Acts 27:17

27:17 After the crew ¹  had hoisted it aboard, ²  they used supports ³  to undergird the ship. Fearing they would run aground ⁴  on the Syrtis, ⁵  they lowered the sea anchor, ⁶  thus letting themselves be driven along.

Acts 27:26-29

27:26 But we must ⁷  run aground on some island.”

27:27 When the fourteenth night had come, while we were being driven ⁸  across the Adriatic Sea, ⁹  about midnight the sailors suspected they were approaching some land. ¹⁰  27:28 They took soundings ¹¹  and found the water was twenty fathoms ¹²  deep; when they had sailed a little farther ¹³  they took soundings again and found it was fifteen fathoms ¹⁴  deep. 27:29 Because they were afraid ¹⁵  that we would run aground on the rocky coast, ¹⁶  they threw out ¹⁷  four anchors from the stern and wished ¹⁸  for day to appear. ¹⁹ 

Acts 27:2

27:2 We went on board ²⁰  a ship from Adramyttium ²¹  that was about to sail to various ports ²²  along the coast of the province of Asia ²³  and put out to sea, ²⁴  accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian ²⁵  from Thessalonica. ²⁶ 

Colossians 1:25

1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ²⁷  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ²⁸  the word of God,

[27:17]  ¹ tn Grk “After hoisting it up, they…”; the referent (the ship’s crew) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[27:17]  ² tn The participle ἄραντες (arantes) has been taken temporally.

[27:17]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn That is, on the sandbars and shallows of the Syrtis.

[27:17]  ⁶ 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.

[27:26]  ⁷ tn This is another use of δεῖ (dei) to indicate necessity (see also v. 24). Acts 28:1 shows the fulfillment of this.

[27:27]  ⁸ tn Here “being driven” has been used to translate διαφέρω (diaferw) 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.

[27:27]  ⁹ sn The Adriatic Sea. They were now somewhere between Crete and Malta.

[27:27]  ¹⁰ 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.

[27:28]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Heaving the lead, they found.” The participle βολίσαντες (bolisante") 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.

[27:28]  ¹² 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).

[27:28]  ¹³ tn L&N 15.12, “βραχὺ δὲ διαστήσαντες ‘when they had gone a little farther’ Ac 27:28.”

[27:28]  ¹⁴ sn Here the depth was about 90 ft (27 m).

[27:29]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “fearing.” The participle φοβούμενοι (foboumenoi) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

[27:29]  ¹⁶ 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.”

[27:29]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “throwing out…they.” The participle ῥίψαντες (rJiyante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[27:29]  ¹⁸ 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.”

[27:29]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “and wished for day to come about.”

[27:2]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Going on board.” The participle ἐπιβάντες (epibante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[27:2]  ²¹ sn Adramyttium was a seaport in Mysia on the western coast of Asia Minor.

[27:2]  ²² tn Grk “places.”

[27:2]  ²³ tn Grk “Asia”; in the NT this always refers to the Roman province of Asia, made up of about one-third of the west and southwest end of modern Asia Minor. Asia lay to the west of the region of Phrygia and Galatia. The words “the province of” are supplied to indicate to the modern reader that this does not refer to the continent of Asia.

[27:2]  ²⁴ tn BDAG 62 s.v. ἀνάγω 4 states, “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.”

[27:2]  ²⁵ sn A Macedonian. The city of Thessalonica (modern Salonica) was in the Roman province of Macedonia in Greece.

[27:2]  ²⁶ map For location see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

[1:25]  ²⁷ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

[1:25]  ²⁸ tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.