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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Acts 27:14 - 27:20
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The hurricane:
v. 14. But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.
v. 15. And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive.
v. 16. And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat;
v. 17. which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven.
v. 18. And we, being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship;
v. 19. and the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.
v. 20. and when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.
The gentle breeze seems to have been only a lull while the storm shifted, for not long after they had started from Fair Havens, and probably before they had rounded the cape, where their course would turn toward the northwest, a tempestuous wind, a hurricane, beat down from Crete and its mountains. Its name is given as Euroclydon, or East-northeast, now known as a "Levanter," and its force was such, after the ship had been caught by it, as to make it impossible to face the wind. So the sailors gave way to the wind, they gave the ship up to the mercy of the hurricane and were driven along. Steadily toward the southwest they were beaten until they ran under the lee of a small island called Clauda. Here the force of the storm was not quite so great as out in the open, and so the sailors were enabled to take three precautions. With some difficulty they got hold of the boat, or skiff, which usually floated at the stern, but which was now in danger of being dashed to pieces against the sides of the vessel: this they hoisted to the deck. They next undergirded, or frapped, the ship by passing cables around the hull, undoubtedly the long way in this instance, to secure the whole plankage of the ship and to break the force of the waves. The tightening was done by means of the capstan, thus affording some safety against the parting of the timbers, And finally, since the sailors were afraid that they would be driven into the dreaded Syrtis, the great banks of quicksands near the coast of Africa, they lowered the gear, the rigging of the sails, or set it so that it offered the least possible resistance to the wind, and so were driven. Their precautions seem at least to have had so much effect that the course of the ship was changed from southwest to west. The next day the tempest raged with unabated vigor, and since they were tossed about and suffered great distress because of the storm, they jettisoned, they threw overboard the cargo, or such parts of it as were loose. On the third day they threw overboard the rigging and the tackling of the ship, including all the spars and cordage. The suffering and distress of all men on board was greatly increased by the fact that they were dependent upon the stars for steering the course of the vessel, and since now neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the tempest was raging with unabated force, they finally gave up all hope of being saved. That was the result of courting danger without necessity, of pure presumptuousness.