Acts 27:27-44

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Acts 27:27 tn Here “being driven” has been used to translate διαφέρω (diapherō) rather than “drifting,” because it is clear from the attempt to drop anchors in v. 29 that the ship is still being driven by the gale. “Drifting” implies lack of control, but not necessarily rapid movement.
2. Acts 27:27 sn The Adriatic Sea. They were now somewhere between Crete and Malta.
3. Acts 27:27 tn Grk “suspected that some land was approaching them.” BDAG 876 s.v. προσάγω 2.a states, “lit. ὑπενόουν προσάγειν τινά αὐτοῖς χώραν they suspected that land was near (lit. ‘approaching them’) Ac 27:27.” Current English idiom would speak of the ship approaching land rather than land approaching the ship.
4. Acts 27:28 tn Grk “Heaving the lead, they found.” The participle βολίσαντες (bolisantes) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. See also BDAG 180 s.v. βολίζω. Although the term is used twice in this verse (and thus is technically not a NT hapax legomenon), it occurs nowhere else in the NT.
5. Acts 27:28 sn A fathom is about 6 feet or just under 2 meters (originally the length of a man’s outstretched arms). This was a nautical technical term for measuring the depth of water. Here it was about 120 ft (36 m).
6. Acts 27:28 tn L&N 15.12, “βραχὺ δὲ διαστήσαντες ‘when they had gone a little farther’ Ac 27:28.”
7. Acts 27:28 sn Here the depth was about 90 ft (27 m).
8. Acts 27:29 tn Grk “fearing.” The participle φοβούμενοι (phoboumenoi) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.
9. Acts 27:29 tn Grk “against a rough [rocky] place.” L&N 79.84 has “φοβούμενοί τε μή που κατὰ τραχεῖς τόποις ἐκπέσωμεν ‘we were afraid that we would run aground on the rocky coast’ Ac 27:29.”
10. Acts 27:29 tn Grk “throwing out…they.” The participle ῥίψαντες (rhipsantes) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
11. Acts 27:29 tn BDAG 417 s.v. εὔχομαι 2 states, “wish…τὶ for someth.…Foll. by acc. and inf….Ac 27:29.” The other possible meaning for this term, “pray,” is given in BDAG 417 s.v. 1 and employed by a number of translations (NAB, NRSV, NIV). If this meaning is adopted here, then “prayed for day to come” must be understood metaphorically to mean “prayed that they would live to see the day,” or “prayed that it would soon be day.”
12. Acts 27:29 tn Grk “and wished for day to come about.”sn And wished for day to appear. The sailors were hoping to hold the ship in place until morning, when they could see what was happening and where they were.
13. Acts 27:30 tn BDAG 889 s.v. πρόφασις 2 states, “προφάσει ὡς under the pretext that, pretending that…Ac 27:30.” In other words, some of the sailors gave up hope that such efforts would work and instead attempted to escape while pretending to help.
14. Acts 27:31 sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.
15. Acts 27:31 sn The pronoun you is plural in Greek.
16. Acts 27:32 sn The soldiers cut the ropes. The centurion and the soldiers were now following Paul’s advice by cutting the ropes to prevent the sailors from escaping.
17. Acts 27:32 tn Or “let it fall away.” According to BDAG 308 s.v. ἐκπίπτω 1 and 2 the meaning of the verb in this verse could be either “fall away” or “drift away.” Either meaning is acceptable, and the choice between them depends almost entirely on how one reconstructs the scene. Since cutting the boat loose would in any case result in it drifting away (whether capsized or not), the meaning “drift away” as a nautical technical term has been used here.
18. Acts 27:33 tn BDAG 160 s.v. ἄχρι 1.b.α has “ἄ. οὗ ἡμέρα ἤμελλεν γίνεσθαι until the day began to dawn 27:33.”
19. Acts 27:33 tn Or “have waited anxiously.” Grk “waiting anxiously.” The participle προσδοκῶντες (prosdokōntes) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
20. Acts 27:33 tn Or “continued.”
21. Acts 27:33 tn Grk “having eaten nothing.” The participle προσλαβόμενοι (proslabomenoi) has been translated as a finite verb (with subject “you” supplied) due to requirements of contemporary English style.
22. Acts 27:34 tn Or “necessary.” BDAG 873-74 s.v. πρός 1 has “πρ. τῆς σωτηρίας in the interest of safety Ac 27:34”; L&N 27.18 has “‘therefore, I urge you to take some food, for this is important for your deliverance’ or ‘…for your survival’ Ac 27:34.”
23. Acts 27:34 tn Or “deliverance” (‘salvation’ in a nontheological sense).
24. Acts 27:35 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
25. Acts 27:35 tn Grk “taking bread, gave thanks.” The participle λαβών (labōn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
26. Acts 27:35 tn Or “before them all,” but here this could be misunderstood to indicate a temporal sequence.
27. Acts 27:35 tn Grk “and breaking it, he began.” The participle κλάσας (klasas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
28. Acts 27:37 tc One early ms (B) and an early version (sa) read “about seventy-six.” For discussion of how this variant probably arose, see F. F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles, 465.
29. Acts 27:37 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
30. Acts 27:38 tn Or “When they had eaten their fill.”
31. Acts 27:38 tn Or “grain.”
32. Acts 27:39 tn Or “observed,” “saw.”
33. Acts 27:39 tn Or “gulf” (BDAG 557 s.v. κόλπος 3).
34. Acts 27:39 sn A beach would refer to a smooth sandy beach suitable for landing.
35. Acts 27:40 tn That is, released. Grk “slipping…leaving.” The participles περιελόντες (perielontes) and εἴων (eiōn) have been translated as finite verbs due to requirements of contemporary English style.
36. Acts 27:40 tn The term is used of a ship’s anchor. (BDAG 12 s.v. ἄγκυρα a).
37. Acts 27:40 tn Grk “bands”; possibly “ropes.”
38. Acts 27:40 tn Or “rudders.”
39. Acts 27:40 tn Grk “hoisting…they.” The participle ἐπάραντες (eparantes) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
40. Acts 27:40 tn Grk “sail”; probably a reference to the foresail.
41. Acts 27:40 tn BDAG 533 s.v. κατέχω 7 states, “hold course, nautical t.t., intr….κατεῖχον εἰς τὸν αἰγιαλόν they headed for the beach Ac 27:40.”
42. Acts 27:41 tn Grk “fell upon a place of two seas.” The most common explanation for this term is that it refers to a reef or sandbar with the sea on both sides, as noted in BDAG 245 s.v. διθάλασσος: the “τόπος δ. Ac 27:41 is a semantic unit signifying a point (of land jutting out with water on both sides).” However, Greek had terms for a “sandbank” (θῖς [this], ταινία [tainia]), a “reef” (ἑρμα [herma]), “strait” (στενόν [stenon]), “promontory” (ἀρωτήρον [arōtēron]), and other nautical hazards, none of which are used by the author here. NEB here translates τόπον διθάλασσον (topon dithalasson) as “cross-currents,” a proposal close to that advanced by J. M. Gilchrist, “The Historicity of Paul’s Shipwreck,” JSNT 61 (1996): 29-51, who suggests the meaning is “a patch of cross-seas,” where the waves are set at an angle to the wind, a particular hazard for sailors. Thus the term most likely refers to some sort of adverse sea conditions rather than a topographical feature like a reef or sandbar.
43. Acts 27:41 tn Or “violence” (BDAG 175 s.v. βία a).
44. Acts 27:42 sn The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners. The issue here was not cruelty, but that the soldiers would be legally responsible if any prisoners escaped and would suffer punishment themselves. So they were planning to do this as an act of self-preservation. See Acts 16:27 for a similar incident.
45. Acts 27:42 tn The participle ἐκκολυμβήσας (ekkolumbēsas) has been taken instrumentally.
46. Acts 27:43 sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.
47. Acts 27:43 tn Or “wanting to rescue Paul.”sn Thanks to the centurion who wanted to save Paul’s life, Paul was once more rescued from a potential human threat.
48. Acts 27:43 tn BDAG 347 s.v. I. ἔξειμι has “ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν get to land Ac 27:43.”
49. Acts 27:44 tn The words “were to follow” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. They must be supplied to clarify the sense in contemporary English.
50. Acts 27:44 tn Or “boards” according to BDAG 913 s.v. σανίς.
51. Acts 27:44 tn Grk “on pieces from the ship”; that is, pieces of wreckage from the ship.sn Both the planks and pieces of the ship were for the weak or nonswimmers. The whole scene is a historical metaphor representing how listening to Paul and his message could save people.
52. Acts 27:44 tn Grk “And in this way it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.