Acts 27:17
New International Version
so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along.

New Living Translation
Then the sailors bound ropes around the hull of the ship to strengthen it. They were afraid of being driven across to the sandbars of Syrtis off the African coast, so they lowered the sea anchor to slow the ship and were driven before the wind.

English Standard Version
After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship. Then, fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear, and thus they were driven along.

Berean Standard Bible
After hoisting it up, the crew used ropes to undergird the ship. And fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and were driven along.

Berean Literal Bible
which having taken up, they began using supports, undergirding the ship. And fearing lest they should fall into the sandbars of Syrtis, having lowered the gear, thus they were driven along.

King James Bible
Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven.

New King James Version
When they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship; and fearing lest they should run aground on the Syrtis Sands, they struck sail and so were driven.

New American Standard Bible
After they had hoisted it up, they used supporting cables in undergirding the ship; and fearing that they might run aground on the shallows of Syrtis, they let down the sea anchor and let themselves be driven along in this way.

NASB 1995
After they had hoisted it up, they used supporting cables in undergirding the ship; and fearing that they might run aground on the shallows of Syrtis, they let down the sea anchor and in this way let themselves be driven along.

NASB 1977
And after they had hoisted it up, they used supporting cables in undergirding the ship; and fearing that they might run aground on the shallows of Syrtis, they let down the sea anchor, and so let themselves be driven along.

Legacy Standard Bible
After they had hoisted it up, they used supporting cables in undergirding the ship. Fearing that they might run aground on the shallows of Syrtis, they let down the sea anchor and in this way let themselves be carried along.

Amplified Bible
After hoisting the skiff [on board], they used support lines [for frapping] to undergird and brace the ship’s hull; and fearing that they might run aground on the shallows of Syrtis [off the north coast of Africa], they let down the sea anchor and lowered the sails and were driven along [backwards with the bow into the wind].

Christian Standard Bible
After hoisting it up, they used ropes and tackle and girded the ship. Fearing they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the drift-anchor, and in this way they were driven along.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
After hoisting it up, they used ropes and tackle and girded the ship. Then, fearing they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the drift-anchor, and in this way they were driven along.

American Standard Version
and when they had hoisted it up, they used helps, under-girding the ship; and, fearing lest they should be cast upon the Syrtis, they lowered the gear, and so were driven.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And when we took it up, we girded it and retained it to the ship, because we were afraid lest it fall in a declivity of the sea, and we took down the sail, and so we moved on.

Contemporary English Version
but finally we got it where it belonged. Then the sailors wrapped ropes around the ship to hold it together. They lowered the sail and let the ship drift along, because they were afraid it might hit the sandbanks in the gulf of Syrtis.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Which being taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship, and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, they let down the sail yard, and so were driven.

English Revised Version
and when they had hoisted it up, they used helps, under-girding the ship; and, fearing lest they should be cast upon the Syrtis, they lowered the gear, and so were driven.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The men pulled it up on deck. Then they passed ropes under the ship to reinforce it. Fearing that they would hit the large sandbank off the shores of Libya, they lowered the sail and were carried along by the wind.

Good News Translation
They pulled it aboard and then fastened some ropes tight around the ship. They were afraid that they might run into the sandbanks off the coast of Libya, so they lowered the sail and let the ship be carried by the wind.

International Standard Version
The ship's crew pulled it up on deck and used ropes to brace the ship. Fearing that they would hit the large sandbank near Libya, they lowered the sail and drifted along.

Literal Standard Version
which having taken up, they were using helps, undergirding the ship, and fearing lest they may fall into the [sandbars of] Syrtis, having let down the mast—so were carried on.

Majority Standard Bible
After hoisting it up, the crew used ropes to undergird the ship. And fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and were driven along.

New American Bible
They hoisted it aboard, then used cables to undergird the ship. Because of their fear that they would run aground on the shoal of Syrtis, they lowered the drift anchor and were carried along in this way.

NET Bible
After the crew had hoisted it aboard, they used supports to undergird the ship. Fearing they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor, thus letting themselves be driven along.

New Revised Standard Version
After hoisting it up they took measures to undergird the ship; then, fearing that they would run on the Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and so were driven.

New Heart English Bible
After they had hoisted it up, they used cables to help reinforce the ship. Fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor, and so were driven along.

Webster's Bible Translation
Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, struck sail, and so were driven.

Weymouth New Testament
and, after hoisting it on board, they used frapping-cables to undergird the ship, and, as they were afraid of being driven on the Syrtis quicksands, they lowered the gear and lay to.

World English Bible
After they had hoisted it up, they used cables to help reinforce the ship. Fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis sand bars, they lowered the sea anchor, and so were driven along.

Young's Literal Translation
which having taken up, they were using helps, undergirding the ship, and fearing lest they may fall on the quicksand, having let down the mast -- so were borne on.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Storm at Sea
16Passing to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we barely managed to secure the lifeboat. 17 After hoisting it up, the crew used ropes to undergird the ship. And fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and were driven along. 18We were tossed so violently that the next day the men began to jettison the cargo.…

Cross References
Acts 27:16
Passing to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we barely managed to secure the lifeboat.

Acts 27:26
However, we must run aground on some island."

Acts 27:29
Fearing that we would run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daybreak.

Acts 27:40
Cutting away the anchors, they left them in the sea as they loosened the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach.


Treasury of Scripture

Which when they had taken up, they used helps, under girding the ship; and, fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, struck sail, and so were driven.

fearing.

Acts 27:29,41
Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day…

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Aboard Afraid Aground Anchor Bars Board Driven Fall Fearing Gear Help Helps Hoisted Hoisting Hold Itself Lay Lowered Passed Ropes Run Sand Sea Ship Used Way
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Acts 27
1. Paul shipping toward Rome,
10. foretells of the danger of the voyage,
11. but is not believed.
14. They are tossed to and fro by a storm;
41. and suffer shipwreck;
44. yet all come safe to land.














(17) They used helps, undergirding the ship.--The word "helps" answers to what we should call "precautions," or "remedial measures." The process described, technically known as "frapping," consisted in carrying a strong cable several times round the ship from stem to stern, so as to keep the planks from starting, and guard against the consequent leakage. The practice has always been a common one. Thucydides (i. 29) mentions the Corcyreans as having recourse to it. The Russian ships taken in the Tagus in 1808 were kept together in this manner in consequence of their age and unsound condition (Arnold, on Thuc. i. 29). We have probably an allusion to it in the lines of Horace (Od. i. 14).

"Ac sine funibus,

Vix durare carinae,

Possint imperiosius

quor."

["And scarcely can our keels keep sound,

E'en with the ropes that gird them round,

Against the imperious wave."]

Fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands.--Literally, the Syrtis. There were two quicksands of this name, the Greater and the Lesser, on the north coast of Africa. The former lay just to the west of Cyrene, the latter further west, and nearer Carthage. St. Luke probably speaks of the Greater. These quicksands were the terror of all Mediterranean sailors (Jos. Wars, ii. 16, ? 4). A fine description of them is given by the Evangelist's namesake, Lucan, in his Pharsalia (ix. 303-310):

"When Nature gave the world its primal form,

She left the Syrtes neither sea nor land.

There neither sinks the shore and welcomes in . . .

Verse 17. - And when they had hoisted it up for which when they had taken up, A.V.; be cast upon the Syrtis for fall into the quick-sands, A.V.; they lowered the gear for strake sail, A.V. Helps; βοηθείαις, in the New Testament only here and Hebrews 4:16; but frequent in medical language, for "bandages, "ligaments," "muscles," and all kinds of supports both artificial and natural, and generally to medical aid. Undergirding the ship; ὑποζωννύντες, only here in the Bible; but found, as well as its derivative ὑπόζωμα, in classical Greek, in the same sense as it has here. In medical language it is used of certain membranes which "under gird" and so strengthen and hold together certain parts of the human body, and specially was applied to the πλευρά. As regards the nautical sense in which St. Luke here uses the word, Dean Howson, in his excellent chapter (23.) on the 'Navigation and Ships of the Ancients,' writes as follows: - "In consequence of the extreme danger to which the ships of the ancients were exposed from leaking, it was customary to take to sea, as part of their ordinary gear, ὑποζώματα, undergirders, which were simply ropes for passing round the hull of the ship, and thus preventing the planks from starting;" and he adds in a note that "within the last twenty years (in 1837) marble tables had been dug up in the Piraeus, containing a list of Athenian ships and an inventory of their tackle, and that they all carried, as part of their "hanging gear," ὑποζώματα. Another great ship described by Athenaeus carried twelve such. The operation of undergirding is still occasionally performed, and is called by seamen "frap- ping." The German word is umgurten (Howson). Among ether recent examples (Howson, p. 33) the Albion was frapped with iron chains after the battle of Navarino. Cast upon the Syrtis. The wind was driving them straight toward the Syrtis Major, "the Goodwin Sands of the Mediterranean" (Farrar), and another twenty-four hours of such a gale might bring them there. The Syrtis Major was a wide gulf off the northern coast of Africa, now the Gulf of Sidra, lying between Tunis and Tripoli, considered very dangerous from its rocks and shoals. Be east upon (ἐκπέσωσι). The verb ἐκπίπτειν is the classical word (Homer, Herodotus, Euripides) for being driven or thrown ashore, and is used in this sense in vers. 26, 29 of this chapter, and in a slightly different sense in ver. 32. They lowered the gear (χαλάσαντες). Σκεῦος is a very common word, variously rendered "goods," "stuff," "vessel," according to the material to which it is applied (Matthew 12:29; Luke 8:16; Luke 17:31, etc.). In the LXX. it is used of agricultural implements (1 Samuel 13:20, 21), of weapons of hunting (Genesis 27:3), of household furniture (Genesis 31:37), weapons of war (Deuteronomy 1:41), instruments of music (2 Chronicles 5:13). This is the only passage in the Bible where it is used in its technical sense as a nautical term. In classical Greek, when applied generally to ships, it means the whole tackling, sails, ropes, yards, stores, engines, etc. The meaning, of course, is narrowed when applied to some particular part of the ship. Here, on the whole, it seems to mean the "great yard," or, if that had been already lowered, the heavy "head-gear," ropes, pulleys, and the like, which, under the circumstances, would contribute to make the ship roll and be unsteady. The word rendered "lowered" is χάλασαι. It is rendered "let down" in Mark 2:4; Luke 5:4, 5; Acts 9:25; 2 Corinthians 11:33; and ver. 30 of this chapter (A.V.). In the R.V. it is sometimes rendered "let down" and sometimes "lowered." In the LXX. it is used in the sense of "spreading" a sail (Isaiah 33:23), which would be equivalent to "let down," if the sails were reefed at the top of the mast; and of "letting down" (Jeremiah 38:6). The R.V., therefore, is correct. The object of what they did was to enable the ship to go as near the wind as possible, and with as little straining and rolling as possible. The operation is called by sailors "lying to." Were driven (see ver. 15).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
After hoisting it up,
ἄραντες (arantes)
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 142: To raise, lift up, take away, remove.

[the crew] used
ἐχρῶντο (echrōnto)
Verb - Imperfect Indicative Middle or Passive - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 5530: To use, make use of, deal with, take advantage of.

ropes
βοηθείαις (boētheiais)
Noun - Dative Feminine Plural
Strong's 996: From boethos; aid; specially, a rope or chain for frapping a vessel.

to undergird
ὑποζωννύντες (hypozōnnyntes)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5269: To under-gird, as to strengthen a ship against the waves. From hupo and zonnumi; to gird under, i.e. Frap.

the
τὸ (to)
Article - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

ship.
πλοῖον (ploion)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4143: A ship, vessel, boat. From pleo; a sailer, i.e. Vessel.

Fearing
φοβούμενοί (phoboumenoi)
Verb - Present Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5399: From phobos; to frighten, i.e. to be alarmed; by analogy, to be in awe of, i.e. Revere.

they would run aground
ἐκπέσωσιν (ekpesōsin)
Verb - Aorist Subjunctive Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 1601: From ek and pipto; to drop away; specially, be driven out of one's course; figuratively, to lose, become inefficient.

on
εἰς (eis)
Preposition
Strong's 1519: A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.

the
τὴν (tēn)
Article - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

sandbars of Syrtis,
Σύρτιν (Syrtin)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 4950: From suro; a shoal, i.e. The Syrtis Major or great bay on the north coast of Africa.

they lowered
χαλάσαντες (chalasantes)
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5465: To let down, lower, slacken, loosen. From the base of chasma; to lower.

the
τὸ (to)
Article - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

sea anchor
σκεῦος (skeuos)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4632: A vessel, implement, equipment or apparatus (specially, a wife as contributing to the usefulness of the husband).

[and]
οὕτως (houtōs)
Adverb
Strong's 3779: Thus, so, in this manner. Or (referring to what precedes or follows).

were driven along.
ἐφέροντο (epheronto)
Verb - Imperfect Indicative Middle or Passive - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 5342: To carry, bear, bring; I conduct, lead; perhaps: I make publicly known. A primary verb.


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NT Apostles: Acts 27:17 After they had hoisted it up they (Acts of the Apostles Ac)
Acts 27:16
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