Acts 27:41

41 et cum incidissemus in locum bithalassum inpegerunt navem et prora quidem fixa manebat inmobilis puppis vero solvebatur a vi maris

Acts 27:41 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 27:41

And falling into a place where two seas met
An "isthmus", on each side of which the sea ran; and which the inhabitants of Malta, as Beza says, show to this day, and call it, "la Cala de San Paulo", or the Descent of Saint Paul. The meeting of these two seas might occasion a great rippling in the sea like to a large eddy, or counter tide; and here might be a sand on which

they ran the ship aground;
for this place where the two seas met, as the same annotator observes, could not be the shore itself; for otherwise, to what purpose should they cast themselves into the sea, as they afterwards did, if the head of the ship struck upon the shore, and stuck fast there? but must rather mean a shelf of sand, opposite, or near the entrance into the bay, and where the shipwreck was.

And the fore part stuck fast, and remained unmovable;
so that there was no getting her off:

but the hinder part was broken by the violence of the waves;
that is, the stern; by which means there were boards and broken pieces for the company to get ashore upon.

Acts 27:41 In-Context

39 cum autem dies factus esset terram non agnoscebant sinum vero quendam considerabant habentem litus in quem cogitabant si possent eicere navem

40 et cum anchoras abstulissent committebant se mari simul laxantes iuncturas gubernaculorum et levato artemone secundum flatum aurae tendebant ad litus

41 et cum incidissemus in locum bithalassum inpegerunt navem et prora quidem fixa manebat inmobilis puppis vero solvebatur a vi maris

42 militum autem consilium fuit ut custodias occiderent ne quis cum enatasset effugeret

43 centurio autem volens servare Paulum prohibuit fieri iussitque eos qui possent natare mittere se primos et evadere et ad terram exire