Acts 27:28

And they sounded, and found twenty fathoms; and after a little space, they sounded again, and found fifteen fathoms.

Fathoms ... This measurement was about six feet; thus the water's depth was decreasing from 120 feet to 90 feet rather quickly. Howson tells us that the British Admiralty charts provide accurate soundings off Malta and most other places in the Mediterranean;[20] and that the water depth is the same now as then. Well, what if it were not? The thesis maintained in this work is that Luke needs no confirmation, not even from the British Admiralty; and if the aforementioned charts showed a discrepancy as regards the figures given in this chapter, it would mean only that the depth has changed in the intervening centuries.

WHY PEOPLE HUNT FOR MISTAKES IN ACTS

It suddenly came to this student, not long ago, that the reason why men are so anxious to find mistakes in the Bible lies in their secret hope that a mistake, in some infinitesimal area like the depth of the water off Malta, would also give them grounds for hope that Luke was wrong when he recorded that "God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness" by Jesus Christ our Lord (Acts 17:31).