27:40a

Cutting away the anchors: This clause in Greek is literally “removing the anchors.” Since the sailors already put anchors from the stern, this clause refers to untying or cutting the ropes that held the anchors to the ship. Other ways to translate this clause are:

they cast off the anchors (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
They untied/removed the anchor ropes
-or-
They cut the anchors free (God’s Word)

they left them in the sea: There are two ways to interpret the Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as left:

(1) The verb means left or abandoned here. For example:

left them in the sea (Revised Standard Version)

(Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New American Standard Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition, English Standard Version, New Living Translation (2004), God’s Word, NET Bible, New Century Version)

(2) The verb means let sink here. For example:

let them sink in the sea (Good News Translation)

(Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, Contemporary English Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because the anchors had already sunk to the bottom in 27:29.

27:40b

loosened the ropes that held the rudders: The Greek words here are literally “untying the ropes of the rudders.” When the sailors dropped the sea anchor (27:17), they probably also raised the rudders out of the water and tied them in that position. (See drawing in the Notes at 27:1 that show the rudders in the water.) Sailors would do this to prevent the huge waves from breaking the rudders as they drifted. (27:18 tells us that the storm beat on the ship severely). Now they needed the rudders to steer the ship toward the beach, so they loosened the ropes and removed them from the rudders. Then they could lower one end into the water and steer. In some languages implied information about the action would make the action clear. For example:

untied the ropes that held the rudders ⌊out of the water⌋
-or-
untied the ropes that held the rudders ⌊and lowered them into the water to steer⌋

rudders: The rudders used at that time were shaped like oars, but they pointed backward from the ship and down into the water. The ship had a rudder on each side of it at the back. Then they could lower one end into the water and steer. Other ways to translate this are:

steering oars (Good News Translation)
-or-
paddles for steering

27:40c

they hoisted the foresail to the wind: This clause refers to raising the foresail on the mast in the front of the ship and direct it so that it caught the wind. Other ways to translate this clause are:

they raised the front sail into the wind (New Century Version)
-or-
they raised the sail at the front of the ship so that the wind would blow the ship forward (Good News Translation)

foresail: This refers to a rectangular sail at the front of the ship. Large ships of that time had two sails: a large rectangular sail in the middle of the ship and a smaller rectangular sail at the front. See the examples in the note above.

made for the beach: This refers to steering the ship so that it moved toward the beach. For example:

they headed for the beach (New Jerusalem Bible)

© 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.