Acts Chapter 27 verse 13 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 13. - They weighed anchor and for loosing thence, they, A.V.; along Crete, close in shore for close by Crete, A.V. Blew softly; ὑποπνεύσαντος, only here in the New Testament, and not found elsewhere. Supposing that they had obtained their purpose. A south wind would be quite favorable for sailing east or east by north, from Fair Havens to Phoenix. They not unreasonably, therefore, thought they could effect their purpose of wintering at Phoenix. And so they at once weighed anchor; ἄραντες, without an objective case following, "having lifted up," understand τὰς ἀγκύρας, as in Julius Pollux, quoted by Smith. It was the nautical phrase. Sailed along (παρελέγοντο); see ver. 8, note. Close in shore (ᾶσσον, comparative of ἄγχι, nearer, meaning "very near "). For the earlier part of their voyage they would be obliged to keep very near the shore, to enable them to weather Cape Matala, which lay a little to the south of west from Fair Havens. Some take ᾶσσον as the name of a town on the coast, but the grammar of the sentence makes this impossible.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(13) And when the south wind blew softly.--There was a change at once in the force and the direction of the wind. With a gentle and favourable breeze from the south, the pilot and the owner thought that all was smooth sailing, and the ship left the Fair Havens and made across the bay, a distance of thirty-four miles, for Phaenice. They still, however, hugged the coast, as afraid to venture too far into the open sea. The Greek adverb asson, which is rightly rendered "close" in the Authorised version, has been mistaken, in the Vulgate and some other versions, for the accusative case of Assos, as though it were a proper name, and the words have been variously rendered "when they had left Assos," or "when they had made for Asses," or "when they had come in sight of Assos." The island Assos, however, lay far to the north (see Note on Acts 20:13), and there is no evidence of the existence of any town of that name in Crete. Of the English versions, Wiclif and the Rhemish follow the Vulgate, "when they had removed" (W.), or "parted" (Rh.), "from Assos"; Tyndale and Cranmer, following Luther, "they loosed unto Asson." The Geneva translation was the first to give the true meaning, and is following by the Authorised version. The tense of the Greek verb for "they sailed close," implies that they were in the act of doing this when the storm burst upon them, as in the next verse.