Pt1-17-WHERE PAUL WAS SHIPWRECKED

WHERE PAUL WAS SHIPWRECKED

UPON the north coast of a little island in the Mediterranean is St. Paul’s Bay. The island is Malta, the ancient Melita, and the bay is so named because it was at this spot that the vessel bearing Paul as prisoner was driven shorewards a total wreck.

"No island so small as Malta has had so great a history." Although it is but seventeen miles in length and nine in breadth, for centuries it has been regarded as a desirable possession, chiefly owing to its central position in the Mediterranean. To-day it is a British naval base and coaling station, enduring many bomb-attacks, and during the Great War was an Allied base, and "about 130,000 British service men passed through its hospitals and convalescent homes". A recent writer on the history of Malta says that the earliest civilisation goes back to 3000 B.C., and describes remains of megalithic structures--menhirs (tall, rough pillars of stone), dolmens (slabs supported by blocks), and cromlechs (stone circles). One of the problems awaiting solution is the presence of numerous "cart-tracks", indentations on the rocky surface, varying in depth but regular in distance apart. Apparently these tracks were cut artificially for wheels. Until recently, it was thought that the earliest inhabitants were Phœnicians, but these came about the sixteenth century B.C. Later, Malta was occupied by the Greeks, then by the Carthaginians, and the Romans took it from Carthage during the Second Punic War (218 B.C.) and attached it to Sicily. It remained under the Roman power till the Goths overran it in the fifth century A.D. From then on it passed under the control of several powers, till at last it was ceded to Great Britain in 1814. At one period (1530-1798) the Knights of Malta ruled,--members of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. That was a prosperous period, and many fine buildings were erected. In Luke’s narrative of Paul’s sojourn in Melita (Acts 28:1-10) there are several expressions which are better understood when help from extra-Biblical sources is gained. Who were the "barbarous people" who "shewed us no little kindness"? What is meant by "the chief man of the island"? And what of Luke as an historian in this section? In the use of the word barbaroi, Luke is not speaking of uncivilised islanders. This word originated probably by imitation, in some such way as our words "cluck", "clash", "clang", and was used of unintelligible speech. Every language which was not Greek was barbarian. So the term came to be used of non-Greeks. Sometimes the word "Greeks" as opposed to "barbarians" seems to have meant those who were possessed of Greek culture and language, and from this point of view the Romans would not be called barbarians. But others who were not recognised as having that culture and language would be so termed, and no doubt in the minds of most Greeks the term "barbarians" implied inferior persons, as frequently the term "foreigners" does to-day. But the behaviour of these islanders was in keeping with what the history of Melita would lead us to expect. They showed Paul and his companions no ordinary kindness; the chief man lodged them for "three days courteously"; and the people treated them liberally upon their departure. Their conclusion that Paul was under the doom of "Vengeance" or "Justice", and their rapid change of mind which led them to call Paul a god, were indications of beliefs common in the pagan world. According to the early Greek writer Hesiod, Dike (justice) is the goddess who presides over legal order, and is enthroned by the side of Zeus, whom she acquaints with all unjust decisions. In the tragic poets she is mentioned with the Furies as a divinity who is relentless in exacting punishment. When the islanders showered honours upon the departing guests, they were but doing as Virgil says Acestes did to Æneas when he was leaving the Trinacrian shore. In the period of Roman rule, the inhabitants of Melita became famous for their industry, especially in textile fabrics, and a fine cloth which they manufactured, vestis Militensis, was valued as a material for robes and furniture-covering. Their language was Semitic, and akin to Arabic.

Publius was the "chief man of the island". Since Melita was attached to Sicily at that time, the chief man would be a deputy of the Prætor of Sicily. No inscription has been found in Malta to verify the title "chief man (governor)" of the island, but on the neighbouring island of Gaulus an inscription was discovered which included the words Protos Melitaion, a phrase equivalent with that used by Luke. A Latin inscription also resembles the title. "As the leading official in Malta, he was responsible for any Roman soldiers and their prisoners who might. land there, but the account in Acts 28:7 implies that he displayed more than ordinary solicitude for Paul and his shipwrecked company." The apocryphal Acts of St. Paul states that "he did for them many acts of great kindness and charity". Tradition relates that Publius accepted Christianity, and became first bishop of Malta. Later he became bishop of Athens. and, according to Jerome, he died a martyr’s death.

Searching criticism has resulted in establishing the accuracy of Luke’s record to a remarkable degree. Even the Encyclopædia Biblica declares: "The question as to the identity of the island upon which Paul was shipwrecked (Acts 28:1) may be regarded as finally settled. The indications in Acts stamp the account of the entire voyage as that of an eyewitness and give it great value." Most writers on Paul’s experience of shipwreck on Malta refer to a book which was published in 1856 (second edition) by James Smith on The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul. This scholar made an elaborate study of his subject, and, while his own conclusions on some minor topographical matters have been challenged, it is conceded that his work has verified the accuracy of Luke. A recent writer states: "A bay two and a half miles Northwest of Valetta, the mouth of which is held by tradition to be the place where the vessel that bore Paul ran ashore, tallies admirably with the description of the locality in Acts. The Admiralty charts indicate places near the West side of the entrance to the bay, where the depth is first twenty feet, and then fifteen feet, while the rush of the breakers in front of the little island of Salmoneta and behind it suits the reference to a place ’where two seas met’ (Acts 27:41)."

Luke’s use of medical terms finds illustration from this section of Acts. When Paul shook the viper from his hand, the onlookers watched intently to see symptoms of poisoning. "They expected that he would have swollen." The word employed (pimpremi) occurs only here in the New Testament. It combined the ideas of inflammation and swelling, and was the usual medical term to describe such. The people looked for him to have "fallen down dead suddenly". Medical writers used the verb "to fall down" (katapipto) of those who suffered from epileptic fits or wounds which caused them to stagger. Luke alone uses the term in the New Testament. Of interest is a parallel in Antony and Cleopatra, where Shakespeare wrote of Charmian bitten by an asp, "Tremblingly she stood, and on the sudden dropped."

Terms used in connection with the sickness of the father of Publius, also, bear witness to Luke’s use of medical language. The word translated "fever" (puretos) is employed by other writers in the New Testament, but in the plural only by Luke. Evidently he is using a technical term for successive and varying attacks of a malady resembling malaria. Such fevers were prevalent in Melita. It has been suggested by some writers that Luke supplemented Paul’s miraculous healing with his own medical skill, the argument for this resting on the use of different verbs to express healing. Whilst this may be so, the evidence is not conclusive.

Maltese people, now Roman Catholic, cherish many traditions concerning Paul’s visit to the island. Certainly there is very definite evidence that Christianity was early implanted there, for there are numerous catacombs similar to those at Rome, and there are not wanting indications of the burial of Christian martyrs.