Acts 28:1-31

St. Paul a Prisoner at Rome

1. They.. they] RV ’we.. we.’ Melita] RM ’Melitene.’ Melita is certainly Malta, and not (as has been erroneously supposed) Meleda off the Illyrian coast. Tradition correctly locates the shipwreck in St. Paul’s Bay, about 8 m. NW. of Valetta.

2. The barbarous people] RV ’the barbarians.’ The Gk. word does not imply that they were uncivilised, but only that they were neither Greeks nor Romans.

3. Cp. Mark 16:18. As St. Paul was arranging the faggot on the fire, the viper, feeling the heat, glided out of the faggot and bit the Apostle’s hand. There are now no vipers in Malta, but the clearing of the ancient forests, and the great density of the population, are sufficient to account for their disappearance.

4. Vengeance] rather, ’Justice’ (personified as a goddess). A god] cp. the events at Lystra (Acts 14:11), which also illustrate the popular levity of judgment.

7. The chief man] lit. ’the first man.’ Inscriptions show that this title is technically correct. Malta was part of the province of Sicily, and Publius was a subordinate of the praetor of Sicily. Tradition places his house at Città-Vecchia.

8. Bloody flux] RV ’dysentery.’ Observe in this v. the technical medical language.

9. Others] We have here the firsthand evidence of a competent medical witness to the reality of St. Paul’s miraculous cures.

11. After three months] i.e. probably somewhat early in February, before the usual time of navigation. Castor and Pollux] (lit. ’the Dioscuri’), the twin sons of Jupiter, and tutelary deities of sailors.

12. Landing] RV ’touching.’ Syracuse] 100 m. N. of Malta, the capital of Sicily, and a Roman colony.

13. Fetched a compass] i.e. made a circuit. Rhegium] an ancient Gk. colony situated on the Italian side of the Straits of Messina, near the dreaded rock of Scylla, and the whirlpool of Charybdis. Puteoli] also called Dicæarchia, was (with Ostia) the great corn mart of Italy, where the Alexandrian cornships discharged their cargoes. It lay on the N. shore of the Bay of Naples, and contained a certain number of Jews.

15. Appii forum] RV ’the Market of Appius,’ was 43 Roman m. S. of Rome on the great Appian Road, the main line of communication between Rome and the East. The Three Taverns] 10 Roman miles from the capital.