Acts 27:40-44
slipped <4014> [taken up, etc. or, cut the anchors, they left them in the sea, etc.]
linkage ..... steering oars <4079 2202> [the rudder bands.]
Or, "the bands of the rudders;" for large vessels in ancient times had two or more rudders, which were fastened to the ship by means of bands, or chains, by which they were hoisted out of the water when incapable of being used. These bands being loosed, the rudders would fall into their proper places, and serve to steer the vessel into the creek, which they had in view, and hoisted.
ran .... aground <2027> [they ran.]
was being broken up <3089> [broken.]
wanting <1014> [willing.]
brought safely <1295> [that.]
land <1093> [land.]
Melita, now Malta, the island on which Paul and his companions were cast, is situate in the Mediterranean sea, about fifty miles from the coast of Sicily, towards Africa; and is one immense rock of soft white free-stone, twenty miles long, twelve in its greatest breadth, and sixty in circumference. Some, however, with the learned Jacob Bryant, are of opinion that this island was Melita in the Adriatic gulf, near Illyricum; but it may be sufficient to observe, that the course of the Alexandrian ship, first to Syracuse and then to Rhegium, proves that it was the present Malta, as the proper course from the Illyrian Melita would have been first to Rhegium, before it reached Syracuse, to which indeed it need not have gone at all.
