Robertson Word Pictures - Acts 27:12 - 27:12

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Robertson Word Pictures - Acts 27:12 - 27:12


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Because the haven was not commodious to winter in (aneuthetou tou limenos huparchontos pros paracheimasian). Genitive absolute again present tense of huparchō: “The harbour being unfit (aneuthetou, this compound not yet found elsewhere, simplex in Luk 9:62; Luk 14:35; Heb 6:7) for wintering” (paracheimasia, only here in N.T., but in Polybius and Diodorus, in an inscription a.d. 48, from paracheimazō).

The more part advised (hoi pleiones ethento boulēn). Second aorist middle indicative of tithēmi, ancient idiom with boulēn, to take counsel, give counsel. Lysias held a council of the officers of the ship on the issue raised by Paul.

If by any means they could reach Phoenix and winter there (ei pōs dunainto katantēsantes eis Phoinika paracheimasai). The optative dunainto (present middle of dunamai) here with ei is a condition of the fourth class with the notion of purpose implied and indirect discourse (Robertson, Grammar, p. 1021). “We vote for going on the chance that we may be able” (Page). Phoenix is the town of palms (Joh 12:13), the modern Lutro, the only town in Crete on the southern coast with a harbour fit for wintering, though Wordsworth and Page argue for Phineka which suits Luke’s description better. The verb paracheimazō, to winter, is from para and cheimōn (see also Act 28:11). Used in several Koiné[28928]š writers.

Looking northeast and southeast (bleponta kata liba kai kata chōron). There are two ways of interpreting this language. Lips means the southwest wind and chōros the northwest wind. But what is the effect of kata with these words? Does it mean “facing” the wind? If so, we must read “looking southwest and northwest.” But kata can mean down the line of the wind (the way the wind is blowing). If so, then it is proper to translate “looking northeast and southeast.” This translation suits Lutro, the other suits Phoenike. Ramsay takes it to be Lutro, and suggests that sailors describe the harbour by the way it looks as they go into it (the subjectivity of the sailors) and that Luke so speaks and means Lutro which faces northeast and southeast. On the whole Lutro has the best of the argument.