Dictionaries :: Quicksands

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Quicksands:

found only in Act 27:17, the rendering of the Greek Syrtis. On the north coast of Africa were two localities dangerous to sailors, called the Greater and Lesser Syrtis. The former of these is probably here meant. It lies between Tripoli and Barca, and near Cyrene. The Lesser Syrtis lay farther to the west.

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Quicksands:

kwik'-sandz.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Quicksands:

Note: This is the AV rendering in Act 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 cross currents 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.