With difficulty sailing along it we came to a certain place called Fair Havens, near the city of Lasea.
Parallel Translations
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With difficulty sailing along it we came to a certain place called Fair Havens, near the city of Lasea.
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and with moche worke sayled beyonde that and came vnto a place called good porte. Nye whervnto was a citie called Lasea.
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And with much adoe sayled beyond it, and came vnto a certaine place called the Faire hauens, neere vnto the which was the citie Lasea.
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Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 8 And, hardly passing it, came unto a place…
8 And, hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called The fair havens; nigh whereunto was the city of Lasea.
Ver. 8. Called The fair havens] Which name it retains also at this day, Calos Limenas: for better cause, I believe, than the sea called Pacific, or calm, which Sir Francis Drake ever found rough and troublous above measure.
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 The fair havens; or, the fair or good shore,…
The fair havens; or, the fair or good shore, that being accounted the best which is safest for ships to ride in or enter into. A place of this name remains to this day (as some tell us) in the island of Candia.
Lasea; called Lasos, and more inland; yet some think that this town is not certainly known, not having been mentioned by any ancient geographer.
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 hardly passing it,.... That is, Salmone, with great…
And hardly passing it,.... That is, Salmone, with great difficulty, because of the winds:
came unto a place which is called the Fair Havens; called by other writers Cale Acte, or the fair shore, and is placed by Ptolomy (c) in Eubaea, and by Herodotus (d) in Sicily; but by Stephanus (e) is said to be a city of the Cretians, and which agrees with this account;
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nigh whereunto was the city of Lasae; there was a city in Crete called by Solinus (f) Lisson, and by Ptolomy (g) Lyssus, which he places on the south side of the island; and by Pliny (h) Lasos, which comes pretty near to this name, but then he places it in the midland part of Crete; who also makes mention of an island called Lasia over against Troezenium, and another that was one of the Cyclades; the Syriac version here read, "Lasia": Jerom (i) says, Lasea is a city on the shore of the island of Crete, near the place which is called the Fair Havens, as Luke himself explains it; for which some corruptly read "Thalassa"; as do the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions; and the Alexandrian copy "Alassa": Beza conjectures that it is the same with Eloea, which Pliny makes mention of in the above cited place, as a city in Crete.
(c) De ordis Situ. l. 3. c. 15. (d) L. 6. c. 22. (e) De urbibus. (f) Polyhist. c. 16. (g) Ib. l. 3. c. 17. (h) L. 4. c. 12. (i) De locis Hebraicis, fol. 96. D.
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 The Fair Havens still retain the name. But the…
The Fair Havens still retain the name. But the city of Lasea is now utterly lost, together with many more of the hundred cities for which Crete was once so renowned.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 8. The Fair Havens] This port still remains,…
Verse 8. The Fair Havens] This port still remains, and is known by the same name; it was situated towards the northern extremity of the island.
Was the city of Lasea.] There is no city of this name now remaining: the Codex Alexandrinus reads αλασσα, Alassa; probably Lysia, near the port of Gortyna, to the eastward.
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, hardly passing it - Scarcely being able to…
And, hardly passing it - Scarcely being able to pass by it without being wrecked. Being almost driven on it. They passed round the east end of the island because they had been unable to sail directly forward between the island and the mainland,
The fair havens - This was on the southeastern part of the island of Crete. It was probably not so much a harbor as an open roadstead, which afforded good anchorage for a time. It is called by Stephen, the geographer, “the fair shore.” It still retains the name which it formerly had. It is called in ancient Dutch and French Sailing Directions “the beautiful bay.”
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Nigh whereunto was the city of Lasea - There was no town or city at the “Fair Havens,” but the city of Lasea seems to have been well known, and it is mentioned here to identify the place.
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 Called Good-havens, a port on the east part of…
Called Good-havens, a port on the east part of Crete, near the city of Thalassa, in the Greek text Lasea. (Witham)
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 And hardly passing it--"with difficulty coasting along it," from…
And hardly passing it--"with difficulty coasting along it," from the same cause as before, the westerly current and head winds.
came to . . . the Fair Havens--an anchorage near the center of the south coast, and a little east of Cape Matala, the southern most point of the island.
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nigh whereunto was the city Lasea--identified by the REVEREND GEORGE BROWN [SMITH, Voyages and Shipwreck of St. Paul, Appendix 3, Second Edition, 1856]. (To this invaluable book commentators on this chapter, and these notes, are much indebted).
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 8. The Fair Havens—After arriving at the southern shore…
8. The Fair Havens—After arriving at the southern shore of Crete, the first port, and that an indifferent one. From it, further west about five miles, was the Cape of Matala, projecting far into the sea, which would have to be passed with much danger in any farther progress. Lasea has lately been identified as the proper town of which Fair Havens is the port. (See chart.)
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 8. and hardly passing it] “Hardly” is in the…
8. and hardly passing it] “Hardly” is in the original the same word which was rendered “scarce” in the previous verse. Read (with R. V.) “with difficulty coasting along it.” The verb represents the voyage as made by keeping close in to the southern shores of the island.
came unto a place] i.e. on the coast of Crete. The Gk. gives (as R. V.) “a certain place.”
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which is called The fair havens] R. V. “called Fair Havens.” This place, though mentioned nowhere else in literature, yet is known by the same name still. It is on the south of Crete, four or five miles east of Cape Matala, which is the largest headland on that side of the island.
Lasea] This city has also been identified very recently. Its ruins were discovered in 1856, a few miles east of Fair Havens. See Smith’s Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul, App. iii. pp. 262, 263.
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 (8) And, hardly passing it.—The Greek adverb is the…
(8) And, hardly passing it.—The Greek adverb is the same as the “scarce” of Act_27:7, and should be translated as before, with difficulty.
A place which is called The fair havens.—It was obvious that the ship would have been again exposed, after passing Crete, or even its central promontory, Cape Matala, to the full force of the northwest gales. About two miles to the east of the promontory, however, and therefore sheltered by it, there was tolerably good anchorage, in a harbour known then and now as the Fair Havens (Limeônes kaloi).
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Nigh whereunto was the city of Lasea.—The comparative obscurity of the place has led to a large variety of readings of the name—Lassœa, Alassa, Thalassa, and other forms. Pliny mentions a city in Crete named Lasos, but does not describe its position. The remains of buildings, columns, the walls and foundations of temples have been found about two hours’ walk from the Fair Havens, under Cape Leonda, and are locally known as Lasea (Rev. G. Brown, in Smith’s Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, Appendix 3).
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 With difficulty coasting along it for hardly passing it,…
With difficulty coasting along it for hardly passing it, A.V.; we came for came, A.V.; a certain place called for a place which is called, A.V.; Fair for the Fair, A.V.. With difficulty coasting along it; paralegomenoi, only here and ver. 13. It is a nautical phrase, meaning to sail alongside of the coast. In Latin legere has the same meaning. The difficulty arose from their being under the lee of the island, which sheltered them from the north-west wind, but left them without any motive power. However, they managed to get as far as Fair Havens, where they anchored in the roadstead so called, near to an obscure and otherwise unknown town called Lasea, possibly the same as Lasos, mentioned by Pliny as one of the inland cities of Crete ("Nat. Hist.," 4. 12:20), or as Elaea (ibid.).
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 8-10. They seemed to have embarked from Caesarea in…
8-10. They seemed to have embarked from Caesarea in August, A. D. 58. Without steam-engines and mariner’s compass, subject to all the caprices and mutations of winds and tides, navigation was regarded as very unsafe after the autumnal equinox, celebrated by the Jews in a fast. Now, having been so detained by contrary winds, they have been caught out in the winter, the equinox having already passed, and Paul avails himself of God’s gift of prophecy to warn them against departing from the harbor called Fair Havens, in the island of Crete, assuring them of great perils and loss awaiting them.
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 7
See notes on verse 7
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.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 27:8 Fair Havens was a small bay on the…
27:8 Fair Havens was a small bay on the southern side of the island of Crete.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.