Discovery BoxActs 27:24 
Context27:24 and said, 1 ‘Do not be afraid, Paul! You must stand before 2 Caesar, 3 and God has graciously granted you the safety 4 of all who are sailing with you.’
Acts 27:31
Context27:31 Paul said to the centurion 5 and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you 6 cannot be saved.”
Acts 27:42-44
Context27:42 Now the soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners 7 so that none of them would escape by swimming away. 8 27:43 But the centurion, 9 wanting to save Paul’s life, 10 prevented them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land, 11 27:44 and the rest were to follow, 12 some on planks 13 and some on pieces of the ship. 14 And in this way 15 all were brought safely to land.
1 tn Grk “came to me saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
2 tn BDAG 778 s.v. παρίστημι/παριστάνω 2.a.α states, “Also as a t.t. of legal usage appear before, come before…Καίσαρι σε δεῖ παραστῆναι you must stand before the Emperor (as judge) Ac 27:24.” See Acts 23:11. Luke uses the verb δεῖ (dei) to describe what must occur.
3 tn Or “before the emperor” (“Caesar” is a title for the Roman emperor).
4 tn Grk “God has graciously granted you all who are sailing with you.” The words “the safety of” have been supplied to clarify the meaning of the verb κεχάρισται (kecaristai) in this context.
sn The safety of all who are sailing with you. In a sense, Paul’s presence protects them all. For Luke, it serves as a picture of what the gospel does through Christ and through the one who brings the message.
5 sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.
6 sn The pronoun you is plural in Greek.
7 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.
8 tn The participle ἐκκολυμβήσας (ekkolumbhsa") has been taken instrumentally.
9 sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.
10 tn Or “wanting to rescue Paul.”
sn Thanks to the centurion who wanted to save Paul’s life, Paul was once more rescued from a potential human threat.
11 tn BDAG 347 s.v. I. ἔξειμι has “ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν get to land Ac 27:43.”
12 tn The words “were to follow” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. They must be supplied to clarify the sense in contemporary English.
13 tn Or “boards” according to BDAG 913 s.v. σανίς.
14 tn Grk “on pieces from the ship”; that is, pieces of wreckage from the ship.
sn Both the planks and pieces of the ship were for the weak or nonswimmers. The whole scene is a historical metaphor representing how listening to Paul and his message could save people.
15 tn Grk “And in this way it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
