Verse 5
Pamphylia - See on [Act 2:10] (note).
Myra, a city of Lycia - The name of this city is written variously in the MSS., Myra, Murrha, Smyra, and Smyrna. Grotius conjectures that all these names are corrupted, and that it should be written Limyra, which is the name both of a river and city in Lycia. It is certain that, in common conversation, the first syllable, li, might be readily dropped, and then Myra, the word in the text, would remain. Strabo mentions both Myra and Limyra, lib. xiv. p. 666. The former, he says, is twenty stadia from the sea, επι μετεωρου λοφου, upon a high hill: the latter, he says, is the name of a river; and twenty stadia up this river is the town Limyra itself. These places were not far distant, and one of them is certainly meant.
Verse 6
A ship of Alexandria - It appears, from [Act 27:38], that this ship was laden with wheat, which she was carrying from Alexandria to Rome. We know that the Romans imported much corn from Egypt, together with different articles of Persian and Indian merchandise.
Verse 7
Sailed slowly many days - Partly because the wind was contrary, and partly because the vessel was heavy laden.
Over against Cnidus - This was a city or promontory of Asia, opposite to Crete, at one corner of the peninsula of Caria. Some think that this was an island between Crete and a promontory of the same name.
Over against Salmone - We have already seen that the island formerly called Crete is now called Candia; and Salmone or Sammon, or Samonium, now called Cape Salamon, or Salamina, was a promontory on the eastern coast of that island.
Verse 8
The Fair Havens - This port still remains, and is known by the same name; it was situated towards the northern extremity of the island.
Was the city of Lasea - There is no city of this name now remaining: the Codex Alexandrinus reads Αλασσα, Alassa; probably Lysia, near the port of Gortyna, to the eastward.
Verse 9
Sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past - It is generally allowed that the fast mentioned here was that of the great day of atonement which was always celebrated on the tenth day of the seventh month, which would answer to the latter end of our September; see [Lev 16:29]; [Lev 23:27], etc. As this was about the time of the autumnal equinox, when the Mediterranean Sea was sufficiently tempestuous, we may suppose this feast alone to be intended. To sail after this feast was proverbially dangerous among the ancient Jews. See proofs in Schoettgen.
Verse 10
I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt, etc. - Paul might either have had this intimation from the Spirit of God, or from his own knowledge of the state of this sea after the autumnal equinox, and therefore gave them this prudent warning.
Verse 11
The centurion believed the master - Τῳ κυβερνητῃ, the pilot; and owner of the ship, τῳ ναυκληρῳ, the captain and proprietor. This latter had the command of the ship and the crew; the pilot had the guidance of the vessel along those dangerous coasts, under the direction of the captain; and the centurion had the power to cause them to proceed on their voyage, or to go into port, as he pleased; as he had other state prisoners on board; and probably the ship itself was freighted for government. Paul told them, if they proceeded, they would be in danger of shipwreck; the pilot and captain said there was no danger; and the centurion, believing them, commanded the vessel to proceed on her voyage. It is likely that they were now in the port called the Fair Havens.
Verse 12
Might attain to Phoenice - It appears that the Fair Havens were at the eastern end of the island, and they wished to reach Phoenice, which lay farther towards the west.
Toward the south-west and north-west - Κατα λιβα και κατα χωρον. The libs certainly means the south-west, called libs, from Libya, from which it blows to. wards the Aegean Sea. The chorus, or caurus, means a north-west wind. Virgil mentions this, Geor. iii. ver. 356.
Semper hyems, semper spirantes frigora cauri. "It is always winter; and the cauri, the north-westers, ever blowing cold."
Dr. Shaw lays down this, and other winds, in a Greek compass, on his map, in which he represents the drifting of St. Paul's vessel from Crete, till it was wrecked at the island of Melita. Travels, p. 331, 4to. edit.
Verse 13
When the south wind blew softly - Though this wind was not very favorable, yet, because it blew softly, they supposed they might be able to make their passage.
They sailed close by Crete - Kept as near the coast as they could. See the track on the map.
Verse 14
A tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon - Interpreters have been greatly perplexed with this word; and the ancient copyists not less so, as the word is variously written in the MSS. and versions. Dr. Shaw supposes it to be one of those tempestuous winds called levanters, which blow in all directions, from N.E. round by the E. to S.E. The euroclydon, from the circumstances which attended it, he says, "seems to have varied very little from the true east point; for, as the ship could not bear, αντοφθαλμειν, loof up, against it, [Act 27:15], but they were obliged to let her drive, we cannot conceive, as there are no remarkable currents in that part of the sea, and as the rudder could be of little use, that it could take any other course than as the winds directed it. Accordingly, in the description of the storm, we find that the vessel was first of all under the island Clauda, [Act 27:16], which is a little to the southward of the parallel of that part of the coast of Crete from whence it may be supposed to have been driven; then it was tossed along the bottom of the Gulf of Adria, [Act 27:27], and afterwards broken to pieces, [Act 27:41], at Melita, which is a little to the northward of the parallel above mentioned; so that the direction and course of this particular euroclydon seems to have been first at east by north, and afterwards, pretty nearly east by south." These winds, called now levanters, and formerly, it appears, euroclydon, were no determinate winds, blowing always from one point of the compass: euroclydon was probably then, what levanter is now, the name of any tempestuous wind in that sea, blowing from the north-east round by east to the south-east; and therefore St. Luke says, there rose against it (i.e. the vessel) a tempestuous wind called euroclydon; which manner of speaking shows that he no more considered it to be confined to any one particular point of the compass, than our sailors do their levanter. Dr. Shaw derives ευροκλυδων from ευρου κλυδων, an eastern tempest, which is the very meaning affixed to a levanter at the present day.
The reading of the Codex Alexandrinus is ευρακυλων, the north-east wind, which is the same with the euro-aquilo of the Vulgate. This reading is approved by several eminent critics; but Dr. Shaw, in the place referred to above, has proved it to be insupportable.
Dr. Shaw mentions a custom which he has several times seen practised by the Mohammedans in these levanters: - After having tied to the mast, or ensign staff, some apposite passage from the Koran, they collect money, sacrifice a sheep, and throw them both into the sea. This custom, he observes, was practised some thousand years ago by the Greeks: thus Aristophanes: - Αρν', αρνα μελαιναν, παιδες, εξενεγκατε· Τυφως γαρ εκβαινειν παρασκευαζεται.
Ran. Act. iii. s. 2, ver. 871.
A lamb! boys, sacrifice a black lamb immediately:
For a tempest is about to burst forth.
Virgil refers to the same custom: -
Sic fatus, meritos aris mactavit honores:
Taurum Neptuno, taurum tibi, pulcher Apollo;
Nigram hyemi pecudem, zephyris felicibus albam.
Aen. iii. ver. 118.
Thus he spake, and then sacrificed on the altars the proper eucharistic victims: -
A bull to Neptune, and a bull to thee, O beautiful Apollo;
A black sheep to the north wind, and a white sheep to the west.
And again: -
Tres Eryci vitutos, et tempestatibus agnam,
Caedere deinde jubet.
Aen. v. ver. 772.