Acts 27:21

δέ : if we read τε, see critical note, the word closely connects what follows as the result of the hopelessness. πολλῆς δὲ (τε) ἀσιτίας ὑπαρχ.: “and when they had been long without food,” R.V.; “abstinence” A.V. and Tyndale, “fasting” in Wycl., Rhem., imply rather a voluntary refraining which is not in the Greek; disinclination for food may have resulted from their anxiety (Humphry), and to the same effect Breusing, Goerne, “and little heart being left for food,” Rendall. But the storm may also have prevented the preparation of food (so Smith, Ramsay, Page, Farrar); the former gives instances to show that ἀσιτία was one of the most frequent concomitants of heavy gales, owing to the impossibility of cooking food, and to the destruction of provisions by leakage. ἀσιτίας, see below, Acts 27:33, for the adjective: both noun and adjective peculiar to St. Luke, and much employed in medical language, both so noted by Hobart and Zahn, the noun often meaning “want of appetite,” see instances in Hobart, p. 276, Hipp., Galen, Aret. The word was no doubt similarly used in classical Greek, so in Jos., but cf. the striking parallel in Acts 27:33 in medical phraseology. For the genitive absolute cf. locutiones Lucanæ (Klostermann, p. 53), Acts 15:7; Acts 19:40; Acts 21:40; Acts 23:10. Felten, Zöckler, Bethge (and so Wendt, 1888, but cf. p. 410 (1899)), rightly refuse to regard Acts 27:21-26 or Acts 27:10 as interpolations in the “We” section, or a “vaticinium post eventum,” and no one has contended more forcibly than Weizsäcker that the narrative is to be taken as an indivisible whole, and that it is impossible to disentangle the mere history of travel from it, or to strip away the miraculous additions, see especially Apostolic Age ii., pp. 126, 127, E.T. τότε : in this state of things, at this juncture, hungry, and thirsty, and their soul fainting in them; cf. Acts 28:1, so also in classical Greek. σταθεὶς ὁ Π. ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν, cf. Acts 1:15; Acts 2:14; Acts 17:22; vividness and solemnity of the scene (αὐτῶν, not ἡμῶν), characteristically marked by Luke; Mr. Page well says that it is impossible not to recall Horace, Od., iii., 3, 1, “vir justus et propositi tenax,” unmoved amidst the storms “inquieti Adriæ”. ἔδει μὲν : antithesis, not strictly expressed.… καὶ τὰ νῦν, Acts 27:22, “modestiam habet,” Bengel. For μέν answered not by δέ, but occasionally by other particles, as here by καί, cf. Luke 22:22; Acts 4:16; see Simcox, Language of the N.T., p. 168, and for τὰ νῦν, see Acts 4:29; Acts 5:38; Acts 17:30; Acts 20:32, and note on p. 135. On the imperfect ἔδει cf. Burton, p. 14; Winer-Moulton, xli., 2. ὦ ἄνδρες : “gentlemen,” “ viri quos decet virtus,” Bengel, the word may thus mark St. Paul's courtesy, and also his firmness; in counsel, Acts 27:10, he had been prudent and confident; in danger he was equally so; cf. especially Weizsäcker, u. s. πειθαρχ.: only in Acts in N.T., Acts 5:29; Acts 5:32, except once again as used by St. Paul, Titus 3:1. ἀνάγ., see above, Acts 13:13, and Blass, in loco, on the tense. κερδῆσαι : “and have gotten this injury and loss,” R.V., carrying on μή; Page on the other hand prefers the combination ἔδει τε κερδῆσαι (“hoc non pendet a μή,” Bengel), i.e., you ought not to have put to sea, and (you ought by so not putting to sea) to have gained this loss, i.e., not suffered it; with nouns signifying loss, injury, the verb κερδαίνειν is used of the gain arising from shunning or escaping from the evil, Grimm-Thayer, sub v., see Eur., Cycl., 312, with ζημίαν, to escape a loss, and cf. Jos., Ant., ii., 3, 2, and the Latin lucrifacere, Pliny, N.H., vii., 40, “lucri fecit injuriam”. The Genevan Version adds an explanatory note, “that is, ye should have saved the losse by avoyding the danger”; see also Acts 27:10. κερδῆσαι = κερδῶναι, - δῆναι; almost always in N.T., cf. Winer-Schmiedel, p. 110.