Acts 21:6

And after we had said our farewells, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Paul narrates the final moment at the Tyrian harbor after the local believers have accompanied him and his companions out of the city to pray on the beach. The group boards their vessel while the believers return to their residences.

The words — ἀπησπασάμεθα (apēspasametha) literally means "we have greeted one another" or "we took our leave," and ἀνέβημεν (anebēmen) means "we went up" or boarded. These verbs mark the precise transition from the beach prayer to the physical departure.

The thread — The pattern of departure and returning home runs through John 7:53, where each person goes to his own house, and John 19:27, where the disciple takes Jesus’ mother into his home. The motif of reception and separation also appears in John 1:11, noting how people return to or receive their own.

Why it lands — The text records the factual sequence of boarding a ship and the local believers going home after a prayerful farewell. It requires the reader to acknowledge that early Christian travel operated through deliberate, ritualized partings that established clear boundaries before physical separation.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

ἀπησπασάμεθαapēspasamethawe greeted ἀλλήλουςallēlousone another καὶkaiand ἀνέβημενanebēmenwe went up εἰςeisinto τὸtothe πλοῖον,ploionboat,ἐκεῖνοιekeinoithey δὲdethen ὑπέστρεψανhupestrepsanreturned εἰςeisto τὰta<the>ἴδια.idia[their] own.

King James Version

And when we had taken our leave one of another, we took ship; and they returned home again.

Cross-references

John 19:27 Then He said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” So from that hour, this disciple took her into his home.
John 1:11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
John 7:53 Then each went to his own home.
John 16:32 “Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
2 Corinthians 2:13 I had no peace in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.