moderate wind

In Gbaya, the notion of a moderate wind is emphasized in Acts 27:13 with fɛ̀ɛ̀, an ideophone that expresses the breath of a light wind, a breeze.

Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)

anchor

Click here to view graphically

The Greek that is translated into English as “anchor” in English is, due to non-existing nautical language, rendered as kayo’ barko (“an instrument that keeps the boat from drifting”) in Chol (source: Steven 1979, p. 76), “iron hooks” (“that make the boat stop”) in Isthmus Mixe, “irons called ‘anchors’ with ropes” in Teutila Cuicatec (source for this and above: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.), “weights, and thus they were able to make the boat stand” in Xicotepec De Juárez Totonac (source: Larson 1998, p. 99), “an iron attached to a rope attached to the boat so that it may not drift away” in Lalana Chinantec (source: John Beekman in Notes on Translation, March 1965, p. 2ff.), “a thing that makes the water vehicle stand still” in Kamwe (source: Roger Mohrlang in here), “the metal piece that was in the water that detained the boat” in Eastern Highland Otomi (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), “iron crab” in Bawm Chin (source: David Clark), and “big canoe stopping metal” in Kouya.

Eddie Arthur tells the story of the translation into Kouya: “A slightly more prosaic example comes from Paul’s sea voyages in the Book of Acts. In Acts 27, when Paul’s ship was facing a huge storm, there are several references to throwing out the anchor to save the ship. Now the Kouya live in a tropical rain-forest and have no vessels larger than dug-out canoes used for fishing on rivers. The idea of an anchor was entirely foreign to them. However, it was relatively easy to devise a descriptive term along the lines of ‘boat stopping metal’ that captured the essential nature of the concept. This was fine when we were translating the word anchor in its literal sense. However, in Hebrews 6:19 we read that hope is an anchor for our souls. It would clearly make no sense to use ‘boat stopping metal’ at this point as the concept would simply not have any meaning. So in this verse we said that faith was like the foundation which keeps a house secure. One group working in the Sahel region of West Africa spoke of faith being like a tent peg which keeps a tent firm against the wind. I hope you can see the way in which these two translations capture the essence of the image in the Hebrews verse while being more appropriate to the culture.”

In Toposa a term is used that originally meant “pole, log.” “In its most common meaning nyeloyit̥i refers to a pole or a log that is used to tie animals to in order to slow them down and yet allow them to move about for grazing. It is this resemblance to anchors, especially drift anchors, that helps the audience to understand the function of anchors in seafaring.” (Source: Schröder 2026, p. 101)

Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing an anchor in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)

See also ship / boat, rudder, and anchor (figurative).

complete verse (Acts 27:13)

Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 27:13:

  • Uma: “At that time the wind from the south was blowing well. That’s why the workers of the ship said/thought that they would be able to continue their journey with goodness/safety. So they raised the iron that restrains the ship (called the anchor), and they continue to go by the edge of the island of Kreta.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “So-then when the south wind blew not so strong, the people thought-mistakenly it was good to sail. So they pulled the anchor up and we (excl.) sailed following the coastline of that island of Kerete.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Then it began to blow, however not strong, coming from the direction of Libya. And they supposed that what they decided would come to pass. Therefore they pulled up the weights of the ship, and we did not go very far away from the shore of the island of Crete.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “When that was so, a breeze arrived from the south, and they said that it was now possible. So they pulled to raise-up (lit. cause-to-climb-up) the hooked metal that caused-the ship -to-stop, and then we (excl.) set-out keeping-to-the-edge along Creta.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well, when they observed that the wind had changed, being now like a salatan (type or favorable wind), and it wasn’t really strong, they became happy for they thought-mistakenly that (we) could now accomplish-the-plan. Therefore they pulled up the anchor and sailed. Our sailing was just going along close to the coast of Creta.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

cardinal directions

According to Anne Garber Kompaoré (in Le Sycomore 3/2009, p. 34ff. ), there are 4 ways to identify cardinal directions:

1. celestial bodies, especially the sun and certain stars
2. geographical landmarks, for example a mountain, sea, or river (depending on its position or the direction in which the water flows) etc.
3. climatic phenomena, such as the wind and the direction from which rain comes
4. bodily reference points, especially front, back, left, and right, in relation to celestial bodies or geographical landmarks

Following are examples of how these are practically implemented by various languages: (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight)

Celestial Bodies

East and west are often translated by the rising and the setting of the sun (note that the origin of English and other Indo-European languages is “dawn” for “east” and “evening” [i.e. sun-down] for “west”):

  • Maan: “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down” (source: Don Slager)
  • Kankanaey: “from the coming-out of the sun “and “going-away of the sun” (source: Kankanaey back-translation)
  • Northern Emberá: “from where the sun comes up” and “from where the sun falls” (source: Charles Mortensen)
  • Ejamat “the side where the sun comes from” and “the side where it sets” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
  • Tzeltal: “where the sun pours-out” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Mono (DRC): “of-hole-sun” (west)
  • Belanda Bor: “place morning” and “place evening”
  • Shambala: “side sink sun” (south)
  • Northern Ngbandi: “the sun behind the chief’s house” (east — the chief lives traditionally at the eastern side of the village, therefore he does not get the sunlight into his eyes) and “under the sun” (west)
  • Northwestern Dinka: “earth behind” (east — the place behind the earth, i.e. the area where the sun rises)
  • Bari: “Morning Star” / “Venus” (east)
  • Chopi: “sky” (north) (source for this and six above: Angelika Mietzner and Helma Pasch in Skase Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 4, 3/2007 )

Geographical Landmarks

  • Kele: “down-river” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Jula: “salt village” (north — because salt comes from the north, from the Sahara Desert) and “kola village” (south — since kola comes from the coastal region to the south) (source: Garber Kompaoré)
  • Matumbi: “toward the beach” (East) (the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas), “north” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Lamba: “to the Aushi country” (north) / kumausi and “to the Lenje country” (south) / kumalenje (source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )
  • Acoli: “right” (of the local White Nile) (north) and “left” (of the White Nile) (south)
  • Zande: “interior (dry) land” (east); “place-inside-country” (north / south) — Zande, like a number of other languages, including Matengo and Hehe, traditionally only has three cardinal directions.
  • Belanda Bor: “lower place” (north) and “higher place” (south)
  • Turkana: “(up)stream” (north) and (down)stream (south)
  • Mono (DRC): “water place” (south) (source for this and five above: Mietzner / Pasch)

Climatic Phenomena

  • Shilluk: “opening westwind” (north) and “opening eastwind” (south)
  • Swahili used to have six directions. In reducing them to four, kusini and kaskazini which used to refer to south-west and north east respectively (the directions from where the two monsoons blow) have become the terms for “south” and north.” (source for this and one above: Mietzner / Pasch)

Bodily Reference Points

  • Nuer / Burun: “face” and “sun face” respectively (both: east)
  • Kalenjin: “eye sun” (east) (this and the one above indicate that the sun is “facing” the spectator from its position in the east:
  • Shilluk: doesn’t use a fixed position of the speaker, instead it has “eye sun morning” for east and “eye sun evening” for west
  • Mono (DRC): “foot-sun” (east — the start of the sun’s journey)
  • Burun: “sun leg” (west — the end of the sun’s journey)
  • Bari: “back” (north — when people are facing south, north is at their back) (source for this and above: Mietzner / Pasch)
  • Northern Emberá “the looking [left] hand” (north) and “the real [right] hand” (south) (source: Charles Mortensen)
  • Morelos Nahuatl: “from above” (north) and “from below” (south) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

When all four directions are mentioned, translators tend to avoid listing the four, sometimes verbose terms, and chose solutions like “all directions” (such as in Maan or Manya (source: Don Slager). Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) and Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).

The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture. Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”

See also people of the East and three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east.

Translation commentary on Acts 27:13

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Acts 27:13

Section 27:13–26

A violent storm drove the ship off its course

In this section, they tried to sail to Phoenix, but before they got far the wind changed direction and began to blow very strongly. This forced them in the wrong direction. They strengthened the ship by tying ropes around it. They threw away some of the cargo so the ship would be less heavy and less likely to sink. The storm hid the sun, stars, and land, so they did not know where they were. After a week or more, God sent an angel who spoke to Paul, and he encouraged the people on the ship.

Other examples of headings for this section are:

The Storm (New International Version)
-or-
A strong storm threatened ⌊to sink⌋ the ship
-or-
They sailed ⌊for Phoenix⌋ but a storm tried to destroy the ship

Paragraph 27:13–20

27:13a

When a gentle south wind began to blow: The word gentle indicates a wind that blew only a little. It was not a strong wind.

south wind: This phrase refers to a wind blowing from the south.

27:13b

they thought they had their opportunity: The ship needed a wind from the north, east, or south to be able to travel well to the west. When the wind began blowing from the south, they thought they had a good wind for traveling west. They did not know the wind was about to change. Other ways to translate this clause are:

supposing that they had obtained their purpose (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
the men thought that they could carry out their plan (Good News Translation)
-or-
the sailors thought they could make it (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
the men on the ship thought, “This is the wind we wanted, and now we have it.” (New Century Version)

27:13c

So: The Berean Standard Bible and some other English versions add So here. It is implied in the Greek either here or before “sailed.”

they weighed anchor: This clause refers to pulling the anchor from the sea floor up to the ship so that the ship could begin sailing. For example:

they pulled up the anchor (Good News Translation)

anchor: This word refers to a device that is heavy and often shaped like an upside-down “T.” Sailors would lower it to the sea bottom with a rope attached. The other end of the rope was tied to the ship. The anchor would dig into the ground at the sea bottom and prevent the ship from drifting away. In some languages people are not familiar with anchors. If so, you may want to describe it in your translation. For example:

⌊heavy⌋ thing that prevented the ship from drifting
-or-
iron/metal weight that restrains the ship

sailed along, hugging the coast of Crete: This clause in Greek is literally “they sailed along Crete, close to (it).” They sailed near land because a southerly wind would push them toward the southern coast of Crete, but they stayed a safe distance away so they would not hit any rocks. For example:

began to sail past Crete, close to the shore (New Revised Standard Version)

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