Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Acts 27:42 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 42. 42And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Reveals soldiers' plan to kill prisoners to prevent escape.
A broken ship, a plan to kill prisoners, and a centurion who stops it
This verse is one part of that explanation in Acts 27:39–27:44. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Acts 27:39–27:44
Read Acts 27:42 with 27:39–27:44. In isolation, this contribution—reveals soldiers' plan to kill prisoners to prevent escape—can be mistaken for the scene's whole claim, detached from its speaker or narrator, or separated from its outcome. The complete unit establishes: The crew attempts a beach landing, the ship grounds and breaks, soldiers plan to kill prisoners, the centurion stops them to save Paul, and swimmers and debris carry everyone safely ashore.
Follow the Context
- The crew attempts a beach landing, the ship grounds and breaks, soldiers plan to kill prisoners, the centurion stops them to save Paul, and swimmers and debris carry everyone safely ashore.
- The unit distinguishes narrated event, participant speech, the narrator's framing, material uncertainty, and the ethical boundary: The rescue does not excuse execution policy, make prisoners expendable, or turn survival into proof of superior faith.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
This verse does not detach its specific contribution—reveals soldiers' plan to kill prisoners to prevent escape—from Acts 27:39–27:44 or negate the unit's explicit boundary: The rescue does not excuse execution policy, make prisoners expendable, or turn survival into proof of superior faith.
What Remains True
Acts 27:42's particular contribution—reveals soldiers' plan to kill prisoners to prevent escape—shows that faithful witness remains accountable to the verse's speaker, narrated setting, affected people, and the complete movement of Acts 27:39–27:44.
Teach It Back
Explain Acts 27:42's precise role in Acts 27:39–27:44. Distinguish narrator and speaker, include the first Jewish, Gentile, household, disabled, enslaved, imprisoned, or Roman horizon as relevant, disclose the material uncertainty, and name one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Acts 27:39–27:44 — The ship breaks, and every person reaches landSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and unit coverage.
Exact location: Acts 27:39–27:44, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and punctuation control, without pretending one edition is a complete apparatus.
Exact location: SBLGNT official text, Acts 27:39-27:44
Open the Acts Greek text file ↗Lexical and grammatical evidence
STEP Bible Data
Tyndale House Cambridge
Tyndale House Cambridge, repository snapshot verified 2026
Supports: Morphology and lexical cross-check for words explicitly discussed in this unit.
Exact location: STEP Bible Data, TAGNT rows for Acts 27:39-27:44
Open source ↗open translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Acts
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, translation, language, geography, chronology, and historical notes actually printed for the unit.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Acts PDF, printed pp. 2104-2205, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to 27:39–27:44
Open source ↗open university bible study course
Acts of the Apostles Course and Study Guides
Yale Divinity School faculty
Yale Bible Study, 2019
Supports: Introductory critical orientation to the unit's place in Luke-Acts, with contested judgments retained as interpretations.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study Acts course, course unit 'The Gospel, the Romans, the Jews,' Acts 24-28 study guide
Open source ↗open confessional commentary
The Acts of the Apostles
Alan J. Thompson
The Gospel Coalition, 2023
Supports: One complete confessional commentary reading, independently checked against the text and critical controls.
Exact location: Thompson, online Acts commentary, heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Acts 27:39–27:44
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
The Provincial Contexts of Paul's Imprisonments: Law Enforcement and Criminal Procedure in the Roman East
Cedric Brelaz
Journal for the Study of the New Testament 43.4, 2021
Supports: Roman law-enforcement comparison with explicit local variation and limits on reconstructing procedure.
Exact location: Brelaz, JSNT 43.4 (2021), complete open HTML, section 1 and the named provincial, custody, citizenship, hearing, or conclusion paragraphs bearing on Acts 27:39–27:44
Open source ↗