Acts 27:17

ἣν ἄραντες : “and when they had hoisted it up” into the ship, see on Acts 27:13. βοηθ. ἐχρῶντο : they used helps ὑποζ. τὸ πλοῖον undergirding the ship, A. and R.V., on ἐχρῶντο see Acts 27:3, cf. 1 Corinthians 9:12; 1 Corinthians 9:15; often compared to the custom called in modern language frapping, or undergirding the ship with cables to prevent the timbers from being strained, or to hold them together during a storm, Plato, Rep., 616,, Polyb., xxvii., 3, 3, Horace, Od., i., 14, 6. The difficult point to decide is whether the girders were put longitudinally round the ship, i.e., passed from stem to stern, or under the ship transversely. Breusing, p. 670 (so Goerne and Vars), defends the former at great length, following Böckh. The passage from Plato, u. s., he admits may possibly make for the latter view, but it is evident that the description is not very definite or precise, and the passage in Isidore of Seville, Orig., xix., 4, 4, “tormentum (ὑπόζωμα) funis in navibus longus, qui a prora ad puppim extenditur, quo magis constringantur,” which Böckh quotes (so also Vars, L'Art Nautique, p. 219) is much clearer. Moreover, the girding was often performed when the ships were on land, on the stocks, and it is not likely that the operation in the circumstances under discussion could have meant passing a cable under the keel. Further, by girding the ship transversely, i.e., underneath the ship (p. 175), only the timbers in the middle of the ship would be held together, whilst a girding longitudinally was needed to secure the whole plankage of the ship. But see on the other hand Ramsay, p. 329, who agreeing with Smith holds that the cables were passed underneath round the ship transversely. Either operation, one would suppose, would have been difficult during a storm. For instances of this practice in modern times, see Smith, and C. and H., small edit., p. 645. Wendt (1899) refers to Naber's conjecture of βοείαις for βοηθ. as very plausible. μὴ εἰς τὴν Σ.: “on the great quicksands,” Ramsay; “the Syrtis,” R.V., not merely “the quicksands,” as A.V., but the Syrtis Major, “the Goodwin Sands of the Mediterranean”(Farrar), lying at a distance to the south-west of Clauda; upon them the sailors knew that they would be cast, unless they could manage by some means to alter their course. ἐκπέσωσι : a regular nautical term, to fall off, ἐκ, i.e., from a straight course, εἰς Eur., Hel., 409, Herod., viii., 13, others supply “from deep water” and render ἐκπ. to be cast away, Grimm-Thayer, sub v., cf. Acts 27:26; Acts 27:29. χαλάσ. τὸ σκεῦος : “lowered the gear,” R.V., they reduced sail,” Ramsay; here and in Acts 27:30 used as a nautical term; the tempting reference to Isaiah 33:23, LXX, cannot be sustained, for the meaning of the words is very doubtful. The article with the singular (in Acts 27:19, the plural) seems to indicate “ the gear,” the mainyard carrying the mainsail (so Page, Wordsworth, Humphry). Of the A.V., J. Smith says that no more erroneous translation could be imagined, as “they struck sail” would imply that the ship had no means of escaping danger, but was left to flounder hopelessly in the storm, although Meyer-Wendt take the words to mean that they preferred to let the ship drift without any mast or sail than to be driven on upon the Syrtis, as was inevitable with the ship kept in full sail. Chrysostom explains τὸ σκ. as = τὰ ἱστία, but some sail was necessary, and they had still the artemon or storm sail, so J. Smith, who thinks that they lowered the great sail and mainyard some way, but not apparently entirely. The aim of the sailors was not merely to delay their course (which would only bring them upon the Syrtis), but to alter it, and it is therefore quite possible that χαλάσ. τὸ σκεῦος may denote a series of operations, slackening sail, lowering as much of the gear as they could, but leaving enough sail spread to keep the ship's head to the wind, i.e., to the north instead of drifting to south-west upon the quicksand (Ramsay). Breusing, p. 177 ff., who thinks that the mainsail had been lowered at the commencement of the storm, adopts quite a different meaning for the words, and interprets them as implying that weights and great stones were let down by ropes into the sea for the purpose of retarding the progress of the vessel, and with this view Blass and Knabenbauer are in agreement (Wendt, 1899, evidently inclines to it, and Goerne adopts it); this curious view, which Ramsay finds it difficult to regard seriously, Breusing supports by a passage in Plut., Moral., p. 507, A (so Hesychius' explanation, ἄγκυρα τὸ ναυτικὸν σκεῦος), which intimates that σπεῖραι and ἄγκυραι were frequently employed to check the course of a ship in a storm; but even if the Greek words admit of this explanation, the object of the sailors was nothing less than to alter the course of the vessel, and Breusing's supposition would not conduce to this. οὕτως ἐφέροντο : “so were driven,” R.V., i.e., in this state, “and drove on so,” Rendall; meaning that we let the ship drift in that position, viz., undergirded, with storm sail set and on the starboard tack; J. Smith, so Ramsay, not simply “were driven hopelessly”. For οὕτως, Acts 17:33; Acts 20:11.