Perhaps it is worthwhile to point out that while the Greek text of this verse has twelve words, the Good News Translation rendering has thirty-seven words. One reason for this is that the Good News Translation uses six words, so they pulled up the anchor, for what in Greek is a single word, a technical term meaning “to pull up the anchor.” The Greek sentence itself is structured with only one finite verb, sailed, while the remaining verbs are participles or infinitives. In order to restructure the sentence most naturally for the English reader, the Good News Translation has transformed these participles and infinitives into a series of finite verbs. However, what is important in translation is not the number of words which are employed, but the extent to which the words reflects accurately the meaningful components of the original text. Accuracy of translation cannot be determined by the number of words, but by the extent to which the structure of the meaning is accurately reproduced.

A soft wind from the south began to blow (An American Translation* “a moderate south wind sprang up”) is literally “when the south wind began to blow softly.” In many languages one cannot speak of a soft wind; on the other hand, it is possible to speak about “a wind which is weak,” “a wind which is not strong,” or “a wind which does not make waves.”

For languages which are spoken by people far removed from a coast, an expression for anchor may be extremely difficult to find or even to develop. In some languages an anchor is represented as “a heavy object which keeps the boat from moving” or even “a heavy object which holds the boat in one place.” However, if the people in question have no experience with anchors, it may be important to have a marginal note to indicate specifically what an anchor is, and then to employ some abbreviated form of that description as an identification for such an object.

They tried to sail as close as possible along the coast of Crete, in order not to be blown out into the open sea.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .