Acts 21:6

And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) We took ship.—Literally, we embarked in the ship. The article probably, though not necessarily, indicates that they went in the same ship that had brought them, and which, after discharging her cargo at Tyre, was now bound for Cæsarea.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

21:1-7 Providence must be acknowledged when our affairs go on well. Wherever Paul came, he inquired what disciples were there, and found them out. Foreseeing his troubles, from love to him, and concern for the church, they wrongly thought it would be most for the glory of God that he should continue at liberty; but their earnestness to dissuade him from it, renders his pious resolution the more illustrious. He has taught us by example, as well as by rule, to pray always, to pray without ceasing. Their last farewell was sweetened with prayer.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Had accomplished those days - When those days were passed.

They all brought us on our way - They attended us. See the Acts 15:3 note; Romans 15:24 note; 1 Corinthians 16:6, 1 Corinthians 16:11 notes; 3 John 1:6 note. This was an expression of tender attachment, and of a deep interest in the welfare of Paul and his fellow-travelers.

We kneeled down - See the notes on Acts 20:36.

On the shore - Any place may be proper for prayer. See the notes on John 4:21-24. God is everywhere, and can as easily hear prayer on the seashore as in the most magnificent temple. This is an instance, as well as that in Acts 20:36, where the apostle evidently prayed with the church without a form of prayer. No man can believe that he thus poured forth the desires of his heart at parting, and commended them to God in a prescribed form of words. Scenes like this show more clearly than abstract arguments could do that such a form was not needed, and would not be used. Paul and his fellow-Christians, on the sand of the sea-shore, would pour forth the gushing emotions of their souls in language such as their circumstances would suggest, and no man can read this narrative in a dispassionate manner without believing that they offered an extempore prayer.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. they all brought us on our way with wives and children … and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed—(See on [2082]Ac 20:36). Observe here that the children of these Tyrian disciples not only were taken along with their parents, but must have joined in this act of solemn worship. See on [2083]Eph 6:1.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Had taken our leave one of another; as Acts 20:1, embracing one another at their parting.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And when we had taken our leave one of another,.... The Alexandrian copy reads, "having prayed, we saluted one another"; with a kiss, as in Acts 20:37 and so parted:

we took ship; or went aboard the ship,

and they returned home again; to their own houses, as the Syriac version renders it; for by "their own", as it is in the Greek text, cannot be meant their families, their wives, and children, for these were along with them, but their habitations; see John 16:32.

Geneva Study Bible

And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 21:6. R.V. ἀπησπασάμεθα ἀλλ. “bade each other farewell,” see critical note. ἀπασπάζομαι: only here in N.T., in Tobit 10:13 ([351] [352] al[353]); Himerius, p. 194; here of salutations at departure as simple verb in Acts 21:7, of salutations on arrival (1Ma 12:17).—τὸ πλοῖον: article indicates that it was the same ship (Acts 21:2 without the article) which was going on to Ptolemais.—εἰς τὰ ἴδια, cf. John 16:32; John 19:27, cf. [354] text Acts 5:18, Acts 14:18 (τὰ ἴδια not in Synoptists, but cf. Luke 18:28), in LXX, Esther 5:10; Esther 6:12Esther 6:12, 3Ma 6:27; 3Ma 6:37; 3Ma 7:8.

[351] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[352] Codex Cryptoferratensis (sæc. vii.), a palimpsest fragment containing chap. Acts 11:9-19, edited by Cozza in 1867, and cited by Tischendorf.

[353] Alford’s Greek Testament.

[354] R(omana), in Blass, a first rough copy of St. Luke.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. The best text requires here for the last clause, “and we went on board the ship, but they returned home again.” There is nothing in the Greek to tell us whether the ship was the same in which they had come, or not.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 21:6. Ἀσπασάμενοι having mutually taken leave) With this word are connected both ἀνέβημεν. we embarked, and ὑπέστρεψαν, they returned.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - And bade each other farewell; and we went on board the ship, but, etc., for and when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and, etc., A.V. and T.R. The ἀπασπάζεσθαι of the R.T. occurs nowhere else, except in Himerius in the fourth century after Christ. Went on board; ἐπέβημες εἰς, the same phrase as ἐπιβαίνειν εἰς Ἱερουσαλήμ in ver. 5. Acts 21:6

Vincent's Word Studies

Taken leave

See on Acts 20:1.