Acts 27:27

τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτη νύξ, i.e., since their departure from Fair Havens, cf. Acts 27:18-19, see also the reckonings of mileage in Breusing, p. 189, and Goerne, who reckons from the departure from Cauda. διαφερομένων ἡμῶν : “as we were driven to and fro,” R.V., so Ramsay; “huc illuc ferri,” Blass, cf. for a similar meaning of the verb Philo, De Migr. Abr., 27, Strabo, 3, p. 144, and other instances as in Plutarch, see Wetstein, Grimm-Thayer, sub v. But J. Smith (so Breusing, Goerne, Rendall) takes the word as signifying that they were driven through the waters of the Adria uniformly in the same direction, i.e., right across from Cauda to Malta, and not as moving up and down, or to and fro. Ramsay (so Farrar) holds that St. Luke writes as a landsman who supposes that they drifted to and fro, whilst a sailor would have known that they drifted in a uniform direction (an explanation which Page describes as easy but unsatisfactory, but he thinks that the Greek word cannot be used as J. Smith believes); Rendall however maintains that throughout the Acts the habitual force of διά in composition, e.g., διέρχεσθαι, διαπλεῖν, διαφεύγειν, διαπερᾷν, διοδεύειν, whether governing an accusative or used absolutely is to express continuous movement onwards over an intervening space. ἐν τῷ Ἀδρίᾳ : “in the sea of Adria,” R.V. (on the form of the word see Hastings' B.D., more properly “Adrias”); not in the narrower sense of the Adriatic, the Gulf of Venice, or as we now speak of “the Adriatic,” but as including the whole sea which lay between Malta, Italy, Greece and Crete; St. Luke probably used the term as it was colloquially used by the sailors in this wider sense. For Mommsen's objection to the term here see above, Introd., p. 8. The passage in Strabo, ii., 123 (cf. vii. 187), where the Ionian sea is spoken of as a part of what is now called Adria plainly justifies a wider use of the term in St. Paul's day than had been originally attached to it, cf. Ptolemy, Geogr, iii., 4, 14, 15, 16, who applies it to the sea extending from Sicily to Crete, and thus represents, although living some sixty or seventy years after him, what was no doubt the current usage in St. Luke's day; so J. Smith, Breusing, Goerne, Vars, Ramsay, Renan, Blass, etc. Josephus, Vita, 3, speaks of being taken up in the middle of Adria, κατὰ μέσον τὸν Ἀδρίαν, when his ship foundered, by a vessel sailing from Cyrene to Puteoli. See further “Adria,” Hastings' B.D., where a full criticism of the attempt made by W. Falconer (and others), Dissertation on St. Paul's Voyage, 1817, republished with additions in 1870, to limit the term to the branch of the sea between Italy and Illyria, and to identify Melita with an island off its Illyrian shore, will be found; see further on Acts 28:1, and C. and H., small edition, p. 660 ff., for other references to the meaning of the term “Adria,” and Renan, Saint Paul, p. 552, J. Smith, p. 280 ff., 4th edit, (editor's note), and Encycl. Bibl., i., 72, 1899. κατὰ μέσον τῆς ν., cf. Acts 16:25 for a similar expression, only in Luke. ὑπενόουν : only in Luke; “surmised,” R.V., less decided than “deemed,” A.V., see on Acts 13:25 (cf. 1 Timothy 6:4). προσάγειν τινὰ αὐτοῖς χ.: “that some land was approaching them,” R.V., so Breusing and Ramsay; intransitive in LXX, Joshua 3:9; 1 Samuel 9:18; Jeremiah 26 (46):3, etc., “Lucas optice loquitur, nautarum more,” Kypke; the opposite verb would be ἀναχωρεῖν, recedere, see Wetstein and Blass for illustrations. J. Smith thinks that probably they heard the breakers on the shore, but Breusing and Goerne (so Blass) think that the anchor or whatever weight was dragged behind the ship appeared to strike the ground, see above on Acts 27:17, cf. critical note for προσαχεῖν, Doric for προσηχεῖν. χώραν : the point of Koura, east of St. Paul's Bay, J. Smith; the ship would pass within a quarter of a mile of it, and while the land is too low to be seen when the night is stormy, the breakers can be heard for a considerable distance; cf. the description of the wreck of the Lively in 1810, Smith, p. 123, 4th edition.