Discovery BoxActs 23:31 
Context23:31 So the soldiers, in accordance with their orders, 1 took 2 Paul and brought him to Antipatris 3 during the night.
Acts 27:31-32
Context27:31 Paul said to the centurion 4 and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you 5 cannot be saved.” 27:32 Then the soldiers cut the ropes 6 of the ship’s boat and let it drift away. 7
Acts 27:42
Context27:42 Now the soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners 8 so that none of them would escape by swimming away. 9
1 tn BDAG 237-38 s.v. διατάσσω 2 has “κατὰ τὸ δ. αὐτοῖς in accordance w. their orders…Ac 23:31.”
2 tn Grk “taking.” The participle ἀναλαβόντες (analabonte") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
3 sn Antipatris was a city in Judea about 35 mi (55 km) northwest of Jerusalem (about halfway to Caesarea). It was mentioned several times by Josephus (Ant. 13.15.1 [13.390]; J. W. 1.4.7 [1.99]).
4 sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.
5 sn The pronoun you is plural in Greek.
6 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.
7 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.
8 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.
9 tn The participle ἐκκολυμβήσας (ekkolumbhsa") has been taken instrumentally.
