Discovery BoxActs 27:26 
Context27:26 But we must 1 run aground on some island.”
Acts 27:29
Context27:29 Because they were afraid 2 that we would run aground on the rocky coast, 3 they threw out 4 four anchors from the stern and wished 5 for day to appear. 6
Acts 27:39
Context27:39 When day came, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed 7 a bay 8 with a beach, 9 where they decided to run the ship aground if they could.
Acts 27:17
Context27:17 After the crew 10 had hoisted it aboard, 11 they used supports 12 to undergird the ship. Fearing they would run aground 13 on the Syrtis, 14 they lowered the sea anchor, 15 thus letting themselves be driven along.
Acts 27:41
Context27:41 But they encountered a patch of crosscurrents 16 and ran the ship aground; the bow stuck fast and could not be moved, but the stern was being broken up by the force 17 of the waves.
1 tn This is another use of δεῖ (dei) to indicate necessity (see also v. 24). Acts 28:1 shows the fulfillment of this.
2 tn Grk “fearing.” The participle φοβούμενοι (foboumenoi) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.
3 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.”
4 tn Grk “throwing out…they.” The participle ῥίψαντες (rJiyante") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
5 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.”
6 tn Grk “and wished for day to come about.”
sn And wished for day to appear. The sailors were hoping to hold the ship in place until morning, when they could see what was happening and where they were.
7 tn Or “observed,” “saw.”
8 tn Or “gulf” (BDAG 557 s.v. κόλπος 3).
9 sn A beach would refer to a smooth sandy beach suitable for landing.
10 tn Grk “After hoisting it up, they…”; the referent (the ship’s crew) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn The participle ἄραντες (arantes) has been taken temporally.
12 tn Possibly “ropes” or “cables”; Grk “helps” (a word of uncertain meaning; probably a nautical technical term, BDAG 180 s.v. βοήθεια 2).
13 tn BDAG 308 s.v. ἐκπίπτω 2 states, “drift off course, run aground, nautical term εἴς τι on someth….on the Syrtis 27:17.”
14 tn That is, on the sandbars and shallows of the Syrtis.
sn On the Syrtis. The Syrtis was the name of two gulfs on the North African coast (modern Libya), feared greatly by sailors because of their shifting sandbars and treacherous shallows. The Syrtis here is the so-called Great Syrtis, toward Cyrenaica. It had a horrible reputation as a sailors’ graveyard (Pliny, Natural History 5.26). Josephus (J. W. 2.16.4 [2.381]) says the name alone struck terror in those who heard it. It was near the famous Scylla and Charybdis mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey.
15 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.
16 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.
17 tn Or “violence” (BDAG 175 s.v. βία a).
