Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 28

Then they knew that the island was called Melita. There is no ground for questioning the current belief that this was the modern Malta. It was the only island known as Melita by the Greeks and Romans. The gale, which had been blowing for fourteen days since the ship left Crete, would drive her in that direction.

The local features of St. Paul’s Bay agree closely, as has been seen, with the narrative in the Acts. There has from a very early date been a local tradition in favour of the belief.

The Bay bears St. Paul’s name. A cave is pointed out as having given him shelter.

There has, however, been a rival claimant. In the Gulf of Venice, off the coast of Illyria, there is a small island, Meleta (now Meleda), which has been identified by some writers with the scene of St. Paul’s shipwreck. The view is first mentioned by Constantino Porphyrogenitus, a Greek writer of the tenth century, and was revived in the last century by Padre Georgi, an ecclesiastic of the island.

There is, however, not a shadow of evidence in its favour, beyond the similarity (not identity) of name, and the mention of Adria in Acts 27:27. It has been shown, however, that that term was used with far too wide a range to be decisive on such a question.

And against the view there are the facts:

1. that it would almost have required a miracle to get the ship, with a north-east gale blowing strongly, up to the Illyrian coast of the Gulf of Venice;
2. that a ship would not naturally have wintered on that coast on its way from Alexandria to Puteoli (Acts 28:11);
3. that there has been no local tradition in its favour, as at Malta.

The island of Malta was originally a Phoenician colony. It came under the power of Carthage in B.C. 402 and was ceded to Rome in B.C. 242. Its temple, dedicated to Juno, was rich enough to be an object of plunder to Verres, the Praetor of Sicily (Cicero, In Verrem, vv. 46).

The barbarous people . . .—It has been urged in favor of Meleda that this description is more applicable to the people of that island than to those of Malta, whom Diodorus Siculus (v. 12) describes as “very rich, practising many trades, manufacturing fine clothes, and dwelling in large and splendid houses.” It is obvious, however, that St. Luke uses the term, as St. Paul does (Romans 1:14; 1 Corinthians 14:11), and as was then common, as applicable to all races that did not speak Greek. Such a term as “Scythian” (Colossians 3:11) was used to describe what we would call “barbarians” or “savages.” For him, “barbarian” was like the term “native,” which our travelers apply indiscriminately to Fiji Islanders and Cingalese.

The language of Malta at the time, if not absolutely Punic, was probably a very debased Greek. The inscriptions that have been found in the island are, as was natural, in Greek and Latin, which were used as official languages by their rulers.

No little kindness.—Literally, no common (or average) philanthropy. The idiom is the same as that of the “special miracles” of Acts 19:11.

And received us . . .—The word implies both shelter and hospitality. Warmth, above all things, was necessary for those who had been chilled and drenched; and for this purpose, probably in some open space, or atrium, a large fire was lighted.

Because of the present rain . . .—The rain followed naturally on the cessation of the gale. The “cold” shows that the wind was not the Sirocco, which is always accompanied by heat.

And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks . . .—The act was characteristic of the cheerful energy which had been shown throughout the previous night. This fact has been dwelt on as militating against the identity of Melita and Malta, no wood being now found in the island except at one spot (Bosquetta), not near St. Paul’s Bay. The Greek word, however, is applied to the dry stalks of herbaceous plants rather than to the branches of trees, and, as such, exactly describes the stout, thorny heather that still grows near the bay. It is clear, however, apart from this, that the people of Malta did not live without fire, and, not having coal, must therefore have had wood of some kind as fuel.

There came a viper out of the heat.—There are said to be no venomous serpents now in Malta, and this again has been pressed into the question of the identity of the island. Mr. Lewin, however (St. Paul, ii. 208), states that he saw a serpent, near St. Paul’s Bay, that looked very like a viper; and even if he were mistaken in this, it would be natural enough that venomous snakes should disappear under the influence of culture, as they have done elsewhere, in the course of 1800 years.

The venomous beast.—The adjective, as the italics show, is not in the Greek, and can hardly be said to be necessary.

No doubt this man is a murderer.—They knew, we may believe, that St. Paul was a prisoner. It is hardly conceivable, indeed, that he could have come on shore bound by two chains, or even one, to his keeper, but, looking to the jealous care which the soldiers had shown in the custody of the prisoners (Acts 27:42), it would be natural that they should resume their vigilance over him as soon as they were all safe on shore. And so the natives of Melita, seeing what they did, and ignorant of the prisoner’s crime, and with their rough notions of the divine government of the world, rushed to the conclusion that they were looking on an example of God’s vengeance against murder. It was in vain that such a criminal had escaped the waves; a more terrible death was waiting for him.

They looked when he should have swollen . . .—Better, and they were expecting that . . . The verb for “swollen” implies literally “inflammation,” and one of the enormous serpents of Africa took its name, Prestes (“the inflamer”), from it. Lucan (ix. 790) describes the effect of its bite—

“Percussit Prestes, illi ruber igneus ora
Succendit, tenditque cutem, pereunte figurâ.”
[“ The Prestes bit him, and a fiery flush
Lit up his face, and set the skin a-stretch,
And all its comely grace had passed away.”]

They changed their minds, and said that he was a god.—The miraculous escape naturally made an even stronger impression on the minds of the Melitese than what had seemed a supernatural judgment. Their thoughts may have travelled quickly to the attributes of the deities who, like Apollo or Æsculapius, were depicted as subduing serpents. This sudden change of belief may be noted as presenting a kind of inverted parallelism with what had come over the people of Lystra (see Notes on Acts 14:11; Acts 14:19).