In order to make the ship’s boat safe from the waves, they pulled it aboard. In some languages one must specify pulled it aboard in terms of two different events: “raise it up and put it on top of the ship” or “put it on the deck of the ship.”

The word rendered ropes is of uncertain meaning in Greek, and there are at least two possible meanings. (1) The word may refer to the ship’s tackle which was used to pull the ship’s boat aboard (see Lake “they lifted it up by using their tackle”). (2) On the other hand, most scholars understand this is in the sense of ropes (perhaps made from the ship’s tackle, see New English Bible) that were fastened tight around the ship in order to keep it from coming apart in the storm. It may be necessary in some languages to be quite specific about the placement of these ropes around the ship—for example, “they placed ropes underneath the ship and tied them right.”

Sandbanks off the coast of Libya is literally “Syrtis” in the Greek text. As the Good News Translation has made clear, the reference is to the dangerous quicksands along the coast of Libya towards which they feared the ship might drift (see Jerusalem Bible “on the Syrtis banks”; New English Bible “the shallows of Syrtis”). Sandbanks may be rendered as “sand just beneath the water” or “dangerous sand just beneath the water.”

The meaning of the phrase lowered the sail is ambiguous in Greek. Other than the interpretation rendered in the Good News Translation (also followed basically by New English Bible, An American Translation*, Moffatt, Phillips), there is the possibility that the word rendered sail should be taken in the larger sense as a reference to the ship’s “gear.” This would mean that not only were the sails brought down, but the spars and the rigging as well were lowered to the deck of the ship. A third possibility, and one which does not have much acceptance, is to understand the word in the sense of “sea-anchor” (so Jerusalem Bible). A sea anchor would probably have been a large piece of canvas designed somewhat in funnel shape which would have been tied to the stern of the ship and which would have slowed down the ship’s movement considerably, thus presumably preventing it going ashore off the coast of Libya. However, lowering the sail would have accomplished somewhat the same results, and this alternative is far more likely.

By translating and let the ship be carried by the wind, the Good News Translation has made explicit the meaning of the Greek clause, “in this way they were being carried along,” though others take this to mean “and so let themselves drift” (Jerusalem Bible). This final clause may be rendered in some languages as “let the wind blow the ship along” or “let the wind blow the ship wherever it wanted.”

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 .