Bible Strands
Acts 27:20
When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the great storm continued to batter us, we abandoned all hope of being saved.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the ship’s crew losing all hope of survival during a prolonged storm, positioned between the loss of navigational equipment and Paul’s subsequent warning.
The words — μήτε (mēte) means “neither” and ἐπιφαινόντων (epiphainontōn) means “appearing,” together describing the sun and stars failing to show. This phrasing marks the complete loss of celestial navigation.
The thread — The loss of sun and stars echoes Exodus 10:21’s plague of darkness and anticipates Matthew 24:29’s cosmic signs, while Matthew 8:24 parallels the storm’s intensity.
Why it lands — The text states that human hope ends when visible signs vanish, requiring the reader to rely on God’s spoken promise rather than observable circumstances.
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
King James Version
And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.
Cross-references
- Matthew 8:24 Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was engulfed by the waves. But Jesus was sleeping.
- Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’
- Exodus 10:21 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that darkness may spread over the land of Egypt—a palpable darkness.”
- Isaiah 57:10 You are wearied by your many journeys, but you did not say, “There is no hope!” You found renewal of your strength; therefore you did not grow weak.
- Jeremiah 2:25 You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’
- Ezekiel 37:11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
- Ephesians 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:13 Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope.
- Jonah 1:4 Then the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship was in danger of breaking apart.
- Jonah 1:11 Now the sea was growing worse and worse, so they said to Jonah, “What must we do to you to calm this sea for us?”