圣经注释书

我们更当留心记取并善用此处所记关于蒙福的保罗的事，因为本章所记的故事之后，我们在神圣历史中再也听不到他的事，尽管在他的书信中我们还有许多关于他的内容。我们已在好几章中跟随他从这一个审判座走到那一个审判座；倘若最后我们能在他得释放之际与他道别，心中会更加欣慰。然而在本章中，我们既要为他哀叹，又要为他庆幸。一、我们为他哀叹，因他成了可怜的遭难乘客，丧失一切；然而我们又为他庆幸：1. 因他在患难中格外蒙他的神眷顾，自己毫发无伤——一条毒蛇咬住他的手，他却未受害（徒 28:1-6）；并且他成了那座岛上许多善事的器皿，医治了许多病人，特别是岛长部百流的父亲（徒 28:7-9）。2. 因他深受当地人的敬重（徒 28:10）。二、我们为他哀叹，因他成了被囚的犯人，以「人身保护令」之名被解送罗马（徒 28:11-16）；然而我们又为他庆幸：1. 因罗马的基督徒对他大显敬重，远道前来迎接他（徒 28:15）。2. 因他蒙御营统领的恩待——他被交在该统领看管之下，统领允许他独自居住，并未将他下在普通监牢里（徒 28:16）。3. 因他在罗马与犹太人有自由的交谈，既谈及自己的事（徒 28:17-22），也论及基督教信仰的整体要道（徒 28:23）；其结果是：神得着荣耀，许多人得着造就，其余的人被置于无可推诿的地步，而使徒向外邦人传福音一事也被证明为正当（徒 28:24-29）。4. 因他整整两年在自己租的房子里，得以毫无拦阻地向一切来访的人传讲福音（徒 28:30-31）。

St. Paul, and the rest of the crew, getting safely ashore, find that the island on which they were shipwrecked is called Melita, Acts 28:1. They are received with great hospitality by the inhabitants, Acts 28:2. A viper comes out of the bundle of sticks, laid on the fire, and seizes on Paul's hand, Acts 28:3. The people, seeing this, suppose him to be a murderer, and thus pursued by Divine vengeance, Acts 28:4. Having shook it off his hand, without receiving any damage, they change their minds, and suppose him to be a god, Acts 28:5, Acts 28:6. Publius, the governor of the island, receives them courteously, and Paul miraculously heals his father, who was ill of a fever, etc., Acts 28:7, Acts 28:8. He heals several others also, who honor them much, and give them presents, Acts 28:9, Acts 28:10. After three months' stay, they embark in a ship of Alexandria, land at Syracuse, stay there three days, sail thence, pass the straits of Rhegium, and land at Puteoli; find some Christians there, tarry seven days, and set forward for Rome, Acts 28:11-14. They are met at Appii Forum by some Christians, and Paul is greatly encouraged, Acts 28:15. They come to Rome, and Julius delivers his prisoners to the captain of the guard, who permits Paul to dwell by himself only attended by the soldier that kept him, Acts 28:16. Paul calls the chief Jews together, and states his case to them, Acts 28:17-20. They desire to hear him concerning the faith of Christ, Acts 28:21, Acts 28:22; and, having appointed unto him a day, he expounds to them the kingdom of Christ, Acts 28:23. Some believe, and some disbelieve; and Paul informs them that, because of their unbelief and disobedience, the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, Acts 28:24-29. Paul dwells two years in his own hired house, preaching the kingdom of God, Acts 28:30, Acts 28:31.

CHAPTER 28

Acts 28:1. ἐπέγνωσαν] Lachm. Tisch. Born. read ἐπέγνωμεν, according to A B C א, min. and most vss. Rightly; the third person was introduced with a retrospective view to Acts 27:39, through the connection with the concluding words of Acts 27:44.

Acts 28:2. ἀνάψαντες] Lachm. Born. read ἁψαντες, according to A B C א, min. But AN was liable to omission even in itself, and especially through the preceding N.

Acts 28:3. ἐχ] Lachm. Tisch. Born. read ἀπό, which is decidedly attested, and therefore to be adopted.

διεξελθοῦσα] So Tisch. Born. Scholz, according to A G H, min. Chrys. Theophyl. But Elz. and Lachm. have ἐξελθοῦσα. The double compound was the more easily neglected as it was not elsewhere known from the N.T.

Acts 28:5. ἀποτινάξας] ἀποτιναξάμενος, although adopted by Scholz and Tisch., is not sufficiently attested by A G H, min.

Acts 28:10. τὴν χρείαν] Lachm. Tisch. Born, have τὰς χρείας, according to A B J א, min. A gloss on τὰ πρὸς τὴν χρείαν, after Acts 20:34.

Acts 28:14. ἐπʼ αὐτοῖς] Lachm. and Born., following A B J א, min., read παρʼ αὐτοῖς, which was introduced as explanatory.

Acts 28:16. ὁ ἑκατόνταρχος … στρατοπεδάρχῃ] is wanting (so that the passage continues: ἐπετράπη τῷ II.) in A B א loti 40, Chrys. and most vss. Condemned by Mill, Bengel, and others, suspected by Griesb., and deleted by Lachm. and Tisch. Defended especially by Born. in Rosenm. Repert. II. p. 301 f. The words, attested by G H and most min. Ar. p. Slav. Theophyl. Oec., have certainly the suspicion of being an expansion. Yet in opposition to their rejection we may urge, first, that there are no variations in detail, as is the general rule with interpolations; secondly, that the writer of a gloss, instead of τῷ στρατοπεδ., would probably have written the more readily occurring plural; and thirdly, that in transcribing one might very easily pass from ἐκατοντ ΑΡΧΟΣ directly to στρατοπεδ ΑΡΧΗ, which corruption would then produce the form of Lachmann’s text.

Acts 28:17. αὐτόν] Elz. has τὸν Παῦλον, against A B א, min. Chrys. and several vss. The name came in, because in Acts 28:17 a separate new act of the history commences; therefore also Chrys. has once, and indeed at the beginning of a homily, τ. Παῦλ.

Acts 28:19. χατηγορῆσαι] A B א, min. have χατηγορεῖν, which Lachm. Tisch. and Born. have adopted. Rightly; χατηγορῆσαι is a mechanical alteration, in conformity with ἐπικαλέσασθαι.

Acts 28:23. ἧκον] A B א, min. have ἦλθον. Recommended by Griesb. and adopted by Lachm. The extremely common word has been involuntarily substituted for the classical imperfect ηκον, not elsewhere occurring in the N.T.

τὰ περί] Lachm. Tisch. Born. have only περί, following A B H א, min. vss. Comp. on Acts 8:12, Acts 21:8.

Acts 28:25. ἡμῶν] A B א, min. vss. Fathers have ὑμῶν, which Lachm. and Tisch. have adopted. The Recepta is justly supported by Born. The tone and contents of the speech, conveying censure and rejection, involuntarily suggested the second person to the transcribers. Comp. Acts 7:51 f.

Acts 28:27. ἰάσωμαι] A B G H א, min. Theophyl. have ἰάσομαι, recommended by Griesb. and adopted by Tisch. Rightly; see on John 7:40.

Acts 28:28. τὸ σωτήρ.] Lachm. Tisch. Born. read τοῦτο τὸ σωτήρ, according to A B א* min. Chrys. and several vss. The omission of τοῦτο, which has no express reference in the text, is quite in keeping with the inattention of transcribers

Acts 28:29 is entirely wanting in A B E א, loti 13, 40, 68, Lect. 1, Syr. Erp. Copt. Vulg. ms. In the Syr. p. it is marked as suspected by an asterisk. Condemned by Mill and others, deleted by Lachm. and Tisch. Very suspicious as an interpolated conclusion of the whole transaction (according to Acts 28:25). Yet it is saved from complete rejection by the fact, that here also in detail there are only found very immaterial variations.

Acts 28:30. After ἔμεινε δἑ, instead of which there is to be read, with Tisch., according to B א loti 13, ἐνέμεινεν δέ, Elz. has ὁ Παῦλος, against witnesses of very considerable importance. See on Acts 28:17.

Ac 28:1-31.

在米利大 过冬以及 那里的 显著事件—— 继续前往 意大利的 航程， 直到 部丢利， 再从那里 经陆路 到罗马—— 使徒在 此后 两年间 在那里 工作 的概要。

1. 知道这岛名叫米利大——（参见

Ac 27:39的注释）。

认为此岛不是西西里以南的马尔他，而是威尼斯湾的梅莱达——这一见解直到不久前还在有资格的判断者中颇受支持——现在几乎已被推翻；最高资格的学者们，特别是SMITH（参见

Ac 27:41的注释），

实地考察了所有地点，并审阅了与此问题有关的一切著作和原则，使这个问题如今可以说已经定论。

他们知道——或是因他们先前熟悉这岛，或是因当地居民的告知。

名叫米利大——如今称为"马耳他"（Malta）。这岛古时以盛产大量蜂蜜闻名，据说米利大这名称源于希腊文中意为"蜜"的字。这岛东西长约20英里，南北宽约12英里，周长约60英里，距西西里海岸约60英里。全岛是一块白色软质砂岩构成的巨岩，表面覆有约一英尺厚的土层，是从西西里岛运来的。从前另有一岛也称"米利大"，今名"梅莱达"（Meleda），位于亚得里亚海、以利哩古海岸附近；有人便推测保罗是在那岛遇险的。但传统一贯的说法，是保罗在今称"马耳他"的岛上遇险。况且，另一个"米利大"远在往意大利去的惯常航路之外；再者，保罗从遇险之处径直前往叙拉古、利基翁和部丢利，乃是取直航路线往罗马去，这更清楚显明那地方就是马耳他。若从另一个米利大航行到利基翁，叙拉古就远远偏离直航路线了。

They knew that the island was called Melita - There were two islands of this name: one in the Adriatic Gulf, or Gulf of Venice, on the coast of Illyricum, and near to Epidaurus; the other in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and Africa, and now called Malta. It is about fifty miles from the coast of Sicily; twenty miles long, and twelve miles in its greatest breadth; and about sixty miles in circumference. It is one immense rock of white, soft freestone, with about one foot depth of earth on an average, and most of this has been brought from Sicily! It produces cotton, excellent fruits, and fine honey; from which it appears the island originally had its name; for μελι, meli, and in the genitive case, μελιτος, melitos, signifies honey. Others suppose that it derived its name from the Phoenicians, who established a colony in it, and made it a place of refuge, when they extended their traffic to the ocean, because it was furnished with excellent harbours: (on the E. and W. shores): hence, in their tongue, it would be called מליטה Meliteh, escape or refuge, from מלט malat, to escape.

The Phaeacians were probably the first inhabitants of this island: they were expelled by the Phoenicians; the Phoenicians by the Greeks; the Greeks by the Carthaginians; the Carthaginians by the Romans, who possessed it in the time of the apostle; the Romans by the Goths; the Goths by the Saracens; the Saracens by the Sicilians, under Roger, earl of Sicily, in 1190. Charles V., emperor of Germany, took possession of it by his conquest of Naples and Sicily; and he gave it in 1525 to the knights of Rhodes, who are also called the knights of St. John of Jerusalem. In 1798, this island surrendered to the French, under Bonaparte, and in 1800, after a blockade of two years, the island being reduced by famine, surrendered to the British, under whose dominion it still remains (1814.) Every thing considered, there can be little doubt that this is the Melita at which St. Paul was wrecked, and not at that other island in the Adriatic, or Venitian Gulf, as high up northward as Illyricum. The following reasons make this greatly evident:

1. Tradition has unvaryingly asserted this as the place of the apostle's shipwreck.

2. The island in the Venitian Gulf, in favor of which Mr. Bryant so learnedly contends, is totally out of the track in which the euroclydon must have driven the vessel.

3. It is said, in Acts 28:11, that another ship of Alexandria, bound, as we must suppose, for Italy, and very probably carrying wheat thither, as St. Paul's vessel did, (Acts 27:38), had been driven out of its course of sailing, by stress of weather, up to the Illyricum Melita, and had been for that cause obliged to winter in the isle. Now this is a supposition which, as I think, is too much of a supposition to be made.

4. In St. Paul's voyage to Italy from Melita, on board the Alexandrian ship that had wintered there, he and his companions landed at Syracuse, Acts 28:12, Acts 28:13, and from thence went to Rhegium. But if it had been the Illyrican Melita, the proper course of the ship would have been, first to Rhegium, before it reached Syracuse, and needed not to have gone to Syracuse at all; whereas, in a voyage from the present Malta to Italy, it was necessary to reach Syracuse, in Sicily, before the ship could arrive at Rhegium in Italy. See the map; and see Bp. Pearce, from whom I have extracted the two last arguments.

That Malta was possessed by the Phoenicians, before the Romans conquered it, Bochart has largely proved; and indeed the language to the present day, notwithstanding all the political vicissitudes through which the island has passed, bears sufficient evidence of its Punic origin. In the year 1761, near a place called Ben Ghisa, in this island, a sepulchral cave was discovered, in which was a square stone with an inscription in Punic or Phoenician characters, on which Sir Wm. Drummond has written a learned essay, (London, Valpy, 1810, 4to.), which he supposes marks the burial place, at least of the ashes, of the famous Carthaginian general, Hannibal. I shall give this inscription in Samaritan characters, as being the present form of the ancient Punic, with Sir Wm. Drummond's translation: -

Chadar Beth olam kabar Chanibaal

Nakeh becaleth haveh, rach -

m daeh Amos beshuth Chanib -

aal ben Bar-melec.

"The inner chamber of the sanctuary of the sepulchre of Hannibal,

Illustrious in the consummation of calamity.

He was beloved;

The people lament, when arrayed

In order of battle,

Hannibal the son of Bar-Melec."

As this is a curious piece, and one of the largest remains of the Punic language now in existence, and as it helps to ascertain the ancient inhabitants of this island, I thought it not improper to insert it here. For the illustration of this and several other points of Punic antiquity, I must refer the curious reader to the essay itself.

And when they were escaped,.... From the danger they were exposed to by shipwreck, and were got safe to land; this is omitted in the Syriac version:

then they knew that the island was called Melita; an island toward the African shore, where it is placed both by Pliny (g), and Ptolomy (h); in which, the latter says, was the city Melita: it lies between Sicily and Tripolis of Barbary, and is now called Malta: it was famous for the knights of Rhodes, which are now called the knights of Malta: it has its name from "to escape", it being formerly a refuge to the Phoenicians, especially in stormy weather, in their long voyage from Tyre to Gades; and was indeed a place of escape to the Apostle Paul, and those that were with him. And perhaps it might be so called from its being a refuge for pirates; for Cicero (i) says, here pirates used to winter almost every year, and yet did not spoil the temple of Juno, as Verres did: though some say it was so called from the great abundance of honey found in it; for it was a very pleasant and fruitful island, bringing forth great plenty of wheat, rye, flax, cummin, cotton, figs, wine, roses, thyme, lavender, and many other sweet and delightful herbs, from whence bees did gather great plenty of honey. It was, according to Pliny, distant from Camerina eighty four miles, and from Lilybaeum a hundred and thirteen; and it is said to be distant from the promontory of Sicily an hundred miles, though others say sixty; and that it was so far from Syracuse, which is the next place the apostle came to in this voyage, was from Africa an hundred and ninety miles. On the east side, a little from the chief city of it, now called Malta, was a famous temple of Juno, spoiled by Verres, as before observed; and on the south side another of Hercules, the ruins of both which are yet to be seen. The compass of the island is about sixty miles, the length twenty, and the breadth twelve, and has in it five ports, and about sixty villages.

(g) Nat. Hist. l 3. c. 8. (h) Geograph. l. 4. c. 3.((i) Orat. 9. in Verrem, c. 17.