Acts 16:11

Arrival at Philippi

16:11 We put out to sea ¹  from Troas ²  and sailed a straight course ³  to Samothrace, ⁴  the next day to Neapolis, ⁵ 

Acts 27:17

27:17 After the crew ⁶  had hoisted it aboard, ⁷  they used supports ⁸  to undergird the ship. Fearing they would run aground ⁹  on the Syrtis, ¹⁰  they lowered the sea anchor, ¹¹  thus letting themselves be driven along.

Acts 27:41

27:41 But they encountered a patch of crosscurrents ¹²  and ran the ship aground; the bow stuck fast and could not be moved, but the stern was being broken up by the force ¹³  of the waves.

[16:11]  ¹ tn BDAG 62 s.v. ἀνάγω 4, “as a nautical t.t. (ἀ. τὴν ναῦν put a ship to sea), mid. or pass. ἀνάγεσθαι to begin to go by boat, put out to sea.”

[16:11]  ² sn Troas was a port city (and surrounding region) on the northwest coast of Asia Minor. See v. 8.

[16:11]  ³ tn BDAG 406 s.v. εὐθυδρομέω has “of a ship run a straight course” here; L&N 54.3 has “to sail a straight course, sail straight to.”

[16:11]  ⁴ sn Samothrace is an island in the northern part of the Aegean Sea.

[16:11]  ⁵ sn Neapolis was a seaport on the southern coast of Macedonia. It was 10 mi (16 km) from Philippi.

[27:17]  ⁶ tn Grk “After hoisting it up, they…”; the referent (the ship’s crew) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[27:17]  ⁷ tn The participle ἄραντες (arantes) has been taken temporally.

[27:17]  ⁸ tn Possibly “ropes” or “cables”; Grk “helps” (a word of uncertain meaning; probably a nautical technical term, BDAG 180 s.v. βοήθεια 2).

[27:17]  ⁹ tn BDAG 308 s.v. ἐκπίπτω 2 states, “drift off course, run aground, nautical term εἴς τι on someth….on the Syrtis 27:17.”

[27:17]  ¹⁰ tn That is, on the sandbars and shallows of the Syrtis.

[27:17]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps “mainsail.” The meaning of this word is uncertain. BDAG 927 s.v. σκεῦος 1 has “τὸ σκεῦος Ac 27:17 seems to be the kedge or driving anchor” while C. Maurer (TDNT 7:362) notes, “The meaning in Ac. 27:17: χαλάσαντες τὸ σκεῦος, is uncertain. Prob. the ref. is not so much to taking down the sails as to throwing the draganchor overboard to lessen the speed of the ship.” In spite of this L&N 6.1 states, “In Ac 27:17, for example, the reference of σκεῦος is generally understood to be the mainsail.” A reference to the sail is highly unlikely because in a storm of the force described in Ac 27:14, the sail would have been taken down and reefed immediately, to prevent its being ripped to shreds or torn away by the gale.

[27:41]  ¹¹ 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 [qis], ταινία [tainia]), a “reef” (ἑρμα [Jerma]), “strait” (στενόν [stenon]), “promontory” (ἀρωτήρον [arwthron]), and other nautical hazards, none of which are used by the author here. NEB here translates τόπον διθάλασσον (topon diqalasson) 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.

[27:41]  ¹² tn Or “violence” (BDAG 175 s.v. βία a).