If the ancient historian Pliny is correct, sailing began on February 7, the beginning of spring. Assuming that the ship left as early as possible, after three months would indicate that they had been shipwrecked since the early part of November. It may, however, be necessary to relate after three months to some intermediary verbal expression—for example, “after we had stayed there three months, we sailed away,” “after being there three months, we sailed away,” or even “we stayed there three months, and then we sailed away.”

A ship from Alexandria may either be “a ship whose home port was Alexandria” or simply “a ship which was coming from Alexandria.”

The word translated called may have the meaning of “having as a figurehead.” The precise meaning of this word is disputed, though it is known that the ancients often named their ships by the figurehead on the bow of the ship. For this reason it is safe to assume, along with the Good News Translation (so also An American Translation* and New English Bible), that the meaning here is “called” or “named.” It is important, however, that the name The Twin Gods be applied to the ship and not to Alexandria. It may be very useful at this point to have some marginal note to explain that the principal beam at the prow of the ship may have been carved into the shape of The Twin Gods. The Twin Gods (Jerusalem Bible “the Twins”) translates one word in Greek, which refers to the twin gods Castor and Pollux (see New English Bible), who were often worshiped by sailors.

The equivalent of winter in some languages is “the cold months”; in other languages it is “the time of storms.” Either reference would be perfectly appropriate in this context.

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 .