Paragraph 27:21–26

27:21a

After the men had gone a long time without food: The Greek words are literally “many having a loss of appetite.” The words in the Greek do not say who went without food, but the Greek grammar probably implies that many of the people on the ship had gone a long time without food. For example:

After everyone ⌊on the ship⌋ had gone a long time without food (Good News Translation)

had gone…without food: The Greek words are literally “having a loss of appetite.” Since the wind and waves tossed the ship back and forth, many people were seasick and did not want to eat. Others were perhaps too worried to eat. Other ways to translate this clause are:

No one had eaten (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
none of us had eaten anything (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
many…had no desire to eat (NET Bible)

a long time: 27:27 refers to the storm lasting for fourteen days and nights. So the phrase a long time probably refers to most of that time, perhaps ten to thirteen days or even the fourteenth day. Another way to translate this phrase is:

many days

27:21b

Paul stood up among them: The sailors had probably gathered together, so Paul could speak to them as a group. For example:

Paul stood up among the men (New Jerusalem Bible)

them: This pronoun refers to the “men” in 27:21c. It probably refers to the sailors (27:17, 27:19), but includes those who decided to sail from Crete (27:11–12), because Paul talked about that decision here. If you translated 27:11–12 as referring to men only, you should refer to men only here. For example:

the men (Contemporary English Version)

But if you translated 27:11–12 as referring to the people on the ship, you should refer to people here. For example:

the people

27:21c

Men: Paul began his talk with this polite address.

Translate in a way that allows the same meaning for the group that decides in 27:11–12.

you should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete: The Greek words are literally “having obeyed me, it was necessary not to sail from Crete.” This is probably a reminder of their previous mistake of not doing what Paul advised, so that they would not make the same mistake again.

Other ways to translate this clause are:

You should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete (Good News Translation)
-or-
if you had believed what I said so that we had not left Crete
-or-
if you had done as I advised, we would not have sailed from Crete

27:21d

Then you would have averted this disaster and loss: The word averted refers to avoiding something. If the people had followed Paul’s advice, they would have avoided this disaster and loss to the ship and cargo. Other ways to translate this clause are:

and thereby avoided this damage and loss (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
you would not have had this damage and loss (Contemporary English Version)

this disaster and loss: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as disaster here could also be translated as “damage.” The storm had damaged the ship and other things still on the ship. People threw some things overboard so they were lost. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

these things being broken and other things being lost
-or-
the storm damaging many things and requiring you to throw other things overboard

© 2001, 2021 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.