The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 292

picturo of tho oye-witnoss of what he rolntcs. v. 33; xv. 37, noto; 2 Cor. i. 17; nnrl l,i,lr],.11 Dean Plumptre well suggests that St. Luke and 8cott's 'Lexicon'); and the order or the very likely oounted the orew on this occa- words here suits the rendering· nf the A.V. sion or their being all assembled together much better than that or the R.V., which for the first time. would require ,cal i{3ou71.,6ov-ra, instead of Ver. 38.-Tl,rowinr, out for and oaat out, el$ ~,,, 1< ...-.71.. The Revisionists seem to have A.V. They lightened the ship; i1<06qmrav, been misled by the resemblance of Luke only here in the New Testament; but it is xiv. 31. Drive; /~wO'at, the technical word the technical word for light,ming a ship so for driving e. ship ashore (Thucy<l., ii. 10, ns to keep hor afloat. So in Polybius, i. 39, etc.). It only occurs in the New Testament 'E1<pC,j,avns J,c TWV ,rl\.alwv ,r&.v-ra Tit {36.p1/ here, and in e. different sense in eh. vii. 45. µ.&71.,s l1<a6<J>10'tw Tits vaiis; and Jone.h i. 5, It is not uncommon in the LXX. as the "They co.et forth the wares that were in the rendering of ilr:11 and ;:in (see Deut. xiii. 3; ship into the sea, to lighten it of them ( -roiJ 2 Sam. xiv. 13; Jer. xlix. [LXX., xxvi.] 36, 1<au<J>10'6ijva., z..,,• a.vTwv" (see ver. 18, note). etc.). Kau<J>lO'a1 ..-¾,v vaiiv is one of the technical Ver. 40.-Castinff off for when they had expressions for taking cargo out or a ship, taken up, A. V. ; they left them in the sea for given by Julius Pollux (Smith), The wheat they committed themBel~eB u-nto the •ea, A.V. ; (Tov 0',..-011). There is a.difference of opinion at the same time loosing the bands of the ns to what St. Luke here means by To11 rudder• for and loosed tlte rudder bands, O'..,.av. Meyer and others think it was A.V.; hoisting for Tunsed, A.V.; foresail for merely " the ship's provision," and that, mainsail, A.V.; for the beach for toward considering the number of persons in the shore, A.V. This verse, so obscure before, ship, o.nd the little consumption during the has been made iotelligible by the masterly last fortnight, the weight of what was left labours of Smith, of Jordan Hill. We will would be considerable. They o.dd that the first explain the separate word e. Caet:ing off cargo had been already thrown overboard in (-,rep1e71.6v-res ). The verb ,,..p,a,pew occurs in ver. 18. Others, as Howson, following Smith ver. 20; in 2 Cor. iii. 16; and in Heb. x. 11 ; o.nd Penrose, Farrar, Lewin, and many older and in all those passages is rendered " taken commentato1·s, with more reason, understand a.way." So also in the LXX., where it is of "the wheat" to mean the ship's cargo from frequent use, it means "take away," " put Alexandria to Rome; they think it had a.way," "remove," and the like. In classical been impossible to get at it while the ship Greek it means to "take away," " take off," was drifting; and that, even had it been "strip off." Here, then, applied to the possible, it wo.s the last thing they would anchors which were firmly embedde,l in have recourse to. But now, when it was the very strong clay at the bottom of impossible to save the ship, and the only the see. off Koura Point, 11:epieJ\.av-res ..-i'zs chance of saving their lives was to run her O.-,,cVpas means "putting a.way,, or "cast- on the beach, it was an absolute necessity ing off" the anchors by cutting the cables to lighten the ship as much as possible which fastened them to the ship, and, They thel'efore cast her freight of Alex- as it follows, leavfug them in the sea., andrian corn into the sea, and waited for or, more literally, giving them up, dis- daylight (see note to ver. 18). missing them into the sea (etwv eis .,,,, Ver. 39.-Perceived for discovered, A.V.; Oa.71.aO'O'tw); comp. eh. v. 38. Loosing the bay with a beach for creek with a shore, A.V.: bands of the rudders. "The ships of the and they took counsel whether they could Greeks and Romans, like those of the early drive the ship upon it for into the which they Northmen were not steered by e. single were minded, if it were possible, to thrust ·in rudder, but by two paddle-rudders" (How- the ship, A.V. They knew not the land. It son, p. 310. See too an illustration from an wns seven miles from the harbour of V nletta, ancient painting found o.t Herculaneum, in and a part of the island not likely to have which the two paddle-rudders a.re very dis- been visited by the sailors, and presenting tinotly seen, o.t p. 346; and another illustra- no marked features by which they would tion in Lewin, vol. ii. p. 204, showing the recognize it. A certain bay with a beach ; two rudders and the foresill). These paddle- al-y,ull.Jv, o. level pebbly or sandy beach rudders had been hoisted up o.nd lashed, (Matt. xiii. 2; eh. xxi. 5; o.nd ver. 40), us op- lest they should foul the anchors o.t the posed to 111<-rf/, a high 1·ugged coast (Tp1/X••a, stern. But now, when the free use of them ii,j,1111.~, etc., Homer). They took counsel was absolutely necessary to steer the ship whether they oould drive, eto. The render- toward the beach, they unloosed the lash- ing of the A.V. is surely infinitely better ings, i.e. "the, bands of the rudders," and at thau the R.V. The meaning of {3aull.evoµa,, the same time they hoisted up the foresail. both in the New Testnu1ent and iu clns~ical The foresail; Tbv ap-rlµ.o~a, a word found only G!eek, is frequently and pl'operly "to deter- here in this sense, but used in Vitruvius for mine," "to resolve" 0l' "pu1·pose" (oco oh. a "pulley," and so explained in DucuugP,  THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [ou. xxvn. 1-44.