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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Acts 20:20 - 20:20
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Kept back (ὑπεστειλάμην)
A picturesque word. Originally, to draw in or contract. Used of furling sails, and of closing the fingers; of drawing back for shelter; of keeping back one's real thoughts; by physicians, of withholding food from patients. It is rather straining a point to say, as Canon Farrar, that Paul is using a nautical metaphor suggested by his constantly hearing the word for furling sail used during his voyage. Paul's metaphors lie mainly on the lines of military life, architecture, agriculture, and the Grecian games. The statement of Canon Farrar, that he “constantly draws his metaphors from the sights and circumstances immediately around him,” is rather at variance with his remark that, with one exception, he “cannot find a single word which shows that Paul had even the smallest susceptibility for the works of nature” (“Paul,” i., 19). Nautical metaphors are, to say the least, not common in Paul's writings. I believe there are but three instances: Eph 4:14; 1Ti 1:19; 1Ti 6:9. Paul means here that he suppressed nothing of the truth through fear of giving offence. Compare Gal 2:12; Heb 10:38.