at Puteoli, on the Italian border, where Paul found brethren, with whom he tarried seven days; others came to meet him as far as Appii Forum, and the Three Taverns. Proceeding, he came to Rome, where the centurion delivered him to the chief captain, to be brought before Cesar. In the meantime he was kept by a soldier, and bound with a chain. Verses 11–16,20. We have narrated all these things the more circumstantially (and this, according to Holy Scripture), in order that it may be seen, how much this pious man suffered in his travels by sea and by land, for the sake of the holy Gospel. Of all this he gives a brief account in his second epistle to the Corinthian church, writing thus: “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in cold and nakedness. 2 Cor. 11:24–27. Yea, it appears from the first epistle to the Corinthians, that he was thrown before the wild beasts in a theatre at Ephesus, to be torn to pieces, or, at least, to fight for his life with them; from which God at that time delivered him. Concerning this, the intelligent may judge; he writes, “If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not?” 1 Cor. 15:32.