Acts Chapter 27 verse 41 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 41. - But lighting upon for and falling taro, A.V.; vessel for ship, A.V.; fore-ship for forepart, A.V.; struck for stuck fast, A.V.; stern for hinder part, A.V.; began to break up for was broken with, A.V. Where two seas met; τόπον διθάλασσον, only here, and in Dion Chrysostomus. The explanation of this "place where two seas met" is as follows: - As the ship stood at anchor in the bay on the north-east side of the island, it would have the Koura Point (Ras el-Kaura) on its left, and on entering deeper into the bay westward, the little island of Salmonetta, or Selmoon, otherwise called Gzeier, would lie on its right, and would appear to be part of the island of Malta, from which it is separated by a narrow channel about a hundred yards in width. When, however, she was just coming upon the beach for which she was making, she would come opposite to this open channel, and the sea from the north would break upon her and meet the sea on the south side of the island, where the ship was. Here, then, they ran the vessel aground. Ἐπώκειλαν, or, according to the R.T., ἐπέκειλαν, is only found here in the Bible; but it is the regular word for running a ship aground, or ashore, in classical writers. Ἐπικέλλω has exactly the same meaning. The simple verbs κἑλλω and ὀκέλλω are also both in use for running a ship to land. The foreship struck; ἐρείσασα, here only in the Bible, but very common in classical Greek. Its meaning here is not very different from its frequent medical meaning of a disease "fixing itself" and "settling" in some particular part of the body. Remained unmovable. "A ship impelled by the force of a gale into a creek with a bottom such as that laid down in Admiral Smyth's chart of St. Paul's Bay, would strike a bottom of mud graduating into tenacious clay, into which the forepart would fix itself and be held fast, whilst the stern was exposed to the force of the waves" (Smith, p. 144). Unmovable; ἀσάλεῦτος, only here and Hebrews 12:28, in the Bible; but common in Greek writers in the sense of "firm," "unmovable." Began to break up (ἐλύετο, like solvo and dissolvo in Latin). The planks were loosened and disjoined. By the violence. The R.T. omits the words τῶν κυμάτων, and so has βία alone, somewhat like ὕβρις in ver. 21.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(41) And falling into a place where two seas met.--Better, But falling, as in contrast with the attempt described in the previous verse. At the west end of St. Paul's Bay lies the island of Salmonetta. From their place of anchorage the crew could not have seen that it was an island, and in trying to run the ship on the beach they grounded on a mud-bank between the small island and the coast. The waves swept round the island and met on the bank, and the position of the ship was accordingly one of extreme danger, the prow imbedded in the mud, the stern exposed to the billows.The hinder part was broken.--Better, was being broken up, the tense expressing continuous action.