ClericSustaining courage

Acts 27 — The voyage and shipwreck — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: Acts 1–28 [V2]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

Acts 27 — The voyage and shipwreck

The voyage toward Crete

Verse 27:1

Greek–English Translation

When it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they handed Paul and some other prisoners over to a centurion named Julius, of the Augustan cohort.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The narrator’s we is retained. Augustan translates the cohort’s imperial designation, without identifying a precise unmentioned regimental history.

Verse 27:2

Greek–English Translation

We boarded a ship from Adramyttium that was about to sail to the ports along Asia, and set sail. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:3

Greek–English Translation

The next day we put in at Sidon. Julius treated Paul kindly and allowed him to go to his friends and receive care.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:4

Greek–English Translation

From there we set sail and sailed under the shelter of Cyprus because the winds were contrary.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:5

Greek–English Translation

We crossed the open sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia and came to Myra in Lycia.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:6

Greek–English Translation

There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing to Italy and put us aboard it.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:7

Greek–English Translation

We sailed slowly for many days and with difficulty came off Cnidus. Since the wind would not permit us to proceed, we sailed under the shelter of Crete off Salmone.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:8

Greek–English Translation

Coasting along it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea.

Textual and Reception Notes

Paul’s warning and the decision to sail

Verse 27:9

Greek–English Translation

Much time had passed, and sailing was already dangerous because even the Fast had now gone by. Paul advised them,

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The Fast is the source’s seasonal religious reference, conventionally understood as the Day of Atonement. No exact calendar date is calculated from it here.

Verse 27:10

Greek–English Translation

saying, “Men, I perceive that the voyage will bring damage and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship but also of our lives.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: This is Paul’s initial assessment. The later assurance of no loss of life is separately grounded in the angelic message at 27:23–24; the two speeches are not flattened into identical forecasts.

Verse 27:11

Greek–English Translation

But the centurion was more persuaded by the pilot and the shipowner than by what Paul said.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Kybernētēs and nauklēros are distinct roles, pilot and shipowner or shipmaster; their exact contractual relationship is unstated.

Verse 27:12

Greek–English Translation

Since the harbor was unsuitable for wintering, the majority decided to sail from there, hoping somehow to reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete facing southwest and northwest, and winter there.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The two directional expressions correspond to named southwest and northwest winds. Their relation to the harbor’s precise exposure is debated; the text is retained without resolving a modern harbor reconstruction.

The ship caught in the storm

Verse 27:13

Greek–English Translation

When a south wind blew gently, they supposed they had gained their purpose, weighed anchor, and sailed close along Crete.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:14

Greek–English Translation

But not long afterward a hurricane wind called Euraquilo rushed down from the island.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Euraquilo is the selected wind-name, associated with an east-northeast wind. It is not replaced by the alternate Euroclydon name. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 27:14 lists Euraquilo with WH/Treg/NA28 and Euroclydon with RP.

Verse 27:15

Greek–English Translation

The ship was seized and could not face the wind, so we gave way and were driven along.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:16

Greek–English Translation

Running under the shelter of a small island called Cauda, we were barely able to secure the boat.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Cauda is the selected island spelling. The boat is the vessel carried or towed by the main ship, distinguished from the ship itself. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 27:16 lists Cauda with WH/Treg/NA28 and Clauda with RP.

Verse 27:17

Greek–English Translation

After hoisting it aboard, they used supports to undergird the ship. Fearing they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear and were driven along in this way.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Skeuos is the gear or equipment lowered; proposals include a sea anchor or sailing gear. The translation leaves the precise apparatus unspecified. Syrtis remains the named danger rather than an invented exact grounding point.

Verse 27:18

Greek–English Translation

As we were violently battered by the storm, the next day they began throwing cargo overboard.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:19

Greek–English Translation

On the third day they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: They threw is the selected third-person reading, distinct from the narrator’s surrounding we statements. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 27:19 lists they threw with WH/Treg/NA28 and we threw with RP.

Verse 27:20

Greek–English Translation

When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm pressed upon us, all remaining hope of our being saved was taken away.

Textual and Reception Notes

The promise of safety

Verse 27:21

Greek–English Translation

After a long time without food, Paul stood among them and said, “Men, you ought to have listened to me and not sailed from Crete, and so avoided this damage and loss.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Avoided expresses the idiomatic gain in relation to escaping the loss; the earlier advice remains explicit.

Verse 27:22

Greek–English Translation

Now I urge you to take courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:23

Greek–English Translation

For this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship stood beside me,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:24

Greek–English Translation

saying, ‘Do not fear, Paul. You must stand before Caesar, and look, God has granted you all who sail with you.’

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: God has granted you all preserves the people as the gift’s stated object; in context their safety is the gift, not ownership of fellow passengers.

Verse 27:25

Greek–English Translation

Therefore take courage, men, for I believe God that it will be just as I have been told.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:26

Greek–English Translation

But we must run aground on some island.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Approaching land and taking food

Verse 27:27

Greek–English Translation

When the fourteenth night came, as we were being driven across the Adria, about midnight the sailors suspected that some land was approaching them.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Adria preserves the ancient sea designation rather than imposing the narrow bounds of the modern Adriatic. Land approaching describes the sailors’ perspective from the moving ship.

Verse 27:28

Greek–English Translation

They took a sounding and found twenty orgyiai. After going a little farther, they sounded again and found fifteen orgyiai.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Orgyia is the ancient outstretched-arm-span measure, often rendered fathom; the plural orgyiai is retained here to avoid assuming the exact modern nautical fathom. No fixed metric conversion is imposed.

Verse 27:29

Greek–English Translation

Fearing we might run aground somewhere on rocky places, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:30

Greek–English Translation

The sailors sought to flee from the ship and lowered the boat into the sea, pretending that they were about to lay out anchors from the bow.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:31

Greek–English Translation

Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men remain in the ship, you cannot be saved.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The practical condition concerning the sailors remains explicit beside the prior promise of safety; it is not deleted to remove a perceived tension.

Verse 27:32

Greek–English Translation

Then the soldiers cut the boat’s ropes and let it fall away.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:33

Greek–English Translation

As day was about to come, Paul urged everyone to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have continued waiting without food, taking nothing.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The emphatic duration and taking nothing are retained as Paul’s statement; no unmentioned ration history is supplied.

Verse 27:34

Greek–English Translation

Therefore I urge you to take food, for this is for your safety. Not a hair from the head of any of you will be lost.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Safety renders sōtēria in the shipwreck setting, and the hair image preserves the reassurance’s form.

Verse 27:35

Greek–English Translation

After saying these things, he took bread, gave thanks to God before everyone, broke it, and began to eat.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The stated actions are thanksgiving and eating bread before the company. Any Eucharistic interpretation must be marked as reception rather than inserted as the narrator’s named rite.

Verse 27:36

Greek–English Translation

They all took courage and themselves took food.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:37

Greek–English Translation

There were two hundred and seventy-six persons in all aboard the ship.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Two hundred and seventy-six is the selected count; persons renders the counting use of psychai. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 27:37 records two hundred with Treg/NA28/RP; WH has about instead, yielding about seventy-six.

Verse 27:38

Greek–English Translation

When they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.

Textual and Reception Notes

The shipwreck and everyone’s escape

Verse 27:39

Greek–English Translation

When day came, they did not recognize the land, but noticed a bay with a beach and planned, if they could, to drive the ship onto it.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:40

Greek–English Translation

They cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, while also loosening the lashings of the steering oars. They raised the foresail to the wind and headed for the beach.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Pēdalia are the steering oars or rudders, plural. Artemōn is conventionally foresail here; the detailed rigging remains a nautical review question.

Verse 27:41

Greek–English Translation

But they struck a place between two seas and ran the ship aground. The bow stuck fast and remained immovable, while the stern was breaking apart under the force.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Dithalassos describes a place of two seas, variously understood as a meeting of currents or a shoal between waters. The selected last phrase is under the force without an explicit of the waves addition. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 27:41 lists the absence of of the waves with WH and its presence with Treg/NA28/RP.

NA28: τῆς βίας [τῶν κυμάτων], "the force of the waves" (SBLGNT τῆς βίας); the rendering above follows SBLGNT; NA28 would read "the force of the waves".

Verse 27:42

Greek–English Translation

The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners so that none might swim away and escape.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:43

Greek–English Translation

But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, prevented them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those able to swim to jump overboard first and make for land,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 27:44

Greek–English Translation

and the rest to follow, some on planks and some on pieces from the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Everyone’s safe arrival fulfills the narrated rescue; it is distinct from the total loss of the vessel.