27:38a
After the men had eaten their fill: This clause in Greek is literally “having eaten enough.” After fourteen days of eating nothing, the people could only eat a little before feeling full. Other ways to translate this clause are:
After everyone had eaten enough (Good News Translation)
-or-
After they had satisfied their hunger (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
When they had eaten enough to be satisfied (NET Bible)
the men: Luke wrote this book. While he probably ate at this time, the focus is on the people of the ship, so he does not mention himself here.
27:38b
they lightened the ship: A lighter ship floats higher, so it could reach closer to shore before hitting the sea bottom. If people in your area will not know why the people on the ship would want to lighten it, you may want to:
• Translate literally and explain it in a footnote. An example footnote is:
A lighter ship floats higher, so it could get closer to shore before hitting the sea bottom.
• Explain it in your translation. For example:
they lightened the ship ⌊so it would float higher⌋
-or-
they lightened the ship ⌊so they could beach it closer to shore⌋
throwing the grain: The grain may have been in sacks of approximately fifty kilograms each, or it may have been loose in the hold of the ship. If it was loose, they would probably remove it with buckets or baskets. Use a verb that allows one or both possible actions.
the grain: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as grain also refers to wheat. A ship from Alexandria to Italy would mostly likely have wheat as the kind of grain. Some languages must name the particular kind of grain. For example:
the wheat
The purpose of this ship was to carry grain. So it probably had a lot of grain in its hold. It perhaps had thousands of sacks of grain or a similar amount of loose grain. Translate in a way that allows a large amount of grain.
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