Adria

Adria, as used in Acts 27:27, refers not merely to the modern Adriatic Sea between Italy and the Balkan peninsula, but to a broader body of water that in Greco-Roman geographical usage encompassed much of the central and eastern Mediterranean — including the sea south of Italy and west of Greece. The Revised Version renders it the sea of Adria. In the first century, sailors and geographers applied the term loosely to the open sea between Sicily, Crete, and Greece.

During the storm described in Acts 27, Paul's ship was driven for fourteen nights across the sea of Adria before the sailors took soundings and recognized they were approaching land — subsequently identified as Malta. The broader ancient usage of the term explains how a vessel blown westward from the region of Crete could be described as drifting in Adria while eventually striking the shores of Malta.