Greek word · G4403

πρύμνα

prymna

stern

The stern, the back part of a ship.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

πρύμνα, -ης, ἡ

prop. fem. of adj. πρύμνο, -η, -ον, (sc. ναῦς), the hindmost part of a ship, the stern: Mark 4:38, Acts 27:29; opposite to πρῷρα, 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 27:29

Range of meaning

The stern, the back part of a ship.

Against the English

All versions have 'stern' except NLT's 'back of the ship'. The words are accurate. What a modern reader misses is why stern anchoring matters.

Used elsewhere in the period

It appears in Mark 4:38 (Jesus asleep in the stern) and Acts 27:41 (the stern broken up by the waves). James Smith (1848), a yachtsman who studied this voyage, pointed out that ships of this period normally anchored from the bow. He compared Nelson's ships at Copenhagen (1801), which anchored by the stern for a similar tactical reason.

Where it appears

Mark · 1

  1. Mark 4:38 πρύμνῃ stern

    But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him and said, “Teacher, don’t You care that we are perishing?”

    Here: The back of the boat, where the helmsman sat and steered with the steering oar. It was often slightly raised and was the only partly sheltered spot in an open fishing boat.

Acts · 2

  1. Acts 27:29 πρύμνης stern

    Fearing that we would run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daybreak.

    Here: The stern. Anchoring from here was unusual and deliberate: it held the bow pointing toward land, ready to run the ship ashore at first light (v.39–41).

  2. Acts 27:41 πρύμνα the stern

    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: The back of the ship. This is where the steering oars were and where the sailors had dropped four anchors (27:29). It now takes the full force of the waves.

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