The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 313

needed. When wo sailed ( &va:yoµhou) ; see Tarried there three days. Perhn.pa win,J- oh. xiii. 18; xvi. 11 ; xviii. 21; xx. 3, 13; bou_nd, or possibly having to land pa.rt of xxi. I, 2, 4, 12, 21, a.nd notes. It is touch- the1r cargo there. ing to see the kindnees of the Maltese, and Ver. 13.-Made n cireuit for/etched a cmn- wo may hope that thoy had to thank God pass, A.V.; arrivetl at for came to, A. V.; for light and gr11ce 11nd life through the a south for the south, A. V. ; sr,afll} up for ministry of St. Paul and his companions. blein, A. V.; on the second day we came for Ver. 11.-Set ,ai'Z for departed, A.V.; we came the nezt day, A.V. We made a cir- isl.and for iale, A.V.; The Twin Brother• ouit ; 1r,p,e>..86vT«. St. Luke only uses this for Castor and PoUuz, A.V. After three word in one other p:tasage, eh. xix. 13," The months. At the very earliest period when strolling [or, 've.galiond' l Jews ; "and it baa the sailing seaaon began 11fter the winter. the so.me sense of" wandering" in the only It would be, perhaps, about the middle of other po.ssa.ges where it occurs in the ~ ew February, or, as Alford thinks, a.bout March Testament (1 Tim. v. 13; Heh. xi. 37). If 10. If the weather was fine, havin~ so short it is the right reading here, the meaning a. voyage before them, they would venture must be "tacking," the wine! not allowin.;. to sail without further delay. Set s&il (see them to sail in e. direct course. "I a.m i □~ preceding verse, noto). A ahip of Alexan- clined to suppose that the wind was north• dria. Some ship, better fated than that one west, and that they worked to wind ward, (eh. xxvii. 6) which was wrecked in St. Paul's avo.ili □ g themselves of the sinuosities of the Bay, which had weathered or avoided the coast. But with this wind they could not gale, and probably got into the harbour of proceed through the Straits of llessina. . . . Valetta in good time. One would have They were, therefore, obliged to put into thought that this ship wintering at Malta Rheginm. . . . But after one day the wincl on its way from Alexandria. to Italy, via. became fa.ir (from the south), and on the Sicily, would be of itself a suffici!,nt proof following day they arrived at Puteoli, hav- that Melita was Malta. Whioh had wintered ing accomplished about one hundred and ('rra.pax•xe1µa.1<&,,,); see eh. xxvii. 12, note. eighty nautical miles in leas than two days" Whoae sign we.s The Twin Brothers (A,o• (Smith, p. 156). But Meyer explains it, 1;,covpo,, in Latin the constellation Gemini). "after we had come round," viz. from Syra- The twin sons of Jupiter and Leda, CBStor cuse, round the eastern coast of Sicily. Lewin and Pollux, brothers of Helena (" fratres thinks they had to stand out to sea. to catch Helenlll, lucidasidera,'' Hora.oe,' Od.,' i. 3, 2), the wind, and so arrived a.t Rheg:ium by a were called by the Greeks Dioscuri, the sons circuitons course. The other reading is 1rep1• of Jove. It WIIB their special office to assist <AOVTes, as in eh. xxvii. 40 ; bnt this seems sailors in danger of shipwreck. Hence to give no proper sense here. A aouth wind Hol'BC8, in the ode just quoted, prays that sprang up. The force of the preposition in Castor and Pollux, in conjunction with other l1r1-yevoµlvov shows that there was a change deities, would carry the ship in whioh Virgil of wind. The south wind would, of couree, sailed safo to Attica. And in Ode xii. 27, be a very favoura.ble one for sailing from etc., he desci-ibes the subsidence of the Reggio to Puzzuoli, Hobart remarks of storm, and the calming of the waves, a.t the i1r1-y,veu8a., (which is also found in ob. =vii. appearance of the twin stars, of Leda.'s sons. 27, according to some good manuscripts) that It was, therefore, very natural to have the it "was a favourite medical word constantly Dioscuri for the ,ra.pd<T'T/µov, the sign of the employed to denote the coming on of an at- ship. Every ancient ship had 11 ,ra.pa.<171µov, tack of illuess.'' It occnrs nowhere else in "a painted or ce.rved representation of the the New Testament, but is common in Dio- sign which furnished its name on the prow, dorus Siculus, Xenophon, Herodotus, Thuoy- and a.t the stem asimilar one oftheirtutelar dides, etc., for the coming on of a storm, wind deity" (Alford), which wo.s called the tutela. (adverse or favourable), or any other change. These were sometimes the same, and perhaps On the second day; li•vT<pa.,o,. This parti- were so in this instance. Ovid tells us that cular numeral occurs nowhere else in the Minerva was the tutela of the ship in which New Testament, but the analogous Te-rap- he sailed, and that her painted helmet gave Ta.i'os is used in John iti. 39. And Herodotus it ih no.me (' Trist.,' i ix. 1), Ga.lee., or the has "P'"a.'ios l&cp11<<To, "he went away on the Like. We may notice the continual trial third day." Tpm,,os is also co=on in medi- to Jews and Christians of having to faoe ool writers with 1rup•-ros, 11 tertian ague, a. Idolatry in all the common actions of life. fever tha.t reours on the third day; nnpTa,os, Ver. 12.-Touching for landing, A. V. a quarta.n fever; 1r,µ.,,,,a.,os, one recurring ou Touohing (1<a.Ta.x8lv-ru); oh. x:xi. 3: xxvii. \he fifth do.y; ,{31ioµa.,os, on the seventh day; 8, note. The way in which Symouse is here il'va.n,os, on the ninth de.y, The forms l5e· mentioned is another redundant proof that ar&Ta&Os, 1rfv-r711<00'Taios, etc.," doing anything Melita is Malta. " Byro.co.use is about eighty on the tenth, the fiftieth day," also occur. miles, a days' sail, from Miu ta" (Alford), »11teoli; now P1muoli. The Itl\lian pon to AOTB-D, y  3'.'2 THE ACTS OF THE A.POSTLES. [err. XXVJll. 1-31.