What Does Acts 27:4 Mean?
And when we had put out from there, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were facing us.
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 we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary.THE KEY
The voyage continues by sailing under the island’s shelter, letting the contrary wind shape the route instead of stopping it.
THE MEANING
The passage runs under Cyprus because the winds meet it from the opposing direction. The vessel keeps moving along the island’s shelter, and the contrary wind shapes the route without erasing the voyage.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief is that a way forward must go straight into resistance; this verse shows a voyage advancing along a sheltered course.
THE ROOT
ὑπεπλεύσαμεν
hypepleusamen
GROWS FROM
πλέω
pleō
to sail
“sailed under” in this verse is hypepleusamen. The verb joins ὑπό (hypo, under) with πλέω (pleō, sail), carrying the sense of sailing beneath or along the island. The route uses shelter to keep the voyage moving.
ALSO GROWS
ploion: ship, vessel
πλοῖον
The vessel is named within the same sailing word family; here its movement depends on finding a course the wind allows.
plous: voyage, sailing
πλοῦς
The word names the passage itself, which continues even as the route bends beneath Cyprus.
ἐναντίους
enantious
GROWS FROM
ἐναντι-
enanti-
opposite, facing against
“facing us” in this verse is enantious. The Greek word gives the wind a direction in relation to the vessel: it faces against the course. English “contrary” can sound like general difficulty, while this root makes the opposition directional.
ALSO GROWS
enantion: opposite, facing across from
ἐναντίον
This branch makes the spatial sense of opposition visible: the wind meets the vessel from the other direction.
enantioomai: to oppose, stand against
ἐναντιόομαι
The same word family describes opposition as an active stance, matching the wind’s force against the sailing course.
THE PATTERN
Wind governs passage: it can open a way through waters, subside floodwaters, or oppose a vessel.
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark, and God caused a breath to cross over the earth, and the waters settled.And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD made the sea go back by a strong breath of the east all that night, and made the sea dry ground, and the waters were split.But the boat was already many stadia from the land, tormented by the waves, for the wind was set against them.THE THREAD
But the boat was already many stadia from the land, tormented by the waves, for the wind was set against them.Matthew uses the same Greek word, ἐναντίος (enantios, opposite or facing against), for the wind that meets the boat. There, the opposition batters a vessel in open water; here, the route bends under an island’s shelter.
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