And when neither sun nor stars in many days
appeared
The Syriac version adds, "nor moon"; which is an usual
description of dark, cloudy, and tempestuous seasons; and which
was not only uncomfortable to them, because they could not see
these luminaries, and enjoy their beneficial light and influence;
but because they had them not to guide and direct them; for the
sun, moon, and stars, are useful to sailors, to steer their
course by; especially they were to the ancients, before the
invention and use of the loadstone; besides, by these they
conjectured what weather it would be, as mariners still do; they
observed the rising and setting of the sun, whether it shone with
equal rays or not, and whether it was red and fiery, or pale; and
the like observations they made upon the moon, both as to its
colour and size; and especially the constellations and stars were
of singular use unto them; and above all, the two Bears, the
greater and the lesser; the Greeks observed the former, and the
Phoenicians the latter; and who are said by Pliny to have first
found out the use of the constellations in navigation;
particularly this is ascribed to the famous philosopher Thales,
who is said to be a Phoenician; and from other constellations, as
Arcturus, Orion, Hyades they foresaw rains, storms, and tempests:
and now what made the case of the apostle and the ship's company
the more distressing was, that it was not only dark and cloudy,
but very tempestuous, as follows;
and no small tempest lay on us;
and all this continued many days: so Virgil F6
represents Aeneas and his company in a like condition at sea, as
not able by the heavens to distinguish day from night, nor to
direct their course, neither sun nor stars appearing, and so
wandered about in the sea three days without the sun, and as many
nights without a star; and Homer F7 describes Ulysses in a
violent storm at sea, and for the space of nine days tossed
about, when on the tenth day he got to land; and Sosia, in
Terence F8, is brought in saying, that he had
been thirty days in a ship, expecting death every moment, so
boisterous was the storm he was in; and so it was in this case,
the winds blew hard upon them, and the rains fell with great
violence, and everything was discouraging and distressing;
insomuch that
all hope that we should be saved was then taken
away;
neither the master and owner of the ship, nor the mariners, nor
the soldiers, nor prisoners, nor the apostle's companions, had
any hope of being saved, but all expected to be lost. The apostle
himself knew indeed, that though the ship would be lost, every
man's life would be saved; and yet he could have no hope of this,
as to the outward appearance of things, but on account of the
revelation which the Lord had made to him, and he believed;
otherwise, as to all human helps and means, there was no
probability of an escape.
F6 Aeneid. l. 3.
F7 Odyss. 9.
F8 Hecyra, Act. 3. Scen. 4.