phenice Summary and Overview

properly Phoenix a palm-tree (as in the R.V.), a town with a harbour on the southern side of Crete (Acts 27:12), west of the Fair Havens. It is now called Lutro.

#Ac 27:12| (more properly Phoenix, as it is translated in the Revised Version), the name of a haven in Crete on the south coast. The name was no doubt derived from the Greek word for the palm tree, which Theophrastus says was indigenous in the island. It is the modern Lutro. [See PHOENICE; PHOENICIA]

PHEN'ICE , or PHENI'CE. 1. Another and more accurate form for Phoenicia. Acts 11:19; Acts 15:3. See Phoenicia. 2. A town and harbor, more properly Phoenix (from the Greek word for the palm tree, which was indigenous to Crete). The town was on the south-west coast of the island of Crete. It had a safe winter harbor, into which the captain of the ship upon which Paul was a prisoner attempted to sail after leaving Fair Havens. He was caught in the storm, however, and his ship was wrecked on the island of Melita. Acts 27:8, Jud 4:12. Phoenix or Phenice has been identified with the harbor of Lutro, about 35 miles west-north-west from Cape Matala. It has lately been shown that this place has an admirable harbor with a good depth of water, and sheltered from the winter winds.

Acts 27:12. Phenice, or rather Phoenix (derived from the Greek, "palmtree"); a town and harbour S. of Crete, which as being safer to winter in the master of Paul's ship made for from Fair Havens, but owing to the tempestuous E.N.E. wind failed to reach. It looked toward the S.W. and N.W. On the S. side of the narrow part of Crete (Strabo x. 4). Situated over against Clauda (Hierocles). Now Lutro, but the description "looking toward S.W. and N.W." no longer applies. Either great changes have occurred in its curving shore, or translated "looking down the S.W. and N.W.," i.e. pointing the opposite direction to these winds, namely, N.E. and S.E. (?)