What Does Acts 27:10 Mean?
And said to them, Men, I behold that the voyage will come with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our living souls.
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 said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives.THE KEY
The Greek names the final stake as the living souls aboard, so ship and cargo cannot exhaust what the voyage puts at risk.
THE MEANING
When a path ahead carries danger, its cost reaches beyond what is carried and what carries it to the living souls inside. The verse keeps material loss and human peril in view at once; a broken vessel is not the whole disaster. Perception names the full human exposure before it arrives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a loss is only material, that counting the cargo and vessel also counts the human cost.
THE ROOT
ψυχῶν
psychōn
GROWS FROM
ψυχ-
The living soul: a person as a living self, not an abstract soul detached from life.
“living souls” in this verse is psychōn. The KJV’s “lives” carries the Greek word for the living soul. This makes the people aboard more than one item in a list of losses: they are living selves whose fate is bound up with the voyage.
ALSO GROWS
psychē: Living soul, life, or person.
ψυχή
This is the singular form behind “lives”; it keeps the human person in view as a whole.
psychikos: Natural, pertaining to the living self.
ψυχικός
This related form shows the word family reaching into the character of a living person, not just an abstract idea of a soul.
ὕβρεως
hybreōs
GROWS FROM
ὑβρ-
Outrageous force, insolent excess, or violent injury.
“injury” in this verse is hybreōs. The word translated “hurt” carries the shade of outrage and violence. Its word family describes treating someone outrageously, giving the warning a sharper edge than mere discomfort.
ALSO GROWS
hybrizō: To act outrageously or treat someone with insult or violence.
ὑβρίζω
The verb shows the forceful quality contained in the warning about hurt.
hybristēs: A violent or insolent person.
ὑβριστής
This related noun carries the same sense of forceful outrage, illuminating the severity of the peril named here.
ζημίας
zēmias
GROWS FROM
ζημι-
Loss, forfeiture, or penalty.
The word family holds damage and loss together. The warning reaches from what may be lost in the cargo and ship to the living selves at risk, a pairing that appears again when a person’s soul is described as something that can be lost.
ALSO GROWS
zēmia: Loss, damage, or penalty.
ζημία
This is the noun used for the expected damage, including the material losses named in the verse.
zēmioō: To suffer or incur loss.
ζημιόω
Matthew 16:26 uses this related verb for losing a living soul, joining the language of loss to the same human stake.
THE PATTERN
A living self cannot be reduced to the cargo, vessel, or gains at stake around it.
And the Adversary answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, and all that a man has he will give for his living soul.And he said to them, Watch, and guard yourselves against grasping, for a person's life does not lie in the overflow of what they hold.For what does it profit a human, if he gains the whole world and is damaged in his living soul? Or what will a human give in exchange for his living soul?THE THREAD
For what does it profit a human, if he gains the whole world and is damaged in his living soul? Or what will a human give in exchange for his living soul?Both verses use ψυχή (psychē, living soul) for the person at stake. Acts also uses ζημία (zēmia, loss), while Matthew uses ζημιόω (zēmioō, to suffer loss) with that same word for soul; together, they ask what gain means when the living self is what can be lost.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us