melita Summary and Overview

(Acts 27:28), an island in the Mediterranean, the modern Malta. Here the ship in which Paul was being conveyed a prisoner to Rome was wrecked. The bay in which it was wrecked now bears the name of "St. Paul's Bay", "a certain creek with a shore." It is about 2 miles deep and 1 broad, and the whole physical condition of the scene answers the description of the shipwreck given in Acts 28. It was originally colonized by Phoenicians ("barbarians," 28:2). It came into the possession of the Greeks (B.C. 736), from whom it was taken by the Carthaginians (B.C. 528). In B.C. 242 it was conquered by the Romans, and was governed by a Roman propraetor at the time of the shipwreck (Acts 28:7). Since 1800, when the French garrison surrendered to the English force, it has been a British dependency. The island is about 17 miles long and 9 wide, and about 60 in circumference. After a stay of three months on this island, during which the "barbarians" showed them no little kindness, Julius procured for himself and his company a passage in another Alexandrian corn-ship which had wintered in the island, in which they proceeded on their voyage to Rome (Acts 28:13, 14).

(honey), the modern Malta. This island lies in the Mediterranean 60 miles south of Cape Passaro in Sicily, 900 miles from Gibraltar and about 1200 from Jerusalem. It is 17 miles long. by 13 or 10 broad. It is naturally a barren rock, with no high mountains, but has been rendered fertile by industry and toil. It is famous for its honey and fruits. It is now in the hands of the English. --McClintock and Strong. This island has an illustrious place in Scripture as the scene of that shipwreck of St. Paul which is described in such minute detail in the Acts of the Apostle. #Ac 27:1| ... The wreck probably happened at the place traditionally known as St.Paul's day, an inlet with a creek two miles deep and one broad. The question has been set at rest forever by Mr. Smith of Jordan Hill, in his "Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul," the first published work in which it was thoroughly investigated from a sailor's point of view. The objection that there are no vipers in Malta is overruled by the fact that Mr. Lewin saw such a serpent there and that there may have been vipers in the wilder ancient times, even were none found there now. As regards the condition of the island of Melitu, when St. Paul was there it was a dependency of the Roman province of Sicily. Its chief officer (under the governor of Sicily) appears from inscriptions to have had the title of protos Melitaion, or Primus Melitensium and this is the very phrase which Luke uses. #Ac 28:7| Melita, from its position in the Mediterranean and the excellence of its harbors, has always been important in both commerce and war. It was a settlement of the Phoenicians at an early period, and their language in a corrupted form, was still spoken there in St. Paul's day.

MEL'ITA (honey, or sweetness), an island in the Mediterranean upon which Paul was shipwrecked during his voyage to Rome. Acts 28:1-14. Two islands formerly bore the name Melita:(1) Melita, in the Adriatic Sea, and (2) Malta, in the Mediterranean. The location of the first would not answer the requirements of the scriptural narrative. Malta, the ancient Melita, is about 60 miles in circumference, and was successively subject to the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Saracens, Normans, and French, until Charles V. surrendered it to the Knights of St. John, at Jerusalem, who in 1798 were dispossessed by Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1800 the French garrison surrendered to an English force, and the island has been ever since a dependency of the British crown. The island is 62 miles south-west of Sicily, is 17 miles long and 8 or 9 miles wide, and is now reckoned 960 miles from Gibraltar, 840 miles from Alexandria, and 1200 miles from Jerusalem. It is of an irregular oval shape, the coast indented with numerous bays. The soil, naturally barren, has been made productive; frost and snow are unknown. According to Acts 27:1-44, it was about the time of the autumnal equinox, when sailing was dangerous, that Paul and his companions embarked at Caesarea for Italy. Mr. Smith of Jordan Hill, a nautical man, in his work On the Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, has shown, from a personal examination of the localities of the shipwreck, compared with the incidents in the narrative of Luke, that the ship could not have been wrecked anywhere but at Malta. The following is a summary of his statements. Paul's company on the second day touched at Sidon, 78 miles from Caesarea. Loosing thence, they were forced by strong westerly winds to leave Cyprus on the left hand. Thence, favored by the landbreeze and currents, they arrived at Myra, in Lycia. At this port they were then transferred to a ship from Alexandria bound for Italy. Their progress, on account of unfavorable winds, was extremely slow, for it was "many days" before they came over against Cnidus, not more than 150 miles from Myra. Sailing in the direction of Salmone, the eastern promontory of Crete, they coasted along, with north-west winds, as far as Cape Matala, the south side of the island. Here, however, the land bends suddenly to the north, and they made for the Fair Havens, a roadstead near the port of Lasea, as being the nearest to Cape Matala. As the season of safe navigation had passed, Paul urged the officers to winter at Fair Havens, but his advice was overruled; and, improving a gentle north wind that blew, they set sail for Phenice, a harbor on the coast about 40 miles farther west. The harbor seems to have been the one now called Lutro, which opens in the same direction in which the wind Libe blows -- i.e., toward the north-east -- and is situated exactly opposite to the island of Clauda. But soon the weather changed; the ship was caught in a typhoon, and the wind euroclydon (east north-east), which blew with such violence, forced them to run under the south shore of Clauda, now Clozzo, about 20 miles south-west by west from Fair Havens. Here they availed themselves of the smooth water to secure the boat and undergird the ship by frapping it round the middle with a cable, to prepare it to resist the fury of the storm. But, fearing they should be driven Map of Place of Shipwreck, Si. Paul's Bay. The figures denote fathoms toward the Syrtis -- i.e., the quicksands of the coast of Africa -- they lowered the gear; and the ship thus borne along was not only made snug, but had storm-sails set and was on the starboard tack -- i.e., with her right side to the wind -- which was the only course by which she could avoid falling into the Syrtis. On the next day they threw overboard the mainyard, an immense spar probably as long as the ship. The storm continued with unabated fury for eleven days more, and all hope was taken away. At length, on the fourteenth night, the seamen suspected the approach of land, probably from the noise of the breakers, sounded, and found the depth 20 fathoms, and then 15 fathoms. Fearing lest they should fall upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea. When the day broke they succeeded in running the ship aground in a creek, where she went to pieces, but the whole ship's company escaped safe to land. The place proved to be a bay on the north-east side of Malta, now known as St. Paul's Bay, an inlet, with a creek, about 2 miles deep and a mile broad. Mr. Smith has shown by calculation that a ship starting late in the evening from Clauda, would, by midnight on the fourteenth day, be less than 3 miles from the entrance of St. Paul's Bay -- i. e., a distance of 476 miles. In 1810 the British frigate Lively went to pieces on those very breakers, at the point of Koura, at the entrance of the bay. The crew, like Paul's shipmen, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, could not see the land, but they saw the surf on the shore. So, also, Mr. Smith has shown that every ship approaching the land must here pass over 20 fathoms, and not only must this depth be close to the spot where they had the indications of land, but it must bear east by south from the 15 fathom depth. The 15 fathom depth is, as nearly as possible, a quarter of a mile from the shore, which is here girt with mural precipices, and on which the sea must have been breaking violently. At the bottom of the Bay of St. Paul's there is a communication with the sea outside by a channel not more than a hundred yards in breadth, formed by the separation of Salmone Island, a long rocky ridge, from the main land. Near this channel, where "two seas meet," are two creeks, into one of which they ran the ship ashore; the forepart stuck fast in the mud and clay, while the stern was dashed to pieces by the force of the waves. It has been asserted that no vipers exist in Malta, but Lewin saw a serpent there which he regarded as a viper; but even if not found on the thickly-populated island now, this would not prove that they did not exist in Paul's day and have since been exterminated.

The scene of Paul's shipwreck (Acts 27-28). Not the Melita now Meleda in the gulf of Venice near Dalmatia; but the Melita between Sicily and Africa, Malta, where tradition names the place of the wreck "Paul's bay" (Mr. Smith, of Jordan Hill, Shipwreck of Paul). After leaving Fair Havens in Crete, and while sailing along its S. coast, the wind blew from E.N.E. (Euraquilon in the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus manuscripts instead of Euroclydon), carrying them under the lee of the island Clauda (or Cauda, Vaticanus manuscript), 20 miles to the S.W. The Greek (Acts 27:15, antofthalmein) is, "when the ship could not keep her eyes to the wind"; either figuratively, or literally eyes were carved or painted on the bows of the ship, an eastern usage still existing. Here, to enable the ship to weather the storm, they hoisted the boat on board, "undergirded the vessel" (trapping it by passing four or five turns of cable round the hull), and "lowered the gear" (chalasantes to skeuos not "struck sail," which if they had done they would have been driven directly toward the Syrtis or quicksand), i.e. brought down the topsails and heavy yard with sail attached. They then turned the ship's head to the N. on the starboard tack. the only course whereby to escape falling into the Syrtis. Thus, for 13 days they drifted through Adria, i.e. the middle of the Mediterranean between Crete and Sicily. If we deduce the ship's course from that of the wind, from the angle of the ship's head with the wind, and from the leeway, she must have drifted nearly W. by N., the precise bearing of the N. of Malta from the S. of Clauda. The rate of drift would average a mile and a half an hour, so that in 13 days she would pass over 468 miles; and Malta is from Clauda, just 476 miles. The striking coincidence at once identifies Malta as the scene, and confirms Luke's accuracy. On the 14th night "the seamen deemed that land was approaching them" (Greek), probably hearing the surf breaking. A ship entering Paul's bay from E. must pass within a quarter of a mile the point of Koura; but before reaching it the land is too low and too far to be seen in a dark night, but at this distance the breakers may be heard and also if the night admit, be seen. The "land" then is the point of Koura E. of Paul's bay. A ship drifting W. by N. toward Paul's bay would come to it without touching any other part of the island, for the coast trends from this bay to the S.E. On Koura point, the bay's S.E. extremity, there must have been breakers with the wind blowing from N.E. Sounding they first found 20 fathoms, and a little further 15; and, fearing rocks ahead, east four anchors from the stern. Purdy (Sailing Directions) remarks on the tenaciousness of the bottom in Paul's bay, "while the cables hold there is no danger, the anchors will never start." After the frustrated attempt of the shipmen to flee in a boat, they lightened the ship of its wheat (brought from Egypt, the great granary of Italy, Acts 27:6); they knew not the land (for Paul's bay is remote from the great harbor, and has no marked features to enable the Alexandrian seamen to know it), but discovered "a creek having a sandy beach (aigialon) into which they determined if possible to strand the ship." They cut the anchor cables, which had been let down at the stern rather than the bow, with the ulterior design of running her aground. Ships were steered by two paddles, one on each quarter. They were lifted out of water during anchorage in a gale, and secured by "rudder bands." These now they "loosed" in getting the ship again under weigh. Then "they hoisted up the foresail (not 'mainsail,' artemon) to the wind and made toward shore; and falling into a place where two seas met (Salmonetta, an island at the W. of Paul's bay, which from their anchorage they could not have known to be one, is separated from the mainland by a channel 100 yards wide communicating with the outer sea; just in the sound within Salmonetta was probably where two seas met) they ran the ship aground, and the forepart stuck fast, but the hinder was broken with the waves." The rocks of Malta disintegrate into minute particles of sand and day, which when acted on by currents form a deposit of tenacious day; in still water of creeks without currents, at a depth undisturbed by waves, mud is found. A ship, driven by the wind into a creek, would strike a bottom of mud, graduating into tenacious clay; in this the forepart would stick fast. while the stern would be exposed to the violence of the waves. Captain Smyth's chart shows that after passing Koura point the ship coming from the E. passes over twenty fathoms, and pursuing the same direction after a short interval fifteen, a quarter of a mile from the shore which is here "girt with mural precipices." The W. side of the bay, where the ship was driven, is rocky but has two creeks, one of which (Mestara) has still a sandy beach, and the other had one formerly, though now worn away by the sea. The Castor and Pollux after wintering in Melita proceeded with Paul to Puteoli (Acts 28:11-13) by way of Syracuse and Rhegium. Therefore Melita lay on the regular route between Alexandria and Puteoli, which Malta does; and Syracuse, 80 miles off, and Rhegium would be the natural track from the neighboring Malta. "They knew the island" (Acts 28:1) when they landed as Melita. The natives are called "barbarians" (Acts 28:2) not as savages, but as speaking neither Greek nor Latin (Romans 1:14), but a Phoenician or Punic dialect corrupted by foreign idioms of the mixed population. The disappearance of vipers now is due to the clearing away of the woods that sheltered them. The "no little kindness" of the natives shows they were no savages. Publius is called (Acts 28:7)" chief man of the island," not from his "possessions," his father being still alive, but as lieutenant of the printer of Sicily, to whose province Malta was attached (Cicero, Verr. 2:4, section 18). Two inscriptions, Greek and Latin, in Civita Vecchia in Malta record the title "the chief (protos, primus) of the Maltese." Paul healed diseases and received in return "many honors" and "necessaries" (Acts 28:9-10). Melita was famous for honey, fruit, cotton fabrics, building stone, and a breed of dogs. Shortly before Paul's visit his piratical Cilician countrymen made Melita their haunt; but the Christianity which he introduced has continued since, though sadly corrupted by superstition. The knights of John flourished here in later times.