Acts 21:5

Acts 21:5. And when we had accomplished those days. That is, simply when the seven days at Tyre had come to an end.

We departed and went our way. Literally, ‘and were going on our way.' ‘The imperfect tense of the Greek verb bringing before us something like a procession wending its way from the city to the shore'(Plumptre).

And they all brought us on our way, with wives and children. Baumgarten observes that this is the first time, in the notice of a Christian Church, that children are mentioned that we have here the first recorded instance of Christianity pervading a whole family.

Till we were out of the city: and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed. It is uncertain whether or no there was a proseucha or chapel, a temporary place of prayer, here on the shore for the Christian brotherhood of Tyre, or whether it was simply that, as the Christians of Tyre were bidding farewell to Paul and his companions, they knelt down and prayed together. It is, however, certain that the Jews loved to pray on the seashore, and therefore it seems most probable that there was a ‘proseucha' on this spot. The following extract of Biscoe contains several trustworthy allusions from ancient writers on this point: ‘The sea-shore was esteemed by the Jews a place most pure, and therefore proper to offer up their prayers and thanksgiving to Almighty God. Philo tells us that the Jews of Alexandria, when Flaccus, the governor of Egypt, who had been their great enemy, was arrested by order of the Emperor Caius, not being able to assemble at their synagogues, which had been taken from them, crowded out at the gates of the city early in the morning, went to the neighbouring shores, and standing in a most pure place, with one accord lifted up their voices in praising God. Tertullian says that the Jews in his time, when they kept their great fast, left their synagogues, and on every shore sent forth their prayers to heaven (de Jejun. c. 16); and in another place, among the ceremonies used by the Jews, mentions orationes littorales, the prayers they made upon the shores (Adv. Nat. i. 13). And long before Tertullian's time there was a decree made at Halicarnassus in favour of the Jews, which, among other privileges, allows them to say their prayers near the shore, according to the custom of their country (Josephus, Ant. xiv. 10, 23). It is hence abundantly evident, that it was common with the Jews to choose the shore as a place highly fitting to offer up their prayers.'