Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 27:33

"And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take some food, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye wait and continue fasting, having taken nothing." — Acts 27:33 (ASV)

Paul besought them all to take meat.—Better, to take food; and so in the next verse. Once again, the practical insight of the Apostle—and perhaps even more, his kindly human sympathy—comes prominently forward. Soldiers and sailors needed something that would draw them together after the incident just described. All were immediately prone to the despair and irritability caused by exhaustion.

That you have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.—Better, that you continue on the look-out, without a meal, taking no extra food. The English translation somewhat exaggerates the force of the Greek. The word for “fasting” used here is not the one commonly used in the New Testament to express complete abstinence from food.

It was physically impossible for the two hundred and seventy-six people on board to have gone for fourteen days without any food at all. We must believe that scanty rations had been distributed to those who came for them; however, the tension of suspense was so great that they had not sat down to any regular meal.

They had taken, as the last word implies, nothing beyond what was absolutely necessary to keep body and soul together. Physically, they needed food; morally, they needed the sense of restored companionship. And St. Paul’s advice led them to this.