Acts 27:18 - Exposition

As we labor ed exceedingly for being exceedingly tossed, A.V.; the storm for a tempest, A.V.; began to throw the freight overboard for lightened the ship, A.V. Labored ; χειμαζουμένων , only here in the New Testament; but used by Plato, Thucydides, Diodorus Siculus, Josephus, and others, and especially by medical writers. It is the passive voice, and this is best expressed by the A.V. "tossed." They began to throw , etc. The phrase ἐκβολὴν ἐποιοῦντο is one of the technical phrases for taking a cargo out of a ship, given by Julius Pollux; ἐκβολὴν ποιήσασθαι τῶν φορτίων (Alford, from Smith). It is also the phrase of the LXX . in Jonah 1:5 , ἐκβολὴν ἐποιήσαντο τῶν σκευῶν τῶν ἐν τῶ πλοίω . They began to expresses the imperfect. It is inferred from this, and the subsequent statement (verse 19) as to throwing overboard the tackling of the ship, that, in spite of the undergirding, the ship was leaking, and therefore heavy with water, and in danger of going down (comp. Jonah 1:5 ). The freight here mentioned may have been heavy packages of merchandise other than the main cargo of wheat (see Jonah 1:6 , note).