Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 20:15

καὶ μείναντες ἐν Τρωγυλλίῳ omitted with אABCE. Not represented in Vulg.

15. τῇ ἐπιούσῃ κατηντήσαμεν ἄντικρυς Χίου, on the following day we came over against Chios. The island of Chios is about five miles distant from the mainland. It was in the shelter of the roadstead that the Apostle and his companions passed the night in their vessel.

τῇ δὲ ἑτέρᾳ παρεβάλομεν εἰς Σάμον, and the next day we touched at Samos. For παραβάλλειν in this technical sense cf. Joseph. Ant. XVIII. 6. 4 Ἀγρίππας δὲ εἰς Ποτιόλους παραβαλών.

The island of Samos lies off that part of the coast of Asia Minor where the ancient Ionia joined on to Caria. It has been famous both in ancient Greek and modern European history. See Dict. of Greek and Rom. Geog. s. v.

In the Text. recept. we find here καὶ μείναντες ἐν Τρωγυλλίῳ. But in the oldest MSS. there is no trace of these words. How they came to be inserted it is not easy to say. Trogyllium lay on the mainland opposite Samos, at the termination of the ridge of Mycale. It may be that some annotator noticed that the previous verb παραβάλλειν only implied the touching at Samos. If he knew the locality it is possible that on his margin he suggested Trogyllium as the night’s halting-place, of which the historian had made no mention. But it is more difficult still to understand how if they had formed part of the original text they should be wanting in the earliest of all our authorities.

τῇ δὲ ἐχομένῃ κ.τ.λ., and on the day after we came to Miletus. Miletus had been a most famous sea-port in the earlier Greek history, but in the days of St Paul its fame was eclipsed by Ephesus. It lay on the coast of Caria, some 20 or 30 miles distant by land southward from the city of Ephesus, and one day’s sail from Trogyllium. The site of the town is now some distance from the sea, and was not close to it in the Apostle’s time, as we shall see below (Acts 20:38).

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 20:15

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