What Does Acts 21:2 Mean?
And finding a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, we stepped aboard and put out.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And finding a ship sailing over unto Phenicia, we went aboard, and set forth.THE KEY
A passage is already moving toward Phoenicia when they find it; they step aboard, and the Greek says they are put out to sea.
THE MEANING
A route to Phoenicia appears in a ship already sailing toward it, and the travelers board. As they enter its passage, the crossing begins.
THE ROOT
ἀνήχθημεν
anēchthēmen
GROWS FROM
ἄγω
agō
to lead or bring
“put out” in this verse is anēchthēmen. The Greek verb is a passive form of ἀνάγω (anagō, bring or lead up), used at sea for putting out to sea. The English phrase sounds like a simple departure; the Greek also holds the sense of being put into motion.
ALSO GROWS
anagō: to lead or bring up; at sea, to put out to sea
ἀνάγω
This is the compound verb behind “set forth,” with ἄγω (agō, lead or bring) at its root.
synagōgē: a gathering or assembly
συναγωγή
This word for a gathering carries the same root’s sense of bringing people together.
διαπερῶν
diaperōn
GROWS FROM
περ-
per-
across or beyond; passing through or over
“sailing over” in this verse is diaperōn. The ship is described as crossing toward Phoenicia, so the verse’s motion is already a passage across water before the travelers board. The root family holds both the act of crossing and the far side toward which it moves.
ALSO GROWS
peraō: to pass over or cross
περάω
This is the verb at the center of the crossing language in “sailing over.”
peran: across, beyond, on the other side
πέραν
The word names the far side toward which the ship is already traveling.
peras: an end, boundary, or limit
πέρας
The same word family can name the boundary a crossing reaches.
πλοῖον
ploion
GROWS FROM
πλέω
pleō
to sail or float
The Greek word for the ship belongs to the same word family as the verb for sailing. English separates the vessel from its motion; Greek keeps them close.
ALSO GROWS
pleō: to sail
πλέω
The ship’s name grows from the act it makes possible.
plous: a voyage or sailing
πλοῦς
This related word names the journey itself, linking the vessel to the crossing.
THE PATTERN
A route across water becomes a real journey when travelers enter a vessel and set out.
But Jonah rose up to run to Tarshish from the face of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish. He gave its price, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the face of the LORD.And they stepped into the boat, and went across the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them.THE THREAD
And stepping into a ship of Adramyttium, we put out, meaning to sail along the shores of Asia, and Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, was with us.Acts 27:2 uses the same verb for “launched” after the travelers enter another ship. The repeated verb confirms the nautical sense here: ἀνάγω (anagō, bring or lead up) is the act of putting out to sea.
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