Acts 27:34

34 Therefore I urge you to take some food. For this has to do with your survival, since not a hair will be lost from the head of any of you."

Acts 27:34 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 27:34

Wherefore I pray you to take some meat
To sit down composedly, and eat meat cheerfully and freely:

for this is for your health;
the Alexandrian copy reads, "for our health"; it was for the health of them all, that they might be better able to bear the shock and fatigue of the shipwreck, and be in better spirits, and in a better capacity to help themselves, and one another:

for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you;
a proverbial phrase, expressing the utmost safety of their lives, and therefore might cheerfully eat their food, and rest themselves, and be satisfied. To dream of shaving the hair, portended shipwreck to sailors; nor was it lawful for any to pare his nails, or cut off his hair, but in a storm; to which custom, some think, the apostle here alludes ^F23; see ( 1 Samuel 14:45 ) ( 2 Samuel 14:11 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 Kirchman. de funer. Rom. l. 2. c. 14. p. 212, 213.

Acts 27:34 In-Context

32 Then the soldiers cut the ropes holding the skiff and let it drop away.

33 When it was just about daylight, Paul urged them all to take food, saying, "Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, having eaten nothing.

34 Therefore I urge you to take some food. For this has to do with your survival, since not a hair will be lost from the head of any of you."

35 After he said these things and had taken some bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of them all, and when he had broken it, he began to eat.

36 They all became encouraged and took food themselves.