Acts 27:20

27:20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and a violent ¹  storm continued to batter us, ²  we finally abandoned all hope of being saved. ³ 

Acts 7:43

7:43 But you took along the tabernacle ⁴  of Moloch ⁵  and the star of the ⁶  god Rephan, ⁷  the images you made to worship, but I will deport ⁸  you beyond Babylon.’ ⁹ 

¹ tn Grk “no small storm” = a very great storm.

² tn Grk “no small storm pressing on us.” The genitive absolute construction with the participle ἐπικειμένου (epikeimenou) has been translated as parallel to the previous genitive absolute construction (which was translated as temporal). BDAG 373 s.v. ἐπίκειμαι 2.b states, “of impersonal force confront χειμῶνος ἐπικειμένου since a storm lay upon us Ac 27:20.” L&N 14.2, “‘the stormy weather did not abate in the least’ or ‘the violent storm continued’ Ac 27:20.” To this last was added the idea of “battering” from the notion of “pressing upon” inherent in ἐπίκειμαι (epikeimai).

³ tn Grk “finally all hope that we would be saved was abandoned.” The passive construction has been converted to an active one to simplify the translation. This represents a clearly secular use of the term σῴζω (swzw) in that it refers to deliverance from the storm. At this point those on board the ship gave up hope of survival.

⁴ tn Or “tent.”

⁵ sn Moloch was a Canaanite deity who was believed to be the god of the sky and the sun.

⁶ tc ‡ Most mss, including several important ones (Ì⁷⁴ א A C E Ψ 33 1739 Ï h p vg sy^h mae bo Cyr), have ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”) here, in conformity with the LXX of Amos 5:26. But other significant and diverse witnesses lack the pronoun: The lack of ὑμῶν in B D 36 453 gig sy^p sa Ir^lat Or is difficult to explain if it is not the original wording here. NA²⁷ has the word in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

⁷ sn Rephan (῾Ραιφάν, RJaifan) was a pagan deity. The term was a name for Saturn. It was variously spelled in the mss (BDAG 903 s.v. has Rompha as an alternate spelling). The references cover a range of deities and a history of unfaithfulness.

⁸ tn Or “I will make you move.”

⁹ sn A quotation from Amos 5:25-27. This constituted a prediction of the exile.