Acts 27:40 - Exposition

Casting off for when they had taken up, A.V.; they left them in the sea for they committed themselves unto the sea, A.V.; at the same time loosing the bands of the rudders for and loosed the rudder bands, A.V.; hoisting for hoised, A.V.; foresail for mainsail, A.V. ; for the beach for toward shore, A.V. This verse, so obscure before, has been made intelligible by the masterly labors of Smith, of Jordan Hill. We will first explain the separate words. Casting off ( περιελόντες ) . The verb περριαιρέω occurs in Acts 27:20 ; in 2 Corinthians 3:16 ; and in Hebrews 10:11 ; and in all those passages is rendered " taken away." So also in the LXX ., where it is of frequent use, it means " take away," " put away," " remove, " and the like. In classical Greek it means to " take away," "take off," "strip off." Here, then, applied to the anchors which were firmly embedded in the very strong clay at the bottom of the sea off Koura Point, περιελόντες τὰς ἀγκύρας means "putting away" or "casting off" the anchors by cutting the cables which fastened them to the ship, and, as it follows, leaving them in the sea , or, more literally, giving them up, dismissing them into the sea ( εἴων εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν ) ; c omp. Acts 5:38 . Loosing the bands of the rudders . "The ships of the Greeks and Romans, like those of the early Northmen were not steered by a single rudder, but by two paddle-rudders". These paddle-rudders had been hoisted up and lashed, lest they should foul the anchors at the stern. But now, when the free use of them was absolutely necessary to steer the ship toward the beach, they unloosed the lashings, i . e. "the bands of the rudders," and at the same time they hoisted up the foresail. The foresail ; τὸν ἀρτέμονα , a word found only here in this sense, but used in Vitruvius for a "pulley," and so explained in Ducange. But artimon was till recently used in Venice and Genoa as the name of the large sail of a vessel. In the Middle Ages artimonium was the "foremast," mat de prone; but it was also used of the foresail," Velum naris breve, quod quia melius levari potest, in summo periculo extenditur " (Ducange). They hoisted the foresail both to give them sufficient way to run on to the beach, and to give precision to their steering. (For a further account of the ἀρτεμών , or foresail, see Smith, of Jordan Hill.)