The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 288

Running under the lee of j ~1ro6paµ6v-re,, only (HowAon, p. 33) the A[bio,r,, was fmpped here in the Now Testnment, but common in with iron cha.ins after the battle of Nava- clll.l!sice.l Greek for "running under" or rino. Cast upon the Syrtis. The wind wa1 " between." (For the uso of ~1r& in com- driving them straight toward the Byrtia pound in the sense of" under the lee of," Major, "the Goodwin Sands of the Medit.er- see ver. 7.) Oauda, or Oaudos, e.s it is called ranean" (Farrar), and another twenty-four by Pomp. Mele. (ii. 7) and Pliny (' Nat. hours of such a gale might bring them there. Hist.,' iv. xii. 20), the modern Gozzo. Ptolemy The Syrtis Major was e. wide gulf o:ff the (iii. 7) co.Us it Olaudua. The manuscripts northern coa.st of Africa, now the Gulf of gl'ee.tly vary. Olo.ude., or O11ud11, we.s nbont Sidra, lying between Tunis and Tripoli, twenty-three miles south-west of Orete. considered very dangerous from its rocks With diffioulty (µ&11.u, o.s in vers. 7, 8). To and shoals. Be cast wprm U1<1dur,,rn). The seoure the boat. The boe.t was doubtless verb i1t,ri1rTEiv is the classical word (Homer, being towed o.stern. But in the violence of Herodotus, Euripides) for being driven or the storm, there WII.I! e. danger every moment thrown ashore, and is used in this sense in of her being pe.rted from the ship by the vers. 26, 29 of this chapter, and in a slightly snapping of the hawser, or by being broken different sense in ver. 32. They lowered the by the waves, and it was impossible to take gear (xa/1.&o-aV'I'•• To tt1tevo,). :%1<euo< is a her up. Under the lee of the little island, very common word, variously rendered however, the sea was somewhat quieter; "goods," "stu:ff,'' "vessel," according to the and so after greater efforts they secured the material to which it is applied (Matt. xii. 29 ; boat, and, e.s it is said in the next verse, Luke viii. 16; xvii. 31, etc.). In the LXX. " hoisted it up " on to the deck. it is used of agricultural implements (1 Sam. Ver. 17.-And when they had hoisted it up xiii. 20, 21), of weapons of hunting (Gen. for which when they had taken up, A.V. ; be xxvii. 3), of household furniture (Gen. cast upon the Syrtis for fall into the quick- xxxi. 37), wee.pons of war (Dent. i. 41), sands, A. V. ; they lowered the gear for strake instruments of music (2 Chron. v. 13). This sail, A.V. Helps; /30718.!au, in the New is the only passage in the Bible where it is Testament only here and Heh. iv. 16; but used in its technical sense as a nautical frequent in medical lo.ngua.ge, for "band- term. In classical Greek, when applied ages," " ligaments," " muscles,'' and all generally to ships, it means the whole tack- kinds of supports both artificial and natural, ling, sails, ropes, yards, stores, engines, etc. and generally to medical a.id. Undergird- The meaning, of course, is narrowed when ing the ship; ~,ro(owv6wre<, only here in the applied to some particular part of the ship, Bible; but found, as well a.a its derivative Here, on the whole, it seems to mean the wo(o,µa, in classical Greek, in the same " great yard,'' or, if that had been e.lready sense as it has here, In medico.l language lowered, the heavy "head-gear,'' ropes, it is used of certain membranes which pulleys, and the like, which, under the cir- " undergird" and so strengthen and hold cumstances, would contribute to make the together certain parts of the human body, ship roll and be unsteady. The word ren- and specially was applied to the ,r/1.evp&.. dered "lowered" is x~atta.,. It is rendered As regards the nautical sense in which St. "let down " in Murk ii. 4; Luke v. 4, 5 ; Luke here uses the word, Dean Howson, in eh. ix. 25 : 2 Cor. :ri. 33; and ver. 30 of this his excellent chapter (xxiii.) on the• Navi- chapter (A.V.). In the R.V. it is sometimes gation and Ships of the Ancients,' writes as rendered " let down " and sometimes "low- follows :-" In consequence of the extreme ered." In the LXX. it is used in the sense danger to which the ships of the ancients of " spree.ding" a sail (Isa. xxxiii. 23), were exposed from leaking, it was custom- which would be equivalent to "let down," ary to to. ke to sea, as part of their ordinary if the sails were reefed at the top of the gear, u,ro(,I,µa.Ta, undergirders, which were mast; and of "letting down" (Jer. xxxviii. simply ropes for passing round the hull of 6). The R.V., therefore, is correot. The the ship, and thus preventing the planks objeot of what they did was to enable the from starting;" and he adds in a note that ship to go as near the wind e.s possible, "within the last twenty years (in 1837) and with as little straining 1md rolling as m1nble tables had been dug up in the Piroous, possible. The operation is called by so.ilors containing a list of Athenian ships and an "lying to." Were driven (see ver. 15). inventory of their tackle, and that they all Ver. 18.-.As tee laboured e:i:ceedingly carried, as part of their •• he.nging gear," for being eueedingly tossed, A.V.; the storm wo(,I,µa.Ta.. Another great ship described for a tempest, A.V.; began to throw t1&6 by Athenrous carried twelve such. The freight 011e1"boara for lightened Iha ship, operution of undergirding is still ocoasiono.lly A.V. Laboured; xeaµ.a.(o,u.evoiv, only here pel'formed, and is oal1ed by see.men "frap- in the New Testament; but used by Pb.to, ping." The German word is umgu·rten Thucydides, Diouorus Siculmi, Josephus, (liowsoo), Among other reoent examples and others, and esyechilly by Illedice.l 296 THE ACTS OF THE APOS'l'LES. [oil. XXVIT, 1--44,