Acts 27:40

Cutting away the anchors, they left them in the sea as they loosened the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach.

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — The ship’s crew acts at dawn after a prolonged storm, having sighted a bay with a sandy beach and deciding to run the vessel ashore. They execute the final nautical adjustments to beach the ship before daylight fully breaks.

The words — περιελόντες (perielontes) means "having cut away," and ἀγκύρας (agkuras) means "anchors." The text records the crew severing the anchor lines to discard the weights into the water.

The thread — This action reverses the earlier dropping of four anchors from the stern (Acts 27:29) and parallels the imagery of slackened ropes and unspread sails in Isaiah 33:23. The sequence immediately precedes the hull striking a sandbar and the bow becoming fixed (Acts 27:41).

Why it lands — The verse documents the mechanical transition from controlled navigation to desperate beaching, showing how standard maritime procedures are abandoned under imminent wreck. It requires the reader to track the precise, sequential steps taken to survive a storm-driven grounding.

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 they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore.

Cross-references

Isaiah 33:23 Your ropes are slack; they cannot secure the mast or spread the sail. Then an abundance of spoils will be divided, and even the lame will carry off plunder.
Acts 27:29 Fearing that we would run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daybreak.