Acts 27:13

ὑποπνεύσαντος : leniter afflante, aspirante, Cf. ὑποκινέω, ὑπομειδιάω, a moderate breeze from the south arose which would favour their westerly course. cf. Luke 12:55, not in LXX or Apocrypha, but see Heliod., iii., 3 (Wetstein). δόξαντες, Acts 12:9, τῆς προθ. κεκρατηκέναι : their purpose, i.e., of starting from Fair Havens for the more desirable anchorage of Lutro some forty miles distant. προθέσεως, cf. Acts 11:23; in N.T. only in Luke and Paul in this sense; cf. Malachi 3:8; Malachi 3:8. κεκρατ.: only here in this sense in N.T., cf. Diod. Sic., xvi. 20, κεκρατηκότες ἤδη τῆς προθέσεως (Grimm-Thayer, Page), and for instances of the same collocation of words in Galen, and in Polyb. (κατακρατεῖν), see Wetstein and Blass, in loco. Breusing, p. 164, takes the phrase to refer here to their purpose of continuing their voyage to the end (so too Goerne). ἄραντες : “they weighed anchor,” R.V. So Ramsay, J. Smith, pp. 65, 97; only here in N.T. in this sense, sc. τὰς ἀγκύρας, cf. Thuc., i., 52, and ii., 23, but the word may imply simply profecti, of movement, whether by sea or by land, of armies or ships; so Breusing takes it intransitively, no need of any noun, Thuc., iv., 129; vii., 26 (p. 164): see also Acts 27:17. For aorist participle of an action antecedent in time to that of the principal verb cf. Acts 14:19 : Burton, pp. 63, 64. ἆσσον παρελ. τὴν Κ.: “sailed along Crete, close in-shore,” R.V., i.e., as they rounded Cape Matala, about six miles west of Fair Havens; the statement so emphatically introduced by St. Luke seems to imply that their ability to weather the point was for some time doubtful, Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 326. ἆσσον : “if the wind went round a point towards the west they would fail; and the anxious hour has left its record in the single word of Acts 27:13, ‘ ἆσσον,' ” Ramsay, u. s. See critical note, and above on Acts 27:8. ἆσσον, an adverb comparative of ἄγχι; the comparative degree makes it more emphatic (see above), as they had been coasting for weeks, and they now went “closer” in shore (see R.V.); Wendt (1899) takes it, however, not as a comparative with reference to Acts 27:8 (so Meyer, Weiss), but as a superlative, cf. Acts 24:22; Acts 25:10.