Discovery BoxActs 9:25 
Context9:25 But his disciples took him at night and let him down through an opening 1 in the wall by lowering him in a basket. 2
Acts 27:30
Context27:30 Then when the sailors tried to escape from the ship and were lowering the ship’s boat into the sea, pretending 3 that they were going to put out anchors from the bow,
1 tn The opening in the wall is not specifically mentioned here, but the parallel account in 2 Cor 11:33 mentions a “window” or “opening” (θυρίς, quris) in the city wall through which Paul was lowered. One alternative to introducing mention of the opening is to translate Acts 9:25 “they let him down over the wall,” as suggested in L&N 7.61. This option is not employed by many translations, however, because for the English reader it creates an (apparent) contradiction between Acts 9:25 and 2 Cor 11:33. In reality the account here is simply more general, omitting the detail about the window.
2 tn On the term for “basket” used here, see BDAG 940 s.v. σπυρίς.
3 tn BDAG 889 s.v. πρόφασις 2 states, “προφάσει ὡς under the pretext that, pretending that…Ac 27:30.” In other words, some of the sailors gave up hope that such efforts would work and instead attempted to escape while pretending to help.
