Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 27:5
And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, [a city] of Lycia.
5. the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia ] R. V., more correctly, “the sea which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia.” These two countries formed the coast of Asia Minor in that portion which is opposite Cyprus.
Myra ] Lies about 20 stadia (2 miles) from the coast on the river Andriacus.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia – The sea which lies off the, coast from these two regions. For their situation, see the notes on Act 6:9, and Act 13:13.
We came to Myra, a city of Lycia – Lycia was a province in the southwestern part of Asia Minor, having Phrygia and Pisidia on the north, the Mediterranean on the south, Pamphylia on the east, and Carla on the west.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. Pamphylia] See Clarke on Ac 2:10.
Myra, a city of Lycia.] The name of this city is written variously in the MSS., Myra, Murrha, Smyra, and Smyrna. Grotius conjectures that all these names are corrupted, and that it should be written Limyra, which is the name both of a river and city in Lycia. It is certain that, in common conversation, the first syllable, li, might be readily dropped, and then Myra, the word in the text, would remain. Strabo mentions both Myra and Limyra, lib. xiv. p. 666. The former, he says, is twenty stadia from the sea, , upon a high hill: the latter, he says, is the name of a river; and twenty stadia up this river is the town Limyra itself. These places were not far distant, and one of them is certainly meant.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia; that part of the Mediterranean that borders on those provinces.
Cilicia; of which see Act 6:9; 15:23,41.
Pamphylia; mention is made of this province, Act 2:10; 13:13.
Lycia; another province in the lesser Asia, bordering on Pamphylia.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. when we had sailed over the Seaof Cilicia and Pamphyliacoasts with which Paul had been longfamiliar, the one, perhaps, from boyhood, the other from the time ofhis first missionary tour.
we came to Myra, a city ofLyciaa port a little east of Patara (see on Ac21:1).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia,…. For these two seas joined, as Pliny says f, “mare Pamphylium Cilicio jungitur”, the Pamphylian sea is joined to the Cilician; and in another place g he observes, that in the Pamphylian sea were islands of no note, and in the Cilician sea of the five chiefest was Cyprus (an island mentioned in the preceding verse), and a little after, the sea of Cilicia is distant from Anemurius fifty miles:
we came to Myra a city of Lycia; not Limyra in Lycia, though that lay by the sea side; for according both to Pliny h and Ptolomy i, Limyra and Myra were two distinct places in Lycia; which was a country, according to the latter, which had on the west and north Asia; (according to others, Caria on the west, and part of Lydia on the north;) on the east part of Pamphylia, and on the south the Lycian sea, or, as others, the Rhodian sea: much less was this the city of Smyrna, as some have said, which lay another way in Ionia, over against the Aegean sea; and still less Lystra, as the Alexandrian copy and Vulgate Latin version read, which was in Lycaonia, and in the continent many miles from the sea: Lycia was a country of the lesser Asia, and lay between Caria and Pamphylia, and so it is mentioned with Caria and Pamphylia, in:
“And to all the countries and to Sampsames, and the Lacedemonians, and to Delus, and Myndus, and Sicyon, and Caria, and Samos, and Pamphylia, and Lycia, and Halicarnassus, and Rhodus, and Aradus, and Cos, and Side, and Aradus, and Gortyna, and Cnidus, and Cyprus, and Cyrene.” (1 Maccabees 15:23)
and the Carians, Pamphylians, and Lycians, are frequently put together in history; and the Lycians are said k to be originally of Crete, and to have their name from Lycus the son of Pandion; though some think that Lycia took its name “a luce”, from light, and of this country Myra was the metropolis: Ptolomy calls it Myrra, as if it had the signification of “myrrhe”; and so Jerom or Origen l reads it here, and interprets it “bitter”; but Pliny and others call it Myra, as here, and it signifies “ointment”; and here the apostle staying some time, though it cannot be said how long, no doubt opened the box of the precious ointment of the Gospel, and diffused the savour of it in this place; for in the beginning of the “fourth” century, in Constantine’s time, we read of one Nicolaus, a famous man, bishop of Myra in Lycia, who was present at the council of Nice, and there showed the scars and marks upon him, because of his constant confession of Christ under Maximinus; in the “fifth” century there was a bishop of this place, whose name was Romanus, and was in two synods, in the infamous one at Ephesus, where he favoured Eutyches, and in that at Chalcedon; in the “sixth” century mention is made of a bishop of this church in the acts of the synod at Rome and Constantinople; in the “seventh” century, Polyeuctus, bishop of Myra, was in the sixth synod at Constantinople, and in this century Myra was the metropolitan church of Lycia; in the “eighth” century, Theodorus, bishop of it, was in the Nicene synod; and in the ninth century this place was taken by the Saracens m.
f Hist. l. 5. c. 27. g Ib. c. 31. h Ib. c. 27. i Geograph. l. 5. c. 3. k Herodotus, l. 1. c. 173. & l. 7. c. 92. Pausanias, l. 1. p. 33. & l. 7. p. 401. l De Hebraicis Nominibus, fol. 106. A. m Magdeburg. Eccl. Hist. cent. 4. c. 2. p. 3. c. 10. p. 552. cent. 5. c. 2. p. 3. c. 10. p. 588. cent. 6. c. 2. p. 4. cent. 7. c. 2. p. 3. c. 7. p. 112. c. 10. p. 254. cent. 8. c. 2. p. 4. cent. 9. c. 3. p. 13.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When we had sailed across (). First aorist active participle of (another compound of ).
The sea which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia ( ). is properly the high sea as here. In Mt 18:6 (which see) Jesus uses it of “the depth of the sea.” Only these examples in the N.T. The current runs westward along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia and the land would protect from the wind.
We came to Myra of Lycia ( ). Literally, “We came down.” This town was two and a half miles from the coast of Lycia. The port Andriace had a fine harbour and did a large grain business. No disciples are mentioned here nor at Lasea, Melita, Syracuse, Rhegium.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And when we sailed over,” (to diapleusantes) “Then when we had sailed over,” or across.
2) “The sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia,” (te pelogos kata ten Kilikian kai Pampulian) “The sea against (near) Cilicia and Pamphylia,” north of Cyprus and Sidon, an area familiar to Paul from his boyhood and his first missionary tour, Act 12:13.
3) “We came to Myra, a city of Lycia,” (katelehamen eis Mura tes Lukias) “We came down to Myra which is a city of Lycia,” a seaport of southwest Asia Minor, docking there. Myra was 2 or 3 miles from Lycia, with a rock tomb and magnificent ruins in the area. It was a little east of Patara, Act 21:1.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
6.
AT MYRA. Act. 27:5-6.
Act. 27:5
And when we had sailed across the sea which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia.
Act. 27:6
And there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy; and he put us therein.
Act. 27:5. The southwest wind which, at the start, had been favorable for sailing now made the voyage painfully tedious since they turned west-ward after running north for a time from Sidon, but at last they reached Myra, their next port of call. (Cunningham Geikie, Vol. III, pages 475476).
Here is a fine quotation concerning the town of Myra (Cf. 476, Geikie): One of the chief towns of Lycia, it lay where the coast forms a slight bay just before it turns north as the west face of Asia Minor, bordering the Aegean or, as we say, the Grecian Archipelago. An open-air theatre, 355 feet in diameter, many fine public buildings, and numerous stately tombs, enriched with statues and elaborate carving, then attracted the eye on entering its, portAndriaca, two and a half miles from the town itself, which lay on the slope of a hill, setting off its every detail. The old name is still known, though the Turks call it Dembre; but its present squalor contrasts painfully with the splendour of the ruins which speak of what it was under the Romans.
974.
Give two facts about Myra.
Act. 27:6. But what was a ship from Alexandria Egypt doing here? And this ship was sailing for Italy. Was it not away off its course? Indeed, it was. The same wind that troubled the ship from Adramyttium had blown this great vessel off its course.
As to what the ship looked like, I refer you again to Geikie:
Ships, in Pauls day, were as various in their size, within certain limits, as they are now, that in which on this voyage, he was wrecked at Malta carrying two hundred and seventy-six persons and a cargo of wheat; a dangerous one even now; I, myself, having narrowly escaped shipwreck between the Dardanelles and Malta, by its shifting. Josephus tells us that the vessel in which he was sailing to Italy carried 600 persons and it, like that of Paul, was lost, going down in the Adriatic so suddenly that Josephus and the rest swam for their lives all that night just as Paul had once done. Lucian further helps us to realize the marine of those days by the account he gives of a corn-ship of Alexandria, which had come to the Piraeusa large, indeed an immense ship. The ship carpenter told him, he says, that it was 120 cubitsthat is, say, 180 feet long; its breadth over 30 cubits, or over 45 feet, and its depth 29 cubits or, say, 43 feet. Its lofty mast, for he mentions only onewas wonderful and so was its yard. The ropes from it to the hull were a sight to see and so was the curved stern rising high, like a birds neck, at the one end and the prow, of similar shape to balance it at the other end, Its nameThe Goddess Isisshone out on both sides of the bow with such artistic ornamentation, while the top he said was of flame color and on the deck the eye was attracted, in the fore part of the ship, by the anchors, the windlasses and such like, and on the poop by the cabins and offices. The great merchantmen of the Phoenicians known as Tarshish ships had been famous in the day of Ezekiel and it is not probable that shipbuilding had lost its skill in the advance of 600 years, and hence we may safely conclude that the docks and harbors of that first century saw vessels which, for costliness and splendor, though not in outline or scientific structure, would even now have been the pride of their owners and of their crews. (pp. 46970, III)
This ship from Alexandria was to complete its voyage and it was the very one Julius wanted for their destination. So Paul and his companions were put aboard. All together there were 276 persons on board this wheat ship.
975.
How would it be possible to find a ship from Egypt at this place?
976.
Give three facts concerning the ship on which Paul was to sail.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(5) We came to Myra, a city of Lycia.The city lay about two miles and a half from the mouth of the river Andriacus. It had been at one time the metropolis of Lycia, and the remains of a theatre and an aqueduct remain to attest its former stateliness.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Sailed over Sailed through. As they rounded the island a favouring breeze would, according to the usual fact, come from the southeastern coast of Asia Minor. But a special aid was derived from a strong coast current which here sets in westwardly, bearing the ship rapidly along.
Myra Entering a river whose channel had been broadened into a port, rendered securer for ships by a cross chain, and ascending the stream two miles and a half, they found the city of Myra, the metropolis of Lycia, situated upon an eminence, and overlooking a broad plain. So late as the twelfth century this city was the great port of the Adriatic, as Constantinople was of the AEgean. It is now a desolation. See Frontispiece Map.
‘And when we had sailed across the sea which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia.’
From there they sailed across to the Asian coast, to Myra, a city of Lycia, a small district on the south coast of Asia Minor with a varied history, and thoroughly hellenised. Its port was Andriaca, which was regularly used by grain ships from Egypt. There they left the ship they were on and sought another which would take them to Italy.
Act 27:5. When we had sailed, &c. When we had traversed the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we arrived at Myra, &c.
5 And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia.
Ver. 5. And when we had sailed ] These things are therefore particularly set down, that we may see Paul’s perils by sea no less than by land; and say with Solomon, “No man knoweth either love or hatred” by all that befalleth him, Ecc 9:1 . See Trapp on “ Ecc 9:1 “
5. ] , Strabo xiv. 3, , , . The neighbourhood is full of magnificent ruins; see Sir C. Fellows’s Lycia, ch. 9. The name still remains. The various readings merely shew that the copyists were unacquainted with the place.
Act 27:5 . . . .: the ship in its northerly course would reach the coast of Cilicia, and then creep slowly along from point to point along the Cilician and Pamphylian coast, using the local land breezes when possible, and the current constantly running to the westward along the southern coast (Ramsay, J. Smith, Breusing). Blass takes as “mare vaste patens” and thinks that the ship did not coast along the shore, but J. Smith gives several instances of ships following St. Paul’s route. On the additional reading in [409] text see critical note. : two and a half miles from the coast of Lycia; on the spelling see critical notes. On its importance as one of the great harbours in the corn trade between Egypt and Rome see Ramsay, St. Paul , p. 298, 318, Lewin, Saint Paul , ii. 186, and for later notices Zckler, in loco . As a good illustration of the voyage of the Adramyttian and Alexandrian ship see Lucian’s dialogue, , 7 9; Ramsay, p. 319; Breusing, 152.
[409] R(omana), in Blass, a first rough copy of St. Luke.
sailed over = sailed across. Greek. diapleo. Only here.
sea of, &c. = sea which is along (Greek. kata. App-104.) Cilicia, &c.
came = came down, or landed, as in Act 18:22.
to = unto. Greek. eis. App-104.
5. ] , Strabo xiv. 3,- , , . The neighbourhood is full of magnificent ruins; see Sir C. Fellowss Lycia, ch. 9. The name still remains. The various readings merely shew that the copyists were unacquainted with the place.
Act 27:5. ) the deep sea, more remote from the land. In antithesis to, we sailed under.
Cilicia: Act 6:9, Act 15:23, Act 15:41, Act 21:39, Act 22:3, Gal 1:21
Pamphylia: Act 2:10, Act 13:13, Act 15:38
Myra: Myra was a city of Lycia, situated on a hill, twenty stadia from the sea.
5
Act 27:5. Sea of Cilicia and Pam-phylia means the waters bordering on those provinces. Passing on they landed at Myra in Lycia, another province of the Roman Empire.
Act 27:5. The sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia. The exactitude of this geographical order, and the perfectly artless manner in which this exactitude appears, should be marked.
Myra, a city of Lycia. Again we should notice the placing of Lycia correctly, yet without any artifice, immediately to the west of Pamphylia. As to Myra, this was a well-known seafaring town in the day of St. Paul. It is worth while to observe that Nicholas, one of its Christian bishops in the fourth century, became in the Middle Ages the favourite patron saint of sailors.
5, 6. Passing around the north-east point of Cyprus, the vessel entered the open to the south of Cilicia and Pamphylia. (5) “And when we had sailed across the sea along Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. (6) There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria, sailing for Italy, and put us on board of it.” Thus, according to expectation, they fell in with a vessel bound for Italy, and left the ship of Adramyttium. Their new vessel was one of the many grain ships which supplied Rome with bread from the granaries of Egypt. She was a vessel of good size, accommodating, on this voyage, two hundred and seventy-six passengers. She had, probably, undertaken to sail direct from Alexandria to Rome; but the same contrary winds which had thus far retarded the progress of the other vessel had compelled her to sail far to the northward of the direct route.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)