Acts 28:1

CHAPTER XXVIII.

St. Paul, and the rest of the crew, getting safely ashore, find

that the island on which they were shipwrecked is called

Melita, 1.

They are received with great hospitality by the inhabitants, 2.

A viper comes out of the bundle of sticks, laid on the fire, and

seizes on Paul's hand, 3.

The people, seeing this, suppose him to be a murderer, and thus

pursued by Divine vengeance, 4.

Having shook it off his hand, without receiving any damage, they

change their minds, and suppose him to be a god, 5, 6.

Publius, the governor of the island, receives them courteously,

and Paul miraculously heals his father, who was ill of a fever,

c., 7, 8.

He heals several others also, who honour them much, and give

them presents, 9, 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, 11-14.

They are met at Appii Forum by some Christians, and Paul is

greatly encouraged, 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, 16.

Paul calls the chief Jews together, and states his case to them,

17-20.

They desire to hear him concerning the faith of Christ, 21, 22;

and, having appointed unto him a day, he expounds to them the

kingdom of Christ, 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, 24-29.

Paul dwells two years in his own hired house, preaching the

kingdom of God, 30, 31.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXVIII.

Verse Acts 28:1. 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 favour 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, 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: -

[Samaritan MSS. majuscule]

[Samaritan MSS. majuscule]

[Samaritan MSS. majuscule]

[Samaritan MSS. majuscule]

Chadar Beth olam kabar Chanibaal

Nakeh becaleth haveh, rach-

m daeh Am 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.