What Does Acts 21:3 Mean in the King James?

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.

Acts 21:3 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

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.

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.

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 mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

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

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

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

And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship;

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

THE THREAD

For every man shall bear his own burden.

Galatians 6:5 · KJV

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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