Bible Dictionaries
Quicksands

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

* Note: This is the AV rendering in Acts 27:17 of Surtis, "Syrtis" (RV). The Syrtes, Major and Minor, lie on the north coast of Africa, between the headlands of Tunis and Barca. They have been regarded as dangerous to mariners from very early times, both from the character of the sands and from the crosscurrents of the adjoining waters. In the voyage described in this chapter the vessel had left the shelter of the island of Cauda and was drifting before the N.E. wind Euraquilo. The mariners might well fear that they would be driven on the Syrtes on the leeward of their course. The changing character of the tempest, however, drove them into the sea of Adria.