Acts 20:9
Context20:9 A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, 1 was sinking 2 into a deep sleep while Paul continued to speak 3 for a long time. Fast asleep, 4 he fell down from the third story and was picked up dead.
Acts 27:41
Context27:41 But they encountered a patch of crosscurrents 5 and ran the ship aground; the bow stuck fast and could not be moved, but the stern was being broken up by the force 6 of the waves.
1 tn This window was probably a simple opening in the wall (see also BDAG 462 s.v. θυρίς).
2 tn Grk “sinking into a deep sleep.” BDAG 529 s.v. καταφέρω 3 has “ὕπνῳ βαθεῖ sink into a deep sleep…Ac 20:9a.” The participle καταφερόμενος (kataferomeno") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
3 tn The participle διαλεγομένου (dialegomenou) has been taken temporally.
4 tn BDAG 529 s.v. καταφέρω 3 has “κατενεχθεὶς ἀπὸ τοῦ ὔπνου overwhelmed by sleep vs. 9b,” but this expression is less common in contemporary English than phrases like “fast asleep” or “sound asleep.”
5 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.
6 tn Or “violence” (BDAG 175 s.v. βία a).