Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 27:40

καὶ τὰς ἀγκ. περιελόντες : “and casting off the anchors,” R.V., cf. Acts 27:20 for the same verb, so that the meaning cannot be as A.V., following Vulgate, “having taken up”; in fact it is the very reverse. The sailors loosed the cables of the anchors which were fastened within the ship, that they might fall off into the sea (Blass); Breusing and Vars compare Xen., Hell., xvi., 21, τὰς ἀγκύρας ἀποκόπτοντες = τὰ σχοινία τῶν ἀγκυρῶν. εἴων εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν : “they left them (the anchors) in the sea,” R.V., relinquebant, Blass; so Breusing, Vars, Goerne, as against A.V., and Vulgate, committebant se, or Luther's rendering (Beza and Grotius), εἴων τὸ πλοῖον ἰέναι εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν. Grimm-Thayer renders “they let down into the sea,” i.e., abandoned, which gives better the force of εἰς than regarding it simply as = ἐν. ἅμα : “at the same time,” R.V., “simul laxantes,” Vulgate, “loosing withal,” Rhem., but in no other E.V [422] (Speaker's Commentary). τὰς ζευκτ. τῶν πηδαλίων : the bands of the rudders, the fastenings of the rudders, i.e., the two paddle-rudders with which Greek and Roman ships were supplied, one on each quarter, C. and H. and J. Smith, p. 183, 4th edition, these rudders had been lifted from the water and lashed up while the ship was anchored by the stern (see Breusing's description, p. 98, cf. Eur., Hel., 1536: πηδάλια ζεύγλαισι παρακαθίετο), but the rudders were wanted when the ship again got under weigh. τῇ πνεούσῃ, sc. αὔρᾳ. ἐπάραντες : technical word for spreading out the sail, opposite to ὑφίεσθαι. κατεῖχον εἰς τὸν αἰγ.: “they made for the beach,” R.V., in order to land, cf. Xen., Hell., ii., 1, 29; others take it as meaning to check the ship's headway, but better, to hold or head the ship, Herod., vii. 59, 188, so Grimm-Thayer, sub v., sc. τὴν ναῦν, whilst others take the verb intransitively as above in R.V. τὸν ἀρτέμονα : “the foresail,” R.V., Ramsay, J. Smith. The word has been interpreted by various writers as meaning nearly every sail which a vessel carries. If the interpretation of Acts 27:17 is correct, it could not mean the mainsail as A.V. Others apply it to the stern-sail, which bears the name to-day (Italian, artimone; French, voile d'artimon), but to set this sail would have been the most foolish thing they could have done, so Vars, Breusing. The word is found only here for the foresail, and its meaning is fixed by the fact that no other sail could be so well used by sailors under the circumstances, see Breusing, p. 79, J. Smith, pp. 141 and 193 ff., 4th edit. In his edition, 1899, Wendt thinks it probable that the sail here meant is otherwise called δόλων, but see J. Smith, p. 200, 4th edit. In his former edition he preferred to interpret it of the topsail (Meyer, Weiss, Zöckler, Baumgarten), but Breusing, p. xii., points out that only in the sixteenth century were topsails introduced; see also Vars, p. 93.

[422] English Version.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 27:40

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