Matthew Henry on Acts 27:21–end
We have here the issue of the distress of Paul and his fellow-travellers; they escaped with their lives and that was all, and that was for Paul's sake. We are here told (Act 27:37) what number there were on board - mariners, merchants, soldiers, prisoners, and other passengers, in all two hundred and seventy-six souls; this is taken notice of to make us the more concerned for them in reading the story, that they were such a considerable number, whose lives were now in the utmost jeopardy, and one Paul among them worth more than all the rest. We left them in despair, giving up themselves for gone. Whether they called every man on his God, as Jonah's mariners did, we are not told; it is well i…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Acts 27:39
when it was day they knew not the land--This has been thought surprising in sailors accustomed to that sea. But the scene of the wreck is remote from the great harbor, and possesses no marked features by which it could be recognized, even by a native if he came unexpectedly upon it [SMITH], not to speak of the rain pouring in torrents (Act 28:2), which would throw a haze over the coast even after day broke. Immediately on landing they knew where they were (Act 28:1).
discovered a creek with a shore--Every creek of course, must have a shore; but the meaning is, a practicable shore, in a nautical sense, that is, one with a smooth beach, in contradistinction to a rocky coast (as Act 27:41 sho…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on Acts 27:39
They knew not the land - And therefore knew neither the nature of the coast, nor where the proper port lay.
A - creek with a shore - Κολπον, Sinum, a bay, with a shore; a neck of land perhaps on either side, running out into the sea, and this little bay or gulf between them; though some think it was a tongue of land, running out into the sea, having the sea on both sides, at the point of which these two seas met, Act 27:41. There is such a place as this in the island of Malta, where, tradition says, Paul was shipwrecked; and which is called la Cale de St. Paul. See Calmet.
