Acts 28:2

βάρβαροι, i.e., they were not a Greek-speaking population, cf. Romans 1:14 (not barbarians in the modern sense of rude and uncivilised); they were of Phœnician descent, and came under the Roman dominion in the second Punic War, Livy, xxi., 51. Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 343, sees in the title an indication that the writer was himself of Greek nationality. For the use of the term in classical Greek, and by Philo and Josephus, see “Barbarian” (F. C. Conybeare), Hastings' B.D., Grimm-Thayer, sub v., and Mr. Page's note. (In 2Ma 2:21 the writer describes Judas Maccabæus as chasing “barbarous multitudes,” τὰ βάρβαρα πλήθη, retorting on the Greeks the epithet habitually applied by them to all nations not their own, Speaker's Commentary.) See further the evidence of coins and inscriptions in Zahn, Einleitung, ii., 422, proving as against Mommsen that the Phœnician tongue had not died out in the island, and cf. above, Introd., p. 8. οὐ τὴν τυχ., cf. Acts 19:11, “nocommon kindness,” R.V. (and so A.V. in Acts 19:11). φιλαν.: see note on Acts 27:3. The word is found in LXX, Esther 8:13 2Ma 6:22; 2Ma 14:9, Malachi 3:15; Malachi 3:15; Malachi 3:18; Malachi 3:18, and in classical Greek, but it was a word which a physician would be very likely to employ, for Hippocrates speaks of “philanthropy” in a physician as ever accompanying a real love of his profession. Galen distinguishes between those who healed through “philanthropy” and those who healed merely for gain, and even a more generous diet for the sick was called φιλανθρωποτέρα τροφή, Hobart, p. 296. The word is used here only and in Titus 3:4 in N.T. ἀνάψ. γὰρ πυράν, Luke 12:49; James 3:5; if we read the simple verb (see critical note) we have it three times with λύχνον in Luke 8:16; Luke 11:33; Luke 15:8, and nowhere else in N.T. (except with meaning “to touch”). πυράν : only here and in Acts 28:3 in N.T., cf. Jdt 7:5, 1Ma 12:28, 2Ma 1:22; 2Ma 10:36 (see H. and R.), and similar phrases in classical Greek. προσελάβοντο, cf. Acts 17:5; Acts 18:26 for similar use, and five times by St. Paul; cf. 2Ma 10:15, see critical note. ἐφεστῶτα, cf. Polyb., xviii. 3, 7; in N.T. 2 Timothy 4:6, only in Luke and Paul, præsentem, Wetstein, “present,” A. and R.V. Weiss and De Wette take it as meaning that the rain suddenly came upon them. ψῦχος : this and the mention of the rain prove that St. Paul's ship could not have encountered a sirocco wind, i.e., from the south-east, for this only blows for two or three days, and even in November is hot and sultry (Hackett). W.H [424] read ψύχος, but Weiss, Wendt, Blass as above, see Winer-Schmiedel, p. 68.

[424] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.