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Acts 28:1-10. The shipwrecked company hospitably entertained in Malta. Paul, bitten by a viper, feels no hurt. Cure of the father of the chief magistrate

1. And when they were escaped] The oldest MSS. give the first person plural in this verse. Render (with R. V.) “when we were … we knew.”

Melita] They would at once learn what the land was from the natives whom they found on the shore. Tradition has from the earliest times identified Melita with the modern Malta. But Constantine Porphyrogenitus (de Adm. Imp. p. 36) and others after him have attempted to shew that Meleda, a small island in the Adriatic Sea, not far from the coast of Illyria, was the scene of the shipwreck. They have supported this opinion by confining the sense of Adria (Acts 27:27) to the modem Adriatic Sea, by their explanation of “barbarians” in the next verse of this chapter, and by the absence of vipers at the present time from the island of Malta. But the latter circumstance is not without a parallel. The advance of cultivation and alteration of temperature have destroyed poisonous beasts out of other districts besides Malta, and the two first arguments are founded on mistakes. Moreover it is hardly possible to conceive that a ship should be driven for fourteen days in the Adriatic without going ashore, and the direction in which they sailed after finding a fresh vessel (Acts 28:11-12) is also completely opposed to the idea that they were wrecked in the Gulf of Venice.

2. And the barbarous people] [R. V. barbarians] The word is used in the original, as it was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Those who did not speak their language were to them always “barbarians” not necessarily in our modern sense but as strange and foreign folks. The language spoken in Malta was probably a Phœnician dialect, as the island had received most of its inhabitants from Carthage, but had come under Roman rule in the second Punic war (Livy, xxi. 51).

shewed us no little [R. V. no common] kindness] The same Greek expression is used Acts 19:11 of St Paul’s miracles. There both versions give “special” as the rendering. And we might here read “shewed us especial kindness.”

received us every one] [R. V. all] i.e. took us under their care. At first of course the hospitality would be shewn by kind treatment on the beach, evidenced by their lighting a fire. Afterwards, as the stay was of three months’ duration, the sailors and prisoners would find quarters in the dwellings of the natives. Paul, the centurion, and some others were received into the house of the chief magistrate. The rain continued after they had got ashore, and the storm had so lowered the temperature that the first thing to be done was to make a large fire.

3. And [R. V. But] when Paul had gathered] This is only another sign of the active spirit of the Apostle. Whatever was to be done, if he were able to take a part in it, he was never wanting, whether it was in counselling about a difficulty, in comforting under danger, or helping by bodily labour to relieve the general distress.

a bundle of sticks] The word in the original would apply very fitly to the brushwood and furze which is said to be the only material growing near St Paul’s Bay of which a fire could be made.

there came a viper] Dr Farrar (Life of St Paul, ii. 384, note) has noticed that the viper has disappeared from the isle of Arran, as it is now said to have done from Malta.

out of the heat] [R. V. by reason of the heat] The original has the preposition usually rendered “from.” The R.V. gives the better explanation of its meaning here. The creature had been numbed by the cold, and feeling the sudden warmth, woke up and sprang away from it.

4. saw the venomous beast] There is nothing in the Greek to represent “venomous,” though it was because the inhabitants knew that such was its character that they were so astonished at what happened.

Vengeance suffereth not to live] [R. V. “Justice hath not suffered to live”] This is an instance in which the A.V. expresses far more truly than the R. V. the sense of the Greek. The indefinite meaning of the Greek aorist is often more like what we call the English present than the perfect. “I eat” does not necessarily mean “I am eating” and covers more time than “I have eaten.” It may be present, but it can refer both to past and future time. What the people meant to say was that Justice, as her wont is, is finding out the wrong-doer.

5. And [R. V. Howbeit] he shook off the beast] The rendering of the particles by the R. V. is to be preferred. The verb is the same which is used (Luke 9:5) of shaking off dust from the feet. The idea conveyed is that Paul was quite composed in what he did, and that the beast was no cause of alarm to him.

6. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen] Better (with R.V.) “But they expected that he would have swollen.” Such being the usual effect of the viper’s bite, and making itself apparent in a very short time.

but after they had looked a great while] [R. V. “but when they were long in expectation.”] The verb is the same as in the first clause of the verse, and does not express merely the gazing upon Paul, but the thought in their minds of what was to come. The pluperfect of the A.V. is the better English. So read “when they had been long in expectation.”

saw no harm] [R.V. “beheld nothing amiss.”] The adjective is the same which is used, Luke 23:41, “This man hath done nothing amiss,” and can be applied to anything abnormal, whether it be as there a breach of a law, or as here a change of condition.

and said that he was a god] Compare the conduct of the Lycaonians in Lystra (Acts 14:11 seqq.), whose behaviour afterwards shews that the opinion quickly formed was unstable, and liable to change as suddenly as it came.

7. In the same quarters were possessions of &c.] The A.V. omits the conjunction, and the indefinite word “possessions” is improved on by R. V. “Now in the neighbourhood of that place were lands belonging to, &c.” The nearest place to what is believed to have been the scene of the wreck is the town now called Alta Vecchia.

the chief man of the island] The Greek word is “Protos,” which is known from inscriptions (see Bochart, Geogr. ii. 1. 26) to have been the official title of the governor of Melita. The island of Melita belonged to the province of the Sicilian Prætor (Cicero, Verr. iv. 18), whose legate Publius probably was. Tradition makes him become bishop of Malta.

who received us] This was only natural in the Roman official, for Paul was under the charge of a Roman officer, and had appealed for hearing to the Roman Emperor.

and lodged [R. V. entertained] us three days] This was until arrangements could be made for a more permanent dwelling-place. As they must remain in the island through the stormy weather of winter, before they could start again, it would be needful to provide them with settled quarters. They could not be guests for the whole three months.

8. And it came to pass, that] [R.V. “and it was so, that”]. The R. V. is the better modern rendering. The expression means “It happened that, &c.,” not that after the arrival of St Paul the father fell ill, which might be taken as the meaning of the A. V.

of a fever and of a bloody flixe] [R. V. “of fever and dysentery”]. The words are technical such as a physician, as St Luke is reputed to have been, would be likely to use in describing the disease. The first, which is in the plural number, implies the fits of fever which occur at intervals in such diseases as ague.