Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 27:34

"Wherefore I beseech you to take some food: for this is for your safety: for there shall not a hair perish from the head of any of you." — Acts 27:34 (ASV)

This is for your health.—Better, safety, or preservation. The Greek word is not the one commonly translated as “health,” and the translators seem to have used it in the wider sense it had in older English. So, for example, in Wycliffe’s version, the knowledge of salvation (Luke 1:77) appears as the science of health. Wycliffe has “health” here also, and is followed by all the chief English versions, except the Geneva, which has “safe-guard.”

What St. Paul means is that the preservation of his fellow-passengers depended on their keeping up their strength. The gracious assurance that followed was, as before, not independent of their co-operation.