Paragraph 27:39–41
27:39a
When daylight came: This clause in Greek is literally “When it became day.” This probably includes the increasing light before dawn. Other ways to translate this clause are:
when it was day (English Standard Version)
-or-
In the morning (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
When morning dawned (New Living Translation (2004))
they did not recognize the land: The Greek tense probably indicates that the people on the ship tried to recognize the land as daylight increased, but finally decided they did not know which coastline it was. For example:
they tried to recognize the land but could not
-or-
they tried to recognize the land but finally decided they did not know it
-or-
they could not recognize the land (New American Standard Bible)
Many English versions focus only on the final decision. For example:
they saw land but did not know what land it was
27:39b
they sighted a bay with a sandy beach: The Greek tense on the verb probably indicates that the people slowly were able to see the bay as daylight increased. For example:
eventually/finally saw a bay with a sandy beach
bay: A bay is a place where the coastline goes inward from the sea. So the land to either side of the bay can protect it from waves.
a sandy beach: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as a sandy beach refers to land at the edge of a lake or ocean that slopes gently down into the water. The sailors could probably see that the shore was sandy and not rocky. In some languages the word beach already implies sand rather than rocks. For example:
a beach
27:39c
where they decided to run the ship aground if they could: This clause tells the reader more about the sandy beach. In some languages a literal translation would wrongly indicate that Luke was thinking of other sandy beaches and they decided to run the ship aground only on this one. If that is true in your language, translate this information in a way that tells more about the sandy beach. One way to do that is to start a new sentence here. For example:
They decided to run the ship aground on it if they could.
run the ship aground: This refers to sailing the ship so that it came onto the ground in shallow water. The verb indicates force. They wanted the speed of the ship to cause it to slide as far as possible after touching bottom. They hoped that the shallow water was near shore so the people would not have to swim far. Other ways to translate this are:
drive the ship onto it (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
bring the ship ashore (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
beach the ship (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)
if they could: They did not know where they were, so they did not know if there were sandbars, rocks, or reefs just under the water between them and the shore. For example:
if possible (Good News Translation)
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