Bibelkommentare

CHAPTER 27

Acts 27:2. μέλλοντι] So A B א, min. and most vss. Approved by Mill., Bengel, and Griesb., adopted by Lachm. Tisch. Born. The usual μέλλοντες is an alteration in accordance with the preceding ἐπιβάντες.

τούς] Lachm. reads εἰς τούς, following A B א, min. Other codd. have ἐπί. Different supplementary additions.

Acts 27:3. πορευθέντα] Lachm. reads πορευθέντι, following A B א, min. A hasty correction on account of ἐπέτρεψε.

Acts 27:12. κἀκεῖθεν] Lachm. and Scholz read ἐκεῖθεν, following A B G א, min. vss. Chrys. But the want of a reference of the καί in what goes before easily occasioned the omission.

Acts 27:19. ἔῤῥιψαν] Approved by Griesb., adopted by Lachm. and Born., after A B C א, min. Vulg. The Recepta is ἐῤῥίψαμεν. As this might just as easily be inserted on account of αὐτόχειρες, as ἔῤῥιψαν on account of ἐποιοῦντο, the preponderance of witnesses has alone to decide, and that in favour of ἔῤῥιψαν.

Acts 27:23. The order ταύτῃ τῇ νυκτί (Lachm. Tisch. Born., also Scholz) is decidedly attested. Ἄγγελος is to be placed, with Lachm. Tisch. Born., only after λατρεύω (A B C א, min.), and ἐγώ is to be adopted (with Lachm. and Born.) after εἰμί, on the evidence of A C* א, min. vss.; it might very easily be suppressed before ᾧ.

Acts 27:27. ἐγένετο] A, loti 68, Vulg. have ἐπεγένετο. So Tisch.; and rightly, as the very unusual compound (only again in Acts 28:13) was easily neglected by the transcribers.

According to preponderating attestation, κατά (instead of εἰς) is to be read in Acts 27:29 with Lachm. Tisch. Born.; comp. Acts 27:17; Acts 27:26; Acts 27:41.

ἐκπέσωμεν] Elz. has ἐκπέσωσιν, against decisive testimony. Alteration to suit the following ηὔχοντο.

Acts 27:33. προσλαβόμενοι] Lachm. reads προσλαμβανόμενοι, merely in accordance with A, 40. But the part. pres. is to be viewed as an alteration to suit προσδοκῶντες.

Acts 27:34. μεταλαβεῖν] Elz. has προσλαβεῖν, against preponderant testimony. From Acts 27:33.

πεσεῖται] Griesb. Lachm. Scholz, Tisch. Born. read ἀπολεῖται, which indeed has weighty attestation in its favour, but against it the strong suspicion that it was borrowed from Luke 21:18. This tells likewise against the Recepta ἐκ, instead of which ἀπό is to be read, with Lachm. Tisch. Born. It is less likely that πεσεῖται should have been taken from the LXX. 1 Kings 1:52; 1 Samuel 14:45; 2 Samuel 14:11.

Acts 27:39. ἐβουλεύσαντο] Lachm. and Born. read ἐβουλεύοντο, after B C א, min. But on account of the preceding imperfects, the imperfect here also was easily brought in; and hence is to be explained the reading (explanatory gloss) ἐβούλοντο in A, min.

Acts 27:41. τῶν κυμάτων] has in its favour C G H א** and all min. Chrys. and most vss., and is wanting only in A B א*. Deleted by Lachm. and Tisch. There is, however,—especially as with τῆς βιᾶς a definition, although not necessary, is probable,—amidst such strong attestation less a suspicion of its being a supplementary addition, than a probability that the transcribers confounded this τῶν with the τῶν of Acts 27:42 and thus overlooked τῶν κυμάτων. Besides, it would have more naturally suggested itself to a glossator to write on the margin τῆς θαλάσσ. than τ. κυμάτων, which does not again occur in the whole narrative of this voyage.

Acts 27:42. Elz. has διαφύγοι. But Griesb. Lachm. Tisch. read διαφύγῃ, which is attested, indeed, by A B C א, min., but has arisen from the usual custom of the N.T. in such combinations to put not the optative, but the subjunctive.

On the variations in the proper names in this chapter, see the exegetical remarks.

Acts 27:1.[166] Τοῦ ἀποπλεῖν ἡμᾶς] contains the aim of the ἐκρίθη. “But when (by Festus) decision was made (to the end) that we should sail away.” The nature of the “becoming resolved” (κρίνεσθαι) implies that the object—the contents of the resolution—may be conceived as embraced under the form of its aim. The modes of expression: ΚΕΛΕΎΕΙΝ ἽΝΑ, ΕἸΠΕῖΝ ἽΝΑ, ΘΈΛΕΙΝ ἽΝΑ, and the like, are similar; comp. Acts 27:42, ΒΟΥΛῊ ἘΓΈΝΕΤΟ, ἽΝΑ. See also Luke 4:10.

ἩΜᾶς] Luke speaks as a fellow-traveller.

ΠΑΡΕΔΊΔΟΥΝ] namely, the persons who were entrusted with the execution of the ἘΚΡΊΘΗ.

ἙΤΈΡΟΥς is purposely chosen (not ἌΛΛΟΥς), to intimate that they were prisoners of another sort (not also Christians under arrest). Comp. Luke 23:32; Tittmann, Synon. N.T. p. 155 f.; and see on Galatians 1:7. ἕτερος in Acts 15:35, Acts 17:34, also is to be similarly taken in the sense of another of two classes (in opposition to de Wette).

σπείρης Σεβαστ.] cohortis Augustae, perhaps: the illustrious (the imperial) cohort. Σεβαστ. is an adjective. Comp. ΛΙΜῊΝ ΣΕΒΑΣΤ. in Joseph. Antt. xvii. 5. 1 : the imperial harbour (in Caesarea). Probably (for historical demonstration is not possible) it was that one of the five cohorts stationed at Caesarea, which was regarded as body-guard of the emperor, and was accordingly employed, as here, on special services affecting the emperor. We have no right, considering the diversity of the names used by Luke, to hold it as identical with the σπεῖρα Ἰταλική, Acts 10:1 (so Ewald). Wieseler, Chronol. p. 351, and Beitr. z. Würdig. d. Ev. p. 325 (comp. Wetstein), finds here the cohors Augustanorum (imperial body-cohort) at Rome, consisting of Roman equites, of the so-called evocati (Tac. Ann. xiv. 15; Sueton. Nero, 25; Dio, lxi. 20, lxiii. 8), whose captain, Julius, he supposes, had been at this very time on business at Caesarea, and had taken the prisoners with him on his return. In this way the centurion would not have been under the command of Festus at all, and would have only been incidentally called into requisition, which is hardly compatible with the regulated departmental arrangements of Rome in the provinces; nor is there in the text itself, any more than in the σπεῖρα Ἰταλική, Acts 10:1, the least intimation that we are to think of a cohort and a centurion, who did not belong at all to the military force of Caesarea. Schwarz (de cohorte Ital. et Aug., Altorf, 1720), with whom Kuinoel agrees, conceived that it was a cohort consisting of Sebastenes (from Sebaste, the capital of Samaria), as in fact Sebastene soldiers are actually named by Josephus among the Roman military force in Judaea (Antt. xx. 6. 2, Bell. ii. 12. 5). But the calling a cohort by the name of a city (the cohort of Sebaste) is entirely without example; we should necessarily expect Σεβαστηνῶν (Joseph. Bell. ii. 12. 5 : “ἵλην ἱππέων καλουμένην Σεβαστηνῶν”), or an adjective of locality, such as ΣΕΒΑΣΤΗΝΉ, after the analogy of ἸΤΑΛΙΚΉ, Acts 10:1.

Nothing further is known of the centurion Julius. Tacitus (Hist. ii. 92, iv. 11) mentions a Julius Priscus as centurion of the Praetorians; but how extremely common was the name!

[166] Comp. on chap. 27. the excellent treatise of James Smith, The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, London 1848, ed. 2, 1856; Vömel, Progr., Frankf. 1850; in respect of the language, Klostermann, Vindiciae Luc. VII.—In Baumgarten there is much allegorizing and play of fancy; he considers the apostle as the true Jonah, and the ship’s crew as a representative of the whole heathen world.—Hackett treats chap. 27. with special care, having made use of many accounts of travels and notes of navigation.

Acts 27:2. Ἐπιβάντες] with dative, see on Acts 25:1.

πλοίῳ Ἀδραμ.] a ship which belonged to Adramyttium, had its home there, the master of which resided there. Ἀδραμύττιον, or Ἀδραμύττειον (for several other modes of writing the name, see Steph. Byz. s.v.; Poppo, ad Thuc. I. 2, p. 441 f.), was a seaport of Mysia, and is not to be confounded with Adrumetum on the north coast of Africa (Grotius, Drusius, Richard Simon), because amidst all the variations in the codd. (Ἀδραμυντινῷ, Ἀδραμυντηνῷ, Ἀτραμυτηνῷ Ἀδραμμυτινῷ) the υ in the middle syllable is decidedly preponderant.

μέλλοντι πλεῖν κ.τ.λ.] The ship, certainly a merchant-ship, was thus about to start on its homeward voyage. The prisoners were by this opportunity to be brought to the Asiatic coast, and sent thence by the opportunity of another vessel (Acts 27:6) to Italy.

τοὺς κατὰ τ. Ἀσίαν τόπους] to navigate the places situated along Asia (on the Asiatic coast). On the accusative, see Winer, p. 210 [E. T. 280]; Thuc. vi. 63. 2 : πλέοντες τά τε ἐπέκεινα τῆς Σικελίας. Pausan. i. 35.

Ἀριστάρχου] see Acts 19:29, Acts 20:4; Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:24. Thus he also had from Asia (Acts 20:4) come again to Paul; Trophimus (see on Acts 21:29) already joined him at Jerusalem. But whether Aristarchus accompanied Paul as a fellow-prisoner (Ewald) does not follow with certainty from Colossians 4:10. See in loc.

Acts 27:3. Εἰς Σιδῶνα] unto Sidon, into the seaport. Comp. Acts 21:3, Acts 26:12.

χρῆσθαι τινί] to have intercourse, fellowship, with any one. See Wetstein, and Ruhnk. ad Tim. p. 101. The fact that the centurion treated Paul so kindly may be sufficiently explained from the peculiar interest, which a character so lofty and pure could not but awaken in humane and unprejudiced minds. It may be also that the procurator had specially enjoined a gentle treatment.

πορευθέντα is to be analysed as accusative with infinitive. See on Acts 26:20, and Lobeck, ad Soph. Aj. 1006.

πρὸς τ. φίλους] Without doubt Paul had told the centurion that he had friends (namely, Christian brethren, Acts 9:19) in Sidon. Still the centurion would not leave him without military escort, as indeed his duty required this. Comp. Grotius, “cum milite.”

Acts 27:4-5. Ὑπεπλεύσ. τ. Κύπρον] We sailed under Cyprus, so that we remained near the shore (elevated above the level of the sea), because the (shifting) winds were contrary, and therefore made a withdrawal to a distance from the (northern) shore not advisable.

κατὰ τ. Κιλίκ.] along. Just so Acts 27:7, κατὰ Σαλμώνην; comp. Acts 27:2.

Μύρα] or, as Lachmann, following B, reads, Μύῤῥα (it is neuter, yet the feminine form was also used, see Steph. Byz. s.v.), was a seaport of Lycia, only twenty stadia from the coast (Strabo, xiv. p. 981). Forbig. Geogr. II. p. 256. The readings Λύστρα, or Λύστραν (A א, Copt. Vulg. Fathers), and Σμύρναν (31, Beda), are explained from want of acquaintance with that name of a town.

Acts 27:6-7. Whether the Alexandrian ship was freighted with grain (which at least is not to be proved from Acts 27:38) or with other goods, cannot be determined; as also whether it was by wind and weather, or by affairs of trade, that it was constrained not to sail directly from Alexandria to Italy, but first to run into the Lycian port.

πλέον] It was already on its voyage from Alexandria to Italy.

ἐνεβ. ἡμᾶς] he embarked us, put us on board, a vox nautica.[167] See examples in Palairet and Wolf.

Acts 27:7. But when we had made slow way for a considerable number of days, and had come with difficulty toward Cnidus (into its neighbourhood, thus in the offing, having passed along by Rhodes), so that the wind did not allow us (to land at Cnidus), we sailed under Crete, near Salmone. The wind thus came from the north, so that the vessel was drawn away from Cnidus and downward towards Crete.

προσεῶντος] finds a definite reference in the immediately preceding ΚΑΤᾺ ΤῊΝ ΚΝΊΔΟΝ, and hence the view of Grotius (following the Peshito), that rectum tenere cursum should be supplied, is to be rejected.

Cnidus was a city of Caria on the peninsula of Cnidia, celebrated for the worship of Aphrodite and for the victory of Cimon over Pisander. See Forbiger, Geogr. II. p. 221.

The promontory Σαλμώνη, on the east coast of Crete, is called in Strabo, x. p. 727, ΣΑΛΜΏΝΙΟΝ, and in Dionys. Perieg. 110, ΣΑΛΜΩΝΊς.

[167] Baumgarten, II. p. 373 f., collects the nautical expression of this chapter, adducing, however, much that belongs to the general language.

Acts 27:8. Παραλέγεσθαι] corresponds entirely to the Latin legere (oram), to sail along the coast, Diod. Sic xiii. 3, xiv. 55. This keeping to the coast was only with difficulty (μόλις) successful.

αὐτήν refers to τ. Κρήτην.

Nothing is known from antiquity of the anchorage Καλοὶ λιμένες (Fair Havens[168]). The name is perhaps, on account of Acts 27:12 (ἀνευθέτου κ.τ.λ.), to be considered as euphemistic. The view that the place is identical with the town called by Stephanus Byzantinus Καλὴ ἀκτή, is improbable, because the Fair Havens here was not a town, as may be inferred from the appended remark: ᾯ ἘΓΓῪς ἮΝ ΠΌΛΙς ΛΑΣ.

ἮΝ] not ἘΣΤΊ. The preterite belongs to the graphic description. They saw the neighbouring city. Comp. Krüger, and Kühner, ad Xen. Anab. i. 4. 9; Breitenb. ad Xen. Hier. xi. 4. The town Λασαία also is entirely unknown;[169] hence the many variations, ΛΑΣΈΑ (B. min.; so Tischendorf), ἌΛΑΣΣΑ (A, 40, 96, Syr. p. on the margin; so Grotius, Lachmann, Ewald), Thalassa (Vulgate, Aethiopic), Thessala (codd. Lat.), et al. The evidence in support of these other forms is not strong enough to displace the Recepta (G H), seeing that it is also supported by B א* (which has ΛΑΣΣΑΊΑ). Beza conjectured ἘΛΑΊΑ (Plin. N. H. iv. 12); but such a conjecture, especially in the case of Crete with its hundred cities, was uncalled for.

[168] It is certainly the bay still called Limenes kali, Pococke, Morg. II. p. 361. Comp. Smith, p. 88, ed. 2. See, moreover, on the above localities generally, Hoeck, Kreta, I. p. 439 ff.

[169] Yet see on ruins with this name, Smith, p. 262.

Acts 27:9. Ἱκανοῦ δὲ χρ. διαγ.] namely, since the beginning of our voyage.

πλοός] See on this late form, instead of πλοῦ, Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 453, Paralip. p. 173.

διὰ τὸ καὶ τ. νηστείαν ἤδη παρελ.] because also (even) the fasting was already past.[170] The νηστεία (κατʼ ἐξοχήν) is the fasting of the great day of atonement, which occurred on the 10th of Tisri (Leviticus 16:29 ff; Leviticus 23:26 ff.). It was thus already after the autumnal equinox, when navigation, which now became dangerous (ἐπισφαλ.), was usually closed. See Wetstein.

παρῄνει ὁ Π.] he had experience enough for such a counsel (2 Corinthians 11:25).

[170] According to Bleek and de Wette, this Jewish definition of time, as well as that contained in Acts 20:6, betrays a Jewish-Christian author. But the definitions of the Jewish calendar were generally, and very naturally, adopted in the apostolic church. Comp. Schneckenburger, p. 18.