Since it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a Roman commander named Julius. He belonged to the Imperial Guard and led 100 men.
There he met a Jew named Aquila, who was originally from Pontus. Aquila had recently moved from Italy with his wife Priscilla after the emperor Claudius ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,
But the commander wanted to save Paul’s life, so he kept the soldiers from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to throw themselves overboard first and swim to land.
When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. “Do you know what you’re doing?” the officer asked. “This man is a Roman citizen!”
So he rushed right out, taking some officers and soldiers with him. They all ran down to the crowd, and when the people causing the trouble saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
After all this had happened, Paul decided to go over to Macedonia and Achaia and then on to Jerusalem. “And after I’ve been there,” he said, “I must also visit Rome.”
After Paul had seen this vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, because we concluded that God had called us to preach the good news there.
The men answered, “We’ve come from Cornelius, a Roman commander. He’s a good man who worships God. All the Jewish people respect him. A holy angel told him to invite you to his house so he could hear what you have to say.”
When the Roman commander and those who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and everything that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, “He had to be the Son of God!”