Acts Chapter 27 verse 12 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 12. - Put to sea from thence for depart thence also, A.V. and T.R.; could reach Phoenix for might attain to Phenice, A.V.; winter there for there to winter, A.V.; a haven for an haven, A.V.; looking north-east and south-east for and lieth toward the south-west and north-west, A.V. Not commodious; ἀνευθέτου (not well placed, or disposed), only here. But the simple εὔθετος is used twice by St. Luke (Luke 9:62; Luke 14:35), in the sense of "fit" (also Hebrews 6:7), and is of frequent use in medical writers, for "convenient," "well adapted to," and the like. To put to sea (αναχθῆναι); see ver. 3, note. Reach; καταντῆσαι, only in the Acts (frequently) and in St. Paul's Epistles. It is generally, if not always, used of coming from the higher to the lower place, and from the sea to the land (see Acts 16:1; Acts 18:19, 24; Acts 20:15; Acts 21:7; Acts 28:13, etc.). Phoenix. It is variously written Phoenicus, Phoenice, and Phoenix; and probably derived its name from the palm tree, (φοῖνιξ), which is indigenous in Crete. It is identified with almost certainty with the modern Lutro or Loutro, which is both "an admirable harbor," situated exactly where Phoenice ought to be, and further by its proximity to a village called Aradhene, and another called Anopolis, shown to be the same as. Phoenix, or Phenice, which is described m ancient writers (Hierocles and Stephanus of Byzantium) as identical with or close to Aradhena and Anopolls (the upper city). Winter; παραχειμάσαι, so too Acts 28:11; 1 Corinthians 16:6; Titus 3:12, and παραχειμασία in this verse. It is found also in classical writers. Looking north-east and south-east. The margin of the R.V. has "Greek, down the southwest wind, and down the north-west." This phrase has caused considerable perplexity to commentators. To say, as a recommendation of a harbor for winter quarters, that it lies or looks toward the south-west and north-west, and consequently is exposed to the most furious winter storms, is obviously impossible. If Phoenix was open to the south-west and the north-west, it would not be as commodius a place to winter in as Fair Havens was which was sheltered by Cape Matala. Two methods, therefore, have been adopted of explaining the phrase so as to make it give a reasonable sense. One, that adopted by Dean Howson and Bishop Wordsworth, viz. that it looks southwest and north-west, from the point of view of the sailor, or any one approaching it from the sea, the object upon which it looks being the land which locks it in and shelters it. The other is that supported by Alford, and adopted by the R.V., and rests upon the observation that λίβς and χῶρος are not points or' the compass, but the names of the south-west and north-west winds, and that to look down (κατά) a wind is the same as looking down a stream. If the harbour looks down the south-west wind it looks toward the north-east, and if it looks down the north-west wind it looks toward the southeast. Its open side would be from northeast to south-east, it would be entirely sheltered on the south-west and north-west side. This is the explanation adopted also by Dean Plumptre. The south-west wind; λίψ, only here in the New Testament, but frequent in classical Greek and in the LXX. (see Psalm 78. [82, Septuagint] 26). As a point of the compass, it is the rendering of נֶגֶב (Genesis 13:14, etc.), תֵימָן (Numbers 2:10, etc.), of דָרום (Deuteronomy 33:23). The north-west wind; χῶρος (the Latin Caurus or Corus), only here in the New Testament, and not found in Greek writers.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12) And because the haven was not commodious to winter in . . .--The anchorage in the Fair Havens, while it gave immediate shelter from the north-west gales, was open to those from other points of the compass, and it was therefore decided by the majority (there would seem to have been something like a vote taken on the question) to press on and face the immediate risk for the sake of the more permanent advantages.Phenice . . . which is an haven of Crete, and lieth toward the south west and north west.--The precise meaning of the phrase is that the harbour looked, as we say, down these winds, in the direction to which they blew--i.e., that it faced the north-east and south-east, the words used being the names, not of points of the compass, but of the winds which blew from them. The harbour so described has been identified with the modern Lutro, on the east of the promontory of Kavo Muros, which looks eastward, and so corresponds to the interpretation just given of the words that describe it. The harbour is named by Ptolemy (iii. 17) as Phoenikous, and a city named Phoenix lay a few miles inland. It is still used as a harbour by Greek pirates, and was marked as such in the French admiralty charts of 1738; but, owing to the silting up of the sand, has become unsuitable for larger vessels. An inscription of the time of Nerva, of the nature of a votive tablet to Jupiter and Serapis, found near the spot, records the fact that it was erected by Epictetus, the tabularius, or agent, of the fleet to which the ship belonged, with the assistance of Dionysius of Alexandria, the pilot (the same word as that which St. Luke uses) of a ship which had as its sign (the same word as in Acts 28:4) the Isopharia. It is a natural inference from this that the Alexandrian ship (we note the Egyptian element in the dedication to Serapis, and possibly in the connection of the sign with the Pharos, or lighthouse of Alexandria) had anchored, and possibly wintered, at Ph?nice, and that the tablet was a thank-offering for its preservation. (See Alford, Prolegomena.)