What Does Acts 21:3 Mean?

Now when we had sighted Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria, and came ashore at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload her burden.

Acts 21:3 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand, and sailed into Syria, and landed at Tyre: for there the ship was to unlade her burden.

THE KEY

The ship’s landing at Tyre is shaped by what it carries: the cargo is there to be unloaded.

THE MEANING

Cyprus comes into view and passes to the left while the ship continues toward Syria; Tyre is the stop because the cargo is unloaded there. The verse holds movement and release together: a route continues while one landing is shaped by what the vessel carries.

THE ROOT

ἀποφορτιζόμενον

apophortizomenon

GROWS FROM

⁨φέρ-⁩/⁨φορ-⁩ (pher-/phor-, carry/load stem)

⁨φέρω⁩ (pherō) means “carry, bear”; the related ⁨φέρ-⁩/⁨φορ-⁩ stem names what is carried, and ⁨ἀπό⁩ (apo, “off, away”) marks its removal.

“unload” in this verse is apophortizomenon. The Greek form gives “unlade” the sense of carrying the cargo off. The unloading word belongs to the same family as words for a load or burden, so the cargo itself explains the ship’s stop.

ALSO GROWS

phortos: load, cargo

φόρτος

This related word names what the ship carries and makes explicit the shared load-and-unload image.

phortion: load, burden

φορτίον

Galatians 6:5 uses this word for what each person bears, extending the cargo family into human carrying.

ἀναφάναντες

anaphanantes

GROWS FROM

φαν-

phan-

To show, make visible, or appear.

“sighted” in this verse is anaphanantes. The Greek form gives “discovered” the sense of Cyprus coming into view as the ship approaches. Its root is shared with words for showing and making visible, so the route opens with a landmark entering sight.

ALSO GROWS

phainō: show, shine, appear

φαίνω

This root word links the sighting of Cyprus to the broader language of something appearing.

phaneroō: make visible, manifest

φανερόω

This related word makes explicit the root’s movement from hidden to seen.

THE PATTERN

Scripture treats a load as part of a passage: it can be discharged, discarded, or carried as a burden.

Then the sailors were afraid, and each one cried out to his god. They hurled the vessels of the ship into the sea, to lighten it. But Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

Jonah 1:5 · SDVThe wares are thrown into the sea to lighten the ship, making cargo something the vessel can shed.

For my yoke fits well, and my load is light.

Matthew 11:30 · SDVThe load image shifts from freight to a personal burden that is carried.

And as we were storm-tossed exceedingly, on the next day they began the casting out.

Acts 27:18 · SDVThe ship’s load matters mid-voyage, and the crew lightens it as the passage continues.

THE THREAD

For each one carries his own load.

Galatians 6:5 · SDV

Acts uses the Greek load-and-cargo family in its word for unloading; Galatians uses ⁨φορτίον⁩ (phortion, “load” or “burden”) for what each person bears. The shared family lets a literal freight scene resonate with human carrying without turning the ship’s cargo into a metaphor.

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