Clarke's Bible Commentary - Acts 27:5
Verse 5. Pamphylia] See on chap. ii. 10. Myra, a city of Lycia.] The name of this city is written variously in the MSS., Myra, Murrha, Smyra, and Smyrna. Grotius conjectures that all these names are corrupted, and that it should be written Limyra, which is the name both of a river and city in Lycia. It is certain that, in common conversation, the first syllable, li, might be readily dropped, and then Myra, the word in the text, would remain. Strabo mentions both Myra and Limyra, lib. xiv. p. 666. The former, he says, is twenty stadia from the sea, epi metewrou lofou, upon a high hill: the latter, he says, is the name of a river; and twenty stadia up this river is the town Limyra itself. These places were not far distant, and one of them is certainly meant.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 5. And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia , etc.] For these two seas joined, as Pliny says f1253 , mare Pamphylium Cilicio jungitur, the Pamphylian sea is joined to the Cilician; and in another place he observes, that in the Pamphylian sea were islands of no note, and in the Cilician sea of the five chiefest was Cyprus (an island mentioned in the preceding verse), and a little after, the sea of Cilicia is distant from Anemurius fifty miles: we came to Myra a city of Lycia ; not Limyra in Lycia, though that lay by the sea side; for according both to Pliny and Ptolomy f1256 , Limyra and Myra were two distinct places in Lycia; which was a country, according to the latter, which had on the west and north Asia; (according to others, Caria on the west, and part of Lydia on the north;) on the east part of Pamphylia, and on the south the Lycian sea, or, as others, the Rhodian sea: much less was this the city of Smyrna, as some have said, which lay another way in Ionia, over against the Aegean sea; and still less Lystra, as the Alexandrian copy and Vulgate Latin version read, which was in Lycaonia, and in the continent many miles from the sea: Lycia was a country of the lesser Asia, and lay between Caria and Pamphylia, and so it is mentioned with Caria and Pamphylia, in: And to all the countries and to Sampsames, and the Lacedemonians, and to Delus, and Myndus, and Sicyon, and Caria, and Samos, and Pamphylia, and Lycia, and Halicarnassus, and Rhodus, and Aradus, and Cos, and Side, and Aradus, and Gortyna, and Cnidus, and Cyprus, and Cyrene. (1 Maccabees 15:23) and the Carians, Pamphylians, and Lycians, are frequently put together in history; and the Lycians are said to be originally of Crete, and to have their name from Lycus the son of Pandion; though some think that Lycia took its name a luce, from light, and of this country Myra was the metropolis: Ptolomy calls it Myrra, as if it had the signification of myrrhe; and so Jerom or Origen reads it here, and interprets it bitter; but Pliny and others call it Myra, as here, and it signifies ointment; and here the apostle staying some time, though it cannot be said how long, no doubt opened the box of the precious ointment of the Gospel, and diffused the savour of it in this place; for in the beginning of the fourth century, in Constantines time, we read of one Nicolaus, a famous man, bishop of Myra in Lycia, who was present at the council of Nice, and there showed the scars and marks upon him, because of his constant confession of Christ under Maximinus; in the fifth century there was a bishop of this place, whose name was Romanus, and was in two synods, in the infamous one at Ephesus, where he favoured Eutyches, and in that at Chalcedon; in the sixth century mention is made of a bishop of this church in the acts of the synod at Rome and Constantinople; in the seventh century, Polyeuctus, bishop of Myra, was in the sixth synod at Constantinople, and in this century Myra was the metropolitan church of Lycia; in the eighth century, Theodorus, bishop of it, was in the Nicene synod; and in the ninth century this place was taken by the Saracens f1259 .
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-11 - It was determined by the counsel of God, before it was determined by the counsel of Festus, that Paul should go to Rome; for God had wor for him to do there. The course they steered, and the places the touched at, are here set down. And God here encourages those who suffe for him, to trust in him; for he can put it into the hearts of those to befriend them, from whom they least expect it. Sailors must make the best of the wind: and so must we all in our passage over the ocean of this world. When the winds are contrary, yet we must be getting forwar as well as we can. Many who are not driven backward by cros providences, do not get forward by favourable providences. And man real Christians complain as to the concerns of their souls, that the have much ado to keep their ground. Every fair haven is not a saf haven. Many show respect to good ministers, who will not take their advice. But the event will convince sinners of the vanity of their hopes, and the folly of their conduct.
Greek Textus Receptus
το 3588 T-ASN τε 5037 PRT πελαγος 3989 N-ASN το 3588 T-ASN κατα 2596 PREP την 3588 T-ASF κιλικιαν 2791 N-ASF και 2532 CONJ παμφυλιαν 3828 N-ASF διαπλευσαντες 1277 5660 V-AAP-NPM κατηλθομεν 2718 5627 V-2AAI-1P εις 1519 PREP μυρα 3460 N-APN της 3588 T-GSF λυκιας 3073 N-GSF
Robertson's NT Word Studies
27:5 {When we had sailed across} (diapleusantes). First aorist active participle of diaplew (another compound of plew). {The sea which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia} (to pelagos to kata ten kilikian kai pamfulian). pelagos is properly the high sea as here. In #Mt 18:6 (which see) Jesus uses it of "the depth of the sea." Only these examples in the N.T. The current runs westward along the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia and the land would protect from the wind. {We came to Myra of Lycia} (katelqamen eis murra tes lukias). Literally, "We came down." this town was two and a half miles from the coast of Lycia. The port Andriace had a fine harbor and did a large grain business. No disciples are mentioned here nor at Lasea, Melita, Syracuse, Rhegium.
