Greek word · G1337

διθάλασσος

dithalassos

sandbar

A compound of di- ('two') and thalassa ('sea'). It describes a place washed by sea on two sides. Ancient writers use it for a headland or isthmus between two bodies of water, for shallows where seas meet, and for a reef or bank with deep water on either side.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

διθάλασσος, -ον

(δις, θύλασσα);

1. divided into two seas (as the Euxine, Strab., ii, 522).

2. dividing the sea: τόπον δ., a tongue of land, or reef, running out into the sea: Acts 27:41.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Acts 27:41

Range of meaning

A compound of di- ('two') and thalassa ('sea'). It describes a place washed by sea on two sides. Ancient writers use it for a headland or isthmus between two bodies of water, for shallows where seas meet, and for a reef or bank with deep water on either side. BDAG offers 'a point of land jutting out into the sea, a reef or sandbank'.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'where two seas met' and YLT 'a place of two seas' keep the literal picture. BSB/NIV 'sandbar' and ESV/NASB 'reef' each choose one physical explanation. The Greek itself does not say which.

How it drifted

No real drift, but 'where two seas met' can make a modern reader picture two named seas meeting, like a confluence on a map. The Greek means something local and small: a spot with water on both sides of the ship.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare word. Lexicons cite Strabo's geography (of coasts and straits washed on two sides) and Dio Chrysostom (Oration 5, of the treacherous shallows of the Syrtis off North Africa, the same Syrtis the sailors feared in Acts 27:17). It occurs nowhere else in the Bible.

Where it appears

Acts · 1

  1. Acts 27:41 διθάλασσον between two seas

    But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was being broken up by the pounding of the waves.

    Here: Literally 'two-sea'd': a spot with water on both sides. That could be a sandbank or shoal, a spit of land, or a narrow channel where currents meet. Luke names the effect, not a geographic feature.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.