7 And sailing slowly for many days, and having with difficulty got abreast of Cnidus, the wind not suffering us, we sailed under the lee of Crete abreast of Salmone;
And when they had been a long while without taking food, Paul then standing up in the midst of them said, Ye ought, O men, to have hearkened to me, and not have made sail from Crete and have gained this disaster and loss.
Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our own tongues the great things of God?
And the harbour being ill adapted to winter in, the most counselled to set sail thence, if perhaps they might reach Phoenice to winter in, a port of Crete looking north-east and south-east. And [the] south wind blowing gently, supposing that they had gained their object, having weighed anchor they sailed close in shore along Crete.
For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou mightest go on to set right what remained [unordered], and establish elders in each city, as *I* had ordered thee:
One of themselves, a prophet of their own, has said, Cretans are always liars, evil wild beasts, lazy gluttons.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Acts 27
Commentary on Acts 27 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 27
This whole chapter is taken up with an account of Paul's voyage towards Rome, when he was sent thither a prisoner by Festus the governor, upon his appeal to Caesar.
Act 27:1-11
It does not appear how long it was after Paul's conference with Agrippa that he was sent away for Rome, pursuant to his appeal to Caesar; but it is likely they took the first convenience they could hear of to do it; in the mean time Paul is in the midst of his friends at Caesarea-they comforts to him, and he a blessing to them. But here we are told,
Act 27:12-20
In these verses we have,
Act 27:21-44
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 (v. 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 if this laudable practice in a storm was not gone out of fashion and made a jest of. However, Paul among these seamen was not, like Jonah among his, the cause of the storm, but the comforter in the storm, and as much a credit to the profession of an apostle as Jonah was a blemish to the character of a prophet. Now here we have,