Handelingen 21:3

3 En als wij Cyprus in het gezicht gekregen, en dat aan de linker hand gelaten hadden, voeren wij naar Syrie, en kwamen aan te Tyrus; want het schip zoude aldaar den last ontladen.

Handelingen 21:3 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 21:3

Now when we had discovered Cyprus
An island, as the Syriac version here calls it, which lay between Syria and Cilicia; (See Gill on Acts 4:36); and was, according to R. Benjamin ^F12, four days sail from Rhodes, before mentioned:

we left it on the left hand,
and sailed into Syria; that part of it called Phoenicia:

and landed at Tyre;
the chief city of Phoenicia, famous for navigation and commerce: it stood about four furlongs distant from the shore, and was joined to the continent by Alexander the great {m}. The account Jerom ^F14 gives of it is this,

``Tyre, the metropolis of Phoenicia, in the tribe of Nephthalim, is near twenty miles from Caesarea Philippi; this was formerly an island, but made continent land by Alexander:--its chief excellency lies in shell fish and purple.''

It was a very ancient city, though it seems not so ancient as Sidon, from whence it was distant about two hundred furlongs. Herodotus ^F15 says, that in his time it had been inhabited two thousand three hundred years; Hiram was king of it in Solomon's time; yea, mention is made of it in Joshua's time, if the text in ( Joshua 19:29 ) is rightly translated: some say it was built seventy six years before the destruction of Troy. It is to be distinguished into old Tyre, which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the island of Tyre, which was conquered by Alexander, and new Tyre annexed, by him to the continent. In the Hebrew language it is called (rwu) , "Tzur", or "Tzor", which signifies a "rock", being built on one; though some think it has its name from (rwhu) , "Tzehor", which signifies "brightness"; it is now called Sur or Suri, and is quite desolate, being only a receptacle of thieves and robbers: though R. Benjamin says, in his time, new Tyre was a very good city, and had a port within it, into which ships go between two towers; and that there were in it four hundred Jews, and some of them skilful in the Talmud; --who further observes, that if anyone ascended the walls of new Tyre, he might see Tyre the crowning city, ( Isaiah 23:8 ) which was a stone's cast from the new; but if a man would go in a boat on the sea, he might see towers, streets, and palaces in the bottom ^F16:

for there the ship was to unlade her burden;
which she had taken in, in the ports where she had been, but where is not certain; for that she had been at Ephesus, and took in her lading there, as Grotius thinks, does not appear; since this was not the ship the apostle and his company sailed in from Miletus, but which they went aboard at Patara, ( Acts 21:1 Acts 21:2 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Itinerar. p. 30.
F13 Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 19. Mela, l. 1. c. 12.
F14 De locis Hebraicis, fol. 96. K.
F15 Euterpe, l. 2. c. 44.
F16 ltinerar. p. 35, 36.

Handelingen 21:3 In-Context

1 En als het geschiedde, dat wij van hen gescheiden en afgevaren waren, zo liepen wij rechtuit en kwamen te Kos, en den dag daaraan te Rhodus, en van daar te Patara.

2 En een schip gevonden hebbende, dat naar Fenicie overvoer, gingen wij er in en voeren af.

3 En als wij Cyprus in het gezicht gekregen, en dat aan de linker hand gelaten hadden, voeren wij naar Syrie, en kwamen aan te Tyrus; want het schip zoude aldaar den last ontladen.

4 En de discipelen gevonden hebbende, bleven wij daar zeven dagen; dewelke tot Paulus zeiden door den Geest, dat hij niet zou opgaan naar Jeruzalem.

5 Toen het nu geschiedde, dat wij deze dagen doorgebracht hadden, gingen wij uit, en reisden voort; en zij geleidden ons allen met vrouwen en kinderen tot buiten de stad; en aan den oever nederknielende, hebben wij gebeden.