What Does Acts 27:15 Mean?
And when the ship was seized and could not face the wind, we gave her over to be carried along.
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 when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive.THE KEY
The Greek turns “we let her drive” into a picture of the crew being carried along with the ship.
THE MEANING
When the force before you exceeds your power to face it, this verse speaks from inside the motion: the ship cannot hold its course, so the crew is carried onward. The loss of steering does not stop movement; it changes who or what bears it.
THE ROOT
ἐφερόμεθα
epherometha
GROWS FROM
φερ-
pher-
To bear, carry, or bring.
“drive” in this verse is epherometha. The Greek verb pictures the crew themselves as being carried. Its root gathers bearing and movement into one image, making the shift from steering to being carried part of the verse’s texture.
ALSO GROWS
anapherō: Carry up, bring up.
ἀναφέρω
This branch shows how the root can mark the direction of what is borne, while Acts emphasizes being borne along.
peripherō: Carry around, bear about.
περιφέρω
It preserves the sense of movement under a carrying force, the same motion that shapes the scene in Acts.
THE PATTERN
Being carried is movement whose force comes from beyond the one being moved.
Then they are glad, for they are quiet; and he leads them to the harbor of their delight.Who, being the radiance of his weight and the exact stamp of his foundation, carrying all things by the word of his power, when he had made the cleansing of shortcomings, sat down at the right hand of the Greatness on high.For prophecy is never borne by the wanting of man, but set-apart men of God speak, borne by the Set-Apart Breath.THE THREAD
For prophecy is never borne by the wanting of man, but set-apart men of God speak, borne by the Set-Apart Breath.The Greek word translated “moved” comes from the same φέρω (pherō) root as the verb behind “let her drive.” In Acts the wind carries the ship and its crew; here the Set-Apart Breath carries the speakers.
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