Acts 28:1

διασωθέντες, see on Acts 27:43. Used by Josephus of his own shipwreck and escape, Vita, 3, and in Xen. and Thuc. of coming safely to a place. τότε ἐπέγ.: not imperfect as in Acts 27:39; here denoting the immediate recognition of the place after they had once gained safety (Weiss, Rendall, C.H.). St. Paul's Bay is several miles distant from Valetta, the harbour which the sailors doubtless knew previously, see also Breusing, p. 190, Vars, p. 243, and J. Smith, pp. 140 and 148, 4th edition. Μελίτη, see critical note; Malta, cf. Diod. Sic., v., 12, Strabo, vi., 2, Ovid, Fasti, iii., 567, Sicula Melita as distinct from Melita Illyrica (Meleda). There is no need here to refute the view that the latter, in the Adriatic Sea on the coast of Dalmatia, is meant. This view depends chiefly upon the narrow view of the meaning of the Adria Acts 27:27, see also below on Acts 28:2-3. It was first put forward in the tenth century by Constantine the Porphyrogenite, and was advocated in the last century by a Dalmatian monk, Padre Georgi, himself a native of Meleda, no doubt jealous for the honour of his birthplace and his monastery. Its chief champion may be said to be W. Falconer, in his Dissertation on St. Paul's Voyage, 1817, republished in 1870 by his nephew, Judge Falconer. This last was an unsuccessful attempt to controvert the arguments of J. Smith in favour of Malta, who may be said to have established his case to demonstration (see for a candid description of Falconers view “Adria” (Dickson), Hastings' B.D.). More recent nautical authorities have most decisively confirmed the view of J. Smith, cf. Breusing, p. 190, and Vars, p. 242. Quite apart from the strong local tradition in favour of Malta, and the testimony of the Apocryphal Acta Petri et Pauli in favour of Γαυδομελέτη (Gosso-Malta) (for references to Lipsius' edition, Wendt and Zöckler, in loco), it is not too much to say that Meleda could not have been reached without a miracle under the circumstances of weather described in the narrative, cf. Dean Howson's “Melita,” B.D. 1, ii., pp. 315 317, and Zahn (in answer to Mommsen), Einleitung, ii., p. 422.