Researchers say they have identified the anchor belonging to St Paul's 60 AD shipwreck near Malta

Has biblical anchor been discovered? Researchers say they have identified the anchor belonging to St Paul’s 60 AD shipwreck near Malta

Four anchors discovered in the 60s and experts say they have identified one
Archaeologists believe one had belonged to the ship that once carried St. Paul
Anchor dates back to same era and they were found where the bible mentioned

Published: 00:08 BST, 5 October 2019 | Updated: 00:18 BST, 5 October 2019

Archaeologists believe they have identified an anchor from a biblical shipwreck dating back to 60 AD, which could have belonged to the vessel that once carried St. Paul.

The anchor was one of four discovered in the 1960s in St. Thomas Bay on Malta’s southern coast, which contests the long-standing legend that the event happened in St. Paul’s Bay located on the northern region.

Because the anchor dates back to the first-century era of Roman shipping and was the were laying in an are that represents the recordings of Luke in Acts 27, the team is sure they have made a true discovery.

However, critics have argued that there is lack of evidenced to confirm that the anchor is remnants of the ancient ship mentioned in scripture, as others have come forward claiming to have found the same artifact in the past.

Archaeologists believe they have identified an anchor from a biblical shipwreck dating back to 60 AD, which could have belonged to the vessel that once carried St. Paul (pictured is an artist depiction)

The new claims come from the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration (BASE) Institute, which relayed the biblical story on their website to announce their findings.

‘In approximately 60 A.D., a ship carrying 276 men and a cargo of grain shipwrecked off the coast of Malta,’ BASE wrote.

‘Two of the passengers on that ship were the biblical writers Paul and Luke, who were on their way to Rome–Paul as a prisoner, and Luke as his attending physician and friend.’

‘Through Luke’s meticulously-detailed account of the voyage and shipwreck, as recorded in Acts chapter 27, we can today undertake a journey back in time to find the remains of that shipwreck.’

WHAT DOES ACTS 27 SAY?

On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic[c]Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land.

28 They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet[d] deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet[e] deep.

29 Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.

30 In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow.

31 Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.’32 So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.

33 Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. ‘For the last fourteen days,’ he said, ‘you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything.

34 Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.’

35 After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat.

36 They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves.

37 Altogether there were 276 of us on board.

38 When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.

39 When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could.

40 Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach.

41 But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf.

‘And, even more precisely, we can attempt to find the four anchors described in the Bible that were abandoned in the sea.’

This journey of discovery began when four anchors were pulled from the depths of the St. Thomas Bay in the 1960s, but, at the time, no one had linked any of them to St. Paul’s ship.

‘The legend of Paul shipwrecking in St. Paul’s Bay had existed for so long that it was indelibly etched in the Maltese culture, and consequently anchors produced from any other bay could not be seen as being from Paul’s ship,’ Bob Cornuke, the leader of BASE, explained to Fox News in an email.

All four anchors were found to date back to the first-century era of Roman shipping — at time when Paul’s shipwreck occurred.

And the were laying in an area that represents the recordings of Luke in Acts 27, which is the biblical passage mentioning the shipwreck.

‘Could this, verifiably, be an anchor from Paul’s ship, which lay alongside three others for nearly two thousand years until they were recovered just a few years ago?’ writes BASE, on its website.

‘As with any historical claim, the best we can do is examine the evidence in terms of probability. But the evidence for the anchors of Paul’s shipwreck is virtually overwhelming.’

Critics, however, have said that there is a lack of evidence to support BASE’s theory, as many have come before the group claiming to have found the same artifact in the past.

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