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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 27:17 - 27:17
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
17. ἥν ἄραντες, and when they had hoisted it up, i.e. from the sea and on board the vessel.
βοηθείαις ἐχρῶντο, they used helps. These were strong cables, which were drawn several times round the hulls of vessels, to help in keeping the timbers from parting. The technical term for the operation is ‘to frap’ a vessel, and it is only in modern times that the process has been abandoned.
μὴ εἰς τὴν σύρτιν ἐκπέσωσιν, lest they should be cast upon the Syrtis. The Syrtis Major and Syrtis Minor are two quicksands on the north coast of Africa, of which the Syrtis Major lies most to the east, between Tripoli and Barca, and was the shoal on to which the sailors at this time were afraid of being driven.
χαλάσαντες τὸ σκεῦος, having lowered the gear. The noun σκεῦος is a very general one, signifying ‘tackling’ or ‘implements’ of any kind. What was done was to lower everything from aloft that could be dispensed with. They could not have struck sail (as A.V.), because to do so would be to give up all the chance which remained of using the wind to avoid the Syrtis, which was what they desired to do.
χαλάω is used for the management of the rigging of a ship in LXX. (Isa 33:23), οὐ χαλάσει τὰ ἱστία.