27:27 About midnight on the fourteenth night of their leaving Fair Havens (or some say from Cauda) the seamen detected signs of approaching land. Perhaps they heard breakers on the beach, a suggestion that has the support of Codex Vaticanus, which instead of “a certain land approaching” (as most texts) has it “resounding.” As a rule in seeking to identify a biblical location, tradition is an uncertain guide. In this case, however, there is every reason to think that they had come as tradition asserts, to Saint Paul’s Bay on the island of Malta. If this was so, the ship would have passed within a quarter of a mile of Point Koura to the east of the Bay, and though the land here is too low to be seen when the night is dark and stormy, the breakers can be heard at some distance. Both the plac…