What Does Acts 27:10 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
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.
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 Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?THE THREAD
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his 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.
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