Greek word · G3989

πέλαγος

pelagos

sea

The open sea or high sea: the wide expanse of water away from shore. It is sometimes used of a particular named body of water ('the Aegean pelagos'), and figuratively of the 'depth' or vastness of something.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

πέλαγος, -ους, τό

[in LXX: 2Ma.5:21, 4Ma.7:1 * ;]

the deep sea, the deep, the sea: Acts 27:5; τὸ π. τῆς θαλάσσης, Matthew 18:6

SYN.: θαλάσσα (which see); and cf. ἄβυσσος (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 27:5

Range of meaning

The open sea or high sea: the wide expanse of water away from shore. It is sometimes used of a particular named body of water ('the Aegean pelagos'), and figuratively of the 'depth' or vastness of something.

Against the English

KJV and WEB say simply 'sea'. BSB and ESV say 'open sea', which keeps the difference from the ordinary word for sea (thalassa). NLT turns it into a strategy ('keeping to the open sea'), which reads more into the word than it says.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used widely in classical and Hellenistic Greek for the open sea. In the New Testament it appears only here and in Matthew 18:6 ('the depth [pelagos] of the sea [thalassa]'), where the two words appear side by side. It occurs in the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament), e.g. 2 Maccabees 5:21, of making the sea passable, and in Josephus and Philo for the high seas.

Where it appears

Matthew · 1

  1. Matthew 18:6 πελάγει depth

    But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

    Here: The open sea far from shore, the deep water. Not the shallows.

Acts · 1

  1. Acts 27:5 πέλαγος then

    And when we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia.

    Here: The open expanse of water, as opposed to the shoreline or a harbour. Here it names the broad sea lying off the south coast of Asia Minor.

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