Euraquilo
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [1]
(εὐρακύλων)
This word is found nowhere in ancient literature except in Acts 27:14. It is the name given to the tempestuous wind (ἅνεμος τυφωνικός, vorticosus , ‘whirling’) which, suddenly beating down from the central mountains of Crete, caught St. Paul’s ship in its passage from Pair Havens to Phœnice, drove it to the island of Cauda, and finally wrecked it on the coast of Malta. The word is a hybrid, made up of Eurus (εὗρος), the cast wind-an ordinary meaning in the Latin poets, though εὖρος properly meant the south-east-and Aquilo , the north-east wind, so that it denotes the east-north-east wind. ‘Euro-auster’ (═ εὐρόνοτος) is an analogous compound. Euraquilo corresponded to the Greek καικίας, for which the Latins had no specific name: ‘Quem ab oriente solstitiali excitatum Graeci καικιάν vocant, apud nos sine nomine est’ (Seneca, Nat. Quaest . v. 16). St. Luke avoids the correct Greek term, characteristically preferring the vivid language which he had doubtless heard the mariners themselves use. His addition ὁ καλούμενος perhaps indicates that he knew the word to be confined to nautical slang. It was doubtless coined by the sailors and traders of the Levant, whose successors at the present day still call the dreaded wind the ‘Gregalia’-the final form of the corruption of ‘Euraquilo,’ just as ‘Egripou’ is of ‘Euripus.’
εὐροκλύδων (TR [Note: Textus Receptus, Received Text.]; ‘ Euroclydon ,’ Authorized Version) is one of a great number of textual variants. It appears in two 9th cent. uncials, H and L, and the majority of the cursives. The oldest authorities, א AB, have εὐροκύλων; in the Codices Bezae and Ephraemi the account of the voyage is wanting. A reviser of the Vaticanus has inserted γ over Α and Δ after Κ, and has altered ΔΩΝ into ΔΩΝ, but in so doing he has left the right foot of the Δ visible beyond the corner of his own Δ.
Literature.-J. Smith, Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul , 1880, p. 119f.; E. Renan. St. Paul , 1869, p. 551; Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul , 1877, ii. 402.
James Strahan.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [2]
EURAQUILO ( Acts 27:14 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ). There is some doubt as to the reading. The Greek MSS which are esteemed to be the best read Euraklyon ; so do the Bohairic Version, which was made in Egypt in the 6th or 7th cent. from a MS very like these, and the Sahidic Version made in the 3rd cent.; the Vulgate Latin revision, made towards the close of the 4th cent., reads Euroaquilo , which points to a Greek original reading Euroakylon . Our later authorities, along with the Pesh. and Hark. Syriac, read Euroclydon (so AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ). No doubt Eur(o). akylon is the correct name, and the other is an attempt to get a form capable of derivation. The word is, then, a sailor’s word, and expresses an E.N.E. wind, by compounding two words, a Greek word ( euros ) meaning E. wind, and a Latin word ( aquilo ) meaning N.E. wind. This is exactly the kind of wind which frequently arises in Cretan waters at the present day, swooping down from the mountains in strong gusts and squalls. The euraquilo which drove St. Paul’s ship before it was the cause of the shipwreck.
A. Souter.
Holman Bible Dictionary [3]
Acts 27:14Euroclydon
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
ū̇ - rak´wi - lō (the Revised Version (British and American) εὐρακύλων , eurakúlōn ; the King James Version εὐροκλύδων , euroklúdōn ; the King James Version Euroclydon , ū̇ - rok´li - don ): The east or northeast wind which drove Paul's ship to shipwreck at Melita ( Acts 27:14 ). The term seems to have been the sailor's term for that particular wind, and Paul uses the word which was used by them on that occasion. The difference in the text is explained by the fact that the term was not in general use and was therefore subject to being changed. The precise name is doubtful, but "the Euraquilo" is more easily explained as a compound of Greek eúros , "east wind," and Latin aquilo , "northeast wind," hence, euraquilo , "east northeast wind." This agrees with the experience of navigators in those waters. For a summary of the various readings see Sanday, Appendices ad New Testament , 140. Full discussion of the circumstances are given in the Lives of Paul by various writers.
