Acts 21:1

St. Paul's Journey from Miletus to Tyre, 1-6.

Acts 21:1. And it came to pass, that after we were gotten from them. The Greek word here, as Chrysostom remarks, is a very forcible expression, and signifies, ‘when we had torn ourselves away from them.' The parting between St. Paul and his Ephesian friends and fellow-workers must have been exceedingly painful.

We came with a straight course unto Coos. This was a small island about forty miles south of Miletus, opposite the coast where lay the cities of Cnidus and Halicarnassus. It was famous for its wines and fabrics. It possessed, in the days of Paul, a celebrated temple of Æsculapius, and was a renowned school of medicine. Josephus tells us that many Jews resided here. It was the birthplace of Hippocrates the physician, and Apelles the painter.

And the day following unto Rhodes. Rhodes lay fifty miles to the south of Coos. It was famed for being the most beautiful spot in this, perhaps the fairest portion of the world. There was a proverb that ‘the sun shone every day in Rhodes.' From its unrivalled situation, lying as it does on the verge of two of the basins of the Mediterranean Sea, it has always been an emporium for the eastern and western trades. It was the point from which the Greek geographers reckoned their parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude, In the Greek period, it was illustrious especially for its great temple of the Sun, and for the Colossus; this latter, in the days of Paul, was in ruins, having been overthrown by an earthquake. Its navy had done great and effectual service in the suppression of piracy in those seas.

In the days of Roman power, Rhodes still enjoyed a nominal freedom. It formally became a province of the Empire in the days of the Emperor Vespasian. In mediaeval story, Rhodes obtained a distinguished place as the home of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John, and then it was the last Christian city to make a stand against the Saracens. It now belongs to the Ottoman Turks, retains its ancient name, but little else of its former magnificence and power.

And from thence unto Patara. Patara, on the coast of Lydia, was the harbour of Xanthus, and, from its ruins, was a place of some importance and splendour. Here was a famous oracle of Apollo. This port is now an inland marsh.