But coming to a place where two seas met, they ran the vessel aground. The bow struck and remained immovable, but the stern began to break up by the violence of the waves.
Parallel Translations
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But coming to a place where two seas met, they ran the vessel aground. The bow struck and remained immovable, but the stern began to break up by the violence of the waves.
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But they chaunsed on a place which had the see on bothe the sydes and thrust in the ship. And the foore parte stucke fast and moved not but the hynder brake with the violence of the waves.
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And when they fell into a place, where two seas met, they thrust in the ship: and the forepart stucke fast, and could not be moued, but the hinderpart was broken with the violence of the waues.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Acts 27:41 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ezekiel 27:26 Your rowers have brought you into great waters. The east wind has broken you in the heart of the seas.
- 2 Corinthians 11:25-26 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep. I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;
- 1 Kings 22:48 Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they didn’t go; for the ships wrecked at Ezion Geber.
- 2 Chronicles 20:37 Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have joined yourself with Ahaziah, Yahweh has destroyed your works.” The ships were wrecked, so that they were not able to go to Tarshish.
- Ezekiel 27:34 In the time that you were broken by the seas, in the depths of the waters, your merchandise and all your company fell within you.
- Acts 27:17 After they had hoisted it up, they used cables to help reinforce the ship. Fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis sand bars, they lowered the sea anchor, and so were driven along.
- Acts 27:26-29 But we must run aground on a certain island.” But when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven back and forth in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors surmised that they were drawing near to some land. They took soundings, and found twenty fathoms. After a little while, they took soundings again, and found fifteen fathoms. Fearing that we would run aground on rocky ground, they let go four anchors from the stern, and wished for daylight.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 41. They thrust in the ship. And then it…
41. They thrust in the ship. And then it might seem that both God had mocked Paul, and that he, with trifling, had brought his partners in a vain hope; but God did forthwith put away that error by giving them prosperous success. It was meet that when the ship was broken, they should be so discouraged, and that their souls should so melt, that despair might increase the glory of the miracle. For God useth to moderate and govern his works so, that he maketh some show of difficulty by reason of many lets [hindrances] which fall out. By this means he sharpeneth our senses unto greater attentiveness, that we may at length learn that, though all the world strive against him, yet will he have the victory. This is the reason why he had lieffer [rather] draw Paul and his companions to the shore after that the ship was lost, than bring the ship whole to land.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain So is Isthmus called, because the sea toucheth it…
So is Isthmus called, because the sea toucheth it on both sides.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 41 And falling into a place where two seas…
41 And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
Ver. 41. Where two seas met] The men of Malta show a certain place at this day which they call lascala di San Paulo, Saint Paul’s arrival.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain A place where two seas met; a shoal, sand…
A place where two seas met; a shoal, sand or isthmus, where the sea was on both sides of it. They were now in the greatest extremity; and God suffers them to fall into it before he sends them deliverance, that he might have the more glory by it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners,....…
And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners,.... Paul, and the rest: this they had not only an inclination to, but they declared it, and gave it as their opinion, and what they thought advisable to be done directly:
lest any of them should swim out and escape; and they should be accountable for them: but this was dreadful wickedness in them to seek to take away the lives of others, when they themselves were in so much danger; and monstrous ingratitude to the Apostle Paul, who had been so much concerned for their lives, and careful of them, and had been the means of saving them, and for whose sake they were saved: the devil must have had a great hand in this.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain A place where two seas met - Probably by…
A place where two seas met - Probably by reason of a sand bank running parallel with the shore.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 41. Where two seas meet] The tide running…
Verse 41. Where two seas meet] The tide running down from each side of the tongue of land, mentioned Ac 27:39, and meeting at the point.
Ran the ship aground] In striving to cross at this point of land, they had not taken a sufficiency of sea-room, and therefore ran aground.
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The forepart stuck fast] Got into the sands; and perhaps the shore here was very bold or steep, so that the stem of the vessel might be immersed in the quicksands, which would soon close round it, while the stern, violently agitated with the surge, would soon be broken to pieces. It is extremely difficult to find the true meaning of several of the nautical terms used in this chapter. I have given that which appeared to me to be the most likely; but cannot absolutely say that I have everywhere hit the true meaning.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And falling - Being carried by the wind and…
And falling - Being carried by the wind and waves.
Into a place where two seas met - Greek: into a place of a double sea - διθάλασσον dithalasson. That is, a place which was washed on both sides by the sea. It refers properly to an isthmus, tongue of land, or a sand-bar stretching out from the mainland, and which was washed on both sides by the waves. It is evident that this was not properly an isthmus that was above the waves, but was probably a long sand-bank that stretched far out into the sea, and which they did not perceive. In endeavoring to make the harbor, they ran into this bar (sand-bank).
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They ran the ship aground - Not designedly, but in endeavoring to reach the harbor, Act 27:39.The hinder part was broken - The stern was broken or staved in. By this means the company was furnished with boards, etc., on which they were safely conveyed to shore, Act 27:44.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Into a place where two seas met.[6] It happened…
Into a place where two seas met.[6] It happened that there was a neck or tongue of land, which being covered with the waves, they who were strangers to the coast did not discover: this stranded the ship, the prow sticking fast, and the poop being torn from it, so that the vessel split by the violence of the winds and sea. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
In locum dithalassum, Greek: eis topon dithalasson.
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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain falling into a place where two seas met--SMITH thinks…
falling into a place where two seas met--SMITH thinks this refers to the channel, not more than one hundred yards broad, which separates the small island of Salmone from Malta, forming a communication between the sea inside the bay and that outside.
the fore part stuck fast, and remained immovable--"The rocks of Malta disintegrate into extremely minute particles of sand and clay, which, when acted upon by the currents or surface agitation, form a deposit of tenacious clay; but, in still waters, where these causes do not act, mud is formed; but it is only in creeks, where there are no currents, and at such a depth as to be undisturbed by the waves, that the mud occurs. A ship, therefore, impelled by the force of a gale, into a creek, with such a bottom, would strike a bottom of mud, graduating into tenacious clay, into which the fore part would fix itself, and be held fast, while the stern was exposed to the force of the waves" [SMITH].
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hinder part was broken--The continued action denoted by the tense here is to be noted--"was fast breaking," going to pieces.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 41. Place where two seas met—Τοπον διθαλασσον; literally, if…
41. Place where two seas met—Τοπον διθαλασσον; literally, if we may coin a parallel term, a two-seaed place. The strait which divides Salmonetta from the mainland unites the outer sea with the inner St. Paul’s Bay. As the seamen sailed in from the east they mistook the just visible part of the mouth of the strait for a bay, and, thrusting their prow into the clayey shore, their stern took the force of the double-sea, still agitated by the storm.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 41. And falling into a place where two seas…
41. And falling into a place where two seas met] The conjunction should here be rendered adversatively “But.” The verse goes on to describe some circumstances which defeated the intention of the sailors. Read “But lighting upon a place, &c.” This is one of the features of the narrative by which the locality can almost certainly be identified. The little island of Salmonetta forms with the Maltese coast near St Paul’s Bay exactly such a position as is here described. From the sea at a little distance, it appears as though the land were all continuous, and the current between the island and the mainland is only discovered on a nearer approach. This current by its deposits has raised a mud-bank where its force is broken by the opposing sea, and into this bank, just at the place where the current meets the sea-waves, was the ship driven, the force of the water preventing the vessel from reaching the beach just beyond. So it came to pass that though they got much nearer to the shore than at first, yet after all they had to swim for their lives.
but the hinder part was broken] Read (as R. V.) “the stern began to break up.” The verb in the orginal expresses an incomplete and gradual process. When the foreship was immoveable, the stern would also be held fast, and so be acted on by the waves with great violence and begin to go to pieces.
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with the violence of the waves] The best MSS. do not represent the last three words. Of course they are to be understood, if they be not there.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (41) And falling into a place where two seas…
(41) And falling into a place where two seas met.—Better, But falling, as in contrast with the attempt described in the previous verse. At the west end of St. Paul’s Bay lies the island of Salmonetta. From their place of anchorage the crew could not have seen that it was an island, and in trying to run the ship on the beach they grounded on a mud-bank between the small island and the coast. The waves swept round the island and met on the bank, and the position of the ship was accordingly one of extreme danger, the prow imbedded in the mud, the stern exposed to the billows.
The hinder part was broken.—Better, was being broken up, the tense expressing continuous action.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain But lighting upon for and falling taro, A.V; vessel…
But lighting upon for and falling taro, A.V; vessel for ship, A.V.; fore-ship for forepart, A.V.; struck for stuck fast, A.V.; stern for hinder part, A.V.; began to break up for was broken with, A.V.. Where two seas met; topon diqalasson, only here, and in Dion Chrysostomus. The explanation of this "place where two seas met" is as follows: As the ship stood at anchor in the bay on the north-east side of the island, it would have the Koura Point (Ras el-Kaura) on its left, and on entering deeper into the bay westward, the little island of Salmonetta, or Selmoon, otherwise called Gzeier, would lie on its right, and would appear to be part of the island of Malta, from which it is separated by a narrow channel about a hundred yards in width. When, however, she was just coming upon the beach for which she was making, she would come opposite to this open channel, and the sea from the north would break upon her and meet the sea on the south side of the island, where the ship was. Here, then, they ran the vessel aground. jEpwkeilan, or, according to the R.T., ejpekeilan, is only found here in the Bible; but it is the regular word for running a ship aground, or ashore, in classical writers. jEpikellw has exactly the same meaning. The simple verbs keJllw and ojkellw are also both in use for running a ship to land. The foreship struck; ejreisasa, here only in the Bible, but very common in classical Greek. Its meaning here is not very different from its frequent medical meaning of a disease "fixing itself" and "settling" in some particular part of the body. Remained unmovable. "A ship impelled by the force of a gale into a creek with a bottom such as that laid down in Admiral Smyth"s chart of St. Paul"s Bay, would strike a bottom of mud graduating into tenacious clay, into which the forepart would fix itself and be held fast, whilst the stern was exposed to the force of the waves" (Smith, p. 144). Unmovable; ajsaleutov, only here and Heb_12:28, in the Bible; but common in Greek writers in the sense of "firm," "unmovable." Began to break up (ejlu) like solvo and dissolvo in Latin. The planks were loosened and disjoined. By the violence. The R.T. omits the words twn kumatwn, and so has bia alone, somewhat like ubriv in ver. 21.
The shipwreck of the soul.
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We are familiar with scenes of shipwreck; the stories read in childhood and the stern facts of later years bring them vividly before our minds. We see the gallant vessel, wall rigged and fitted from stem to stem, sailing forth on her mission of transport or merchandise, moving along under favor-able breezes, seeming likely to make the port where she is due; we see her overtaken by the storm, admitting the water which gains hour by hour upon her, sinking lower and lower, finally going down beneath the waves. But sad as this story is, there is a far more profound and pathetic sadness in the history, only too often to be told, of the shipwreck of a human soul. Bravely setting forth on the voyage of life, hopefully speeding on its course with helpful influences, promising to make its port on the other strand, we see it overtaken by the storm of some mastering temptation or falling into the irresistible current of some adverse spiritual force, and it makes melancholy shipwreck; instead of reaching its Fair Haven, it goes down into the waters of destruction. Some are wrecked in
I THEIR RELIGIOUS FAITH. They start on the voyage of life with that one chart in hand which alone can take them safely to their journey"s end the Word of the living God. Then they come into contact withfascinating but unbelieving companions; or they meet with a number of specious but shallow objections; or they look, with foolish and cruel persistency, on the one side of the difficulties, neglecting to pay proportionate attention to the arguments on the other side; and the end is that the vessel of their faith breaks up and at length goes down.
II THEIR MORAL HABITS. Trained in godly homes, our youths and maidens acquire habits of moral excellency; they enter active life, honest, pure, sober, reverent, prudent. But they encounter those hurtful and deadly influences which, after a while, if not at the first attack, lead them down to dishonesty, to impurity, to intemperance, to profanity, to the pestilent habit of gambling. Usually they "make shipwreck of a good conscience," as the vessel is drawn upon the relentless rocks when it is caught in the strong current from which it cannot escape. Slowly, going further and further in the wrong direction, by every movement getting more at the mercy of the foe, the vessel drifts to destruction.
III SPIRITUAL LIFE. One of the sad spectacles which we have often to witness is the decline and disappearance of the spiritual life which was in the soul. By degrees for this loss is commonly gradual reverence becomes weaker, zeal decays, sacred joy grows dim and dull, habits of devotion are relaxed, the regard for the will of Christ becomes feebler and less effective, until life is really gone, and the soul has become a spiritual wreck. The shipwreck of the soul is:
1. Inexpressibly sad. By how much the spiritual is greater than the material and the destinies of a human soul lager and longer than the fortune of a piece of human handiwork, by so much is the wreck of a soul a more pitiful thing than the loss of the noblest bark that ever foundered on the ocean.
2. Not absolutely final. Sometimes, but very seldom, a sunken vessel is raised, and "ploughs the main" once more; sometimes, but seldom, a soul that has lost faith, virtue, piety, is raised up from the deep, and sails again on its voyage, and attains its port. Let none presume; let none despair.
3. An evil that may always be averted. The mind that is open to the truth which is before it, that keeps clear of the dangers of which it is warned, that uses the spiritual resources which the generous Lord has supplied, will not make shipwreck, but reach, unharmed and safe, the heavenly harbor. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 41. “And falling into a place where two seas…
41. “And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the prow indeed being broken, remained motionless, and the stern was torn off by the violence of the waves.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain See notes on verse 39
See notes on verse 39
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.