Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 27:9

ἱκανοῦ δὲ χρ. γεν.: not since the commencement of the voyage (as Meyer), but since they lay weather-bound. Wendt (1899) agrees with Meyer as against Weiss and Ramsay, on the ground that there is no ἐκεῖ, so Hackett. ἐπισ. τοῦ πλοός : “terminus proprie nauticus,” Klostermann, Vindiciæ Lucanæ, J. Smith, p. 84, who refers to Jul. Pollux, i., 105, although the adjective was not distinctively so. It is only used by St. Luke, and although it is frequently employed by medical writers, it is found also in Plato, Polybius, Plutarch (cf. also Wis 9:14, and for the adverb Acts 4:4). τοῦ πλοός : “the voyage,” R.V., but perhaps “sailing,” A.V., is best, so Ramsay the dangerous season for sailing had commenced; in the next verse = “voyage,” i.e., to Rome (Alford); only in Luke, cf. Luke 21:7, on the form of the genitive see Winer-Schmiedel, p. 84, cf. 1 Corinthians 14:15; 1Co 14:19, 2 Thessalonians 2:2. The dangerous season was reckoned from 14th September to 11th November, and from 11th November to 5th March all navigation was discontinued; see Blass, in loco, and Ramsay, Saint Paul, p. 322; according to Hesiod, Works and Days, 619, navigation ceased after the setting of the Pleiades about 20th October. The Jewish period for navigation ended 28th September. διὰ τὸ καὶ τὴν νηστείαν ἤδη παρεληλυθέναι : the mention of the fact that the Fast, i.e., the Great Day of Atonement, Leviticus 16:29, Jos., Ant., xiv., 16, 4, was over, Tisri the 10th, made the danger more apparent. According to Mr. Turner, “Chronology,” Hastings' B.D., the great Fast on Tisri 10 in 58 A.D. fell circa 15th September, so that the dangerous sailing season would have just commenced. In A.D. 59, the date preferred by Ramsay, the Fast would be on 5th October. Starting from the view that a considerably later point of time than Tisri 10 is implied, cf. Acts 28:11, various attempts have been made to interpret νηστεία differently, and it has been referred to the Athenian festival of the Thesmophoria, the third day of which was so called; or to some nautical mode of expression not elsewhere employed equivalent to extremum autumni, but all such attempts are based upon no authority (Zöckler, in loco), and there can be no doubt that the expression “the Fast” κατʼ ἐξοχήν refers to the Jewish Fast as above. St. Paul usually reckoned after the Jewish calendar, 1 Corinthians 16:8, and as Wendt observes there is nothing strange in the fact that his travel-companion should also so reckon, cf. Acts 20:6 above, even if he was a Gentile Christian, an observation to be noted in face of Schmiedel's recent arguments against the Lucan authorship, Encycl. Biblica, p. 44, 1899. The indication that St. Paul kept the Jewish Fast Day is significant. παρήνει : “admonished,” R. and A.V., in N.T. only here, and in Acts 27:22, see note. The Apostle had sufficient experience to justify him, 2 Corinthians 11:25 (Weiss), his interposition is all an indication of the respect which he had secured: “the event Justified St. Paul's advice,” J. Smith.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 27:9

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