The Good News Translation has made explicit the meaning of the ambiguous Greek phrase (literally “ropes of the boat”) by rendering ropes that held the boat. Let it go may be equivalent to “let it fall into the water” or “let it drift away.”

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 .