What is the significance of Malta in the Bible?

The island on which Paul was shipwrecked. He and the whole of the ship's company were received kindly by the inhabitants. Paul cured the father of the chief man and many others. They stayed there three months, and were bountifully supplied when they left. Acts 28:1-11. It is the well-known island of Malta in the Mediterranean.

Arriving at Myra, the centurion found a ship of Alexandria bound for Italy. This decided him, we may suppose, to venture on the long sea route, in preference to going farther in their present vessel; and then crossing to Macedonia, to travel on the Via Egnatia to the Adriatic, by which they would have landed at Brundusium, now Brindisi. What determined their way, except it was the apparent fortuitous circumstance of a vessel sailing direct for Italy, we are not able now to settle. But God's hand was in it, and we can see it. Paul was to stand forth as God's chosen servant before all, and Malta was to have blessing through sick ones being healed.

It is useless to enter into the details of the voyage. Everything possible was done to save the ship, but in vain. The description given us is perfectly exact, and even technical. Carried by the tempest, they are cast on the island of Malta. But what is important for us is the position which the apostle occupies. All hope of escape was gone. But now God interposes, and by means of a revelation made to Paul, revives the failing courage of the sufferers. The apostle reminds them of what he had said at the "fair havens," telling them that they ought to have followed his advice, and that now they were reaping the fruit of refusing it, and trusting to the knowledge of the sailors. But they were to be of good cheer, for there would be no loss of life, but only of the ship. As before governors, Paul, the servant of God, held morally the superior position, so now he occupies the same place, amid perils sufficient to reduce the crew of the ship to despair. God was watching over Paul. It was necessary that he should appear before Caesar; and full of grace, the Lord had given him all those who were with him.

God honours His servant on the island where he and his companions had been cast. He works miracles, and receives no hurt from the viper which fastens itself to his hand. Paul had brought captivity on himself by his appeal to Caesar, but still God was with him. It was necessary that he should bear witness before Caesar. God made use of his journey to Jerusalem (where, it is true, the power of the Spirit was not manifested in Paul) in order to bring him before Caesar himself; and this could not otherwise have been accomplished. Far from abandoning him, He displays His grace and power to him most fully.

WE STILL SEE the protecting hand of God stretched over Paul and his companions when they had landed on Malta. Though the inhabitants were "barbarians" according to Roman thoughts, they showed exceptional kindness to the shipwrecked party, and things were so over-ruled that they soon discovered that one of the shipwrecked visitors was no ordinary person. Paul was busily engaged, doing what he could to help, when a viper fastened itself on his hand. The superstitious islanders placed their interpretation on this, but when the expected did not follow they changed their minds, jumping to the opposite conclusion. Superstition never comes to right conclusions. To Paul doubtless it was a very minor happening, seeing he had been through the long list of adventures which he catalogued in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28. And when he wrote that list it was still unfinished. He had not, for instance, been through the shipwreck of which we have been reading. He had been shipwrecked three times before this happened. There are not many who have survived four shipwrecks, we venture to think, even if professional sailors, which he was not.

The chief man of the island taking a kindly interest in them in their need, Paul was enabled to repay him by prayer and the healing of his father. We do not read of any testimony that Paul rendered, yet his praying must have shown to all that the healing power he wielded was not his own but connected with God. The islanders, finding that the power of God was in their midst, were not slow to seek it for their bodies, and seeking they found it. All this, in the providence of God, led to a time of comfort after the fortnight of terrible testing, and even to a time of honour, and this lasted for three months. The Apostle has put on record, "I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound" (Phil. 4:12). These three months proved to be a time of abounding.

From the shore where they had congregated at first, we are next taken to the house of Publius, [100] called the chief man, of the island. This was his official designation - viz., First or Chief of the Meliteans. Kind had been the islanders. Kind, too, was the governor. Near that bay he had lands, and he received them, and entertained them courteously. Such hospitality was not to pass unrequited. His father was sick of a fever and dysentery. Paul visited him, prayed and placed his hands on him, and healed him (Acts 28:8). Never before in that island had such a thing been known. Healing power entrusted thus to a man was something to those islanders quite new. The report of this miracle soon spread, and others, the rest in the island who were sick, came and were healed. Considering that Melita is only seventeen and a quarter miles long by nine and a quarter broad, and contains an area of about ninety-five square miles, and so about two-thirds of that of the Isle of Wight, we can readily understand that during their stay of a quarter of a year there was time for the welcome news of Paul's powers to permeate the island, and for individuals who had need to profit by them. A wonderful man the islanders thought him when he shook off the viper and had received no harm. What a dispenser of blessing they must have found him to be, whom chance, people might say, had thrown on their shores! The ship-men and the centurion and all the soldiers could have told of the comfort Paul had been to them in the storm. Now the islanders could relate instance after instance of healing, and not merely some relief, but the full removal of suffering. How God honoured His servant, and fulfilled in Paul's case the promise of the Lord, "They shall take up serpents . and lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17,18)!

The inhabitants Luke terms Barbarians, meaning that their language was neither Greek nor Latin. Certainly they were not barbarous; for they received the shipwrecked men most kindly, and ministered to them, kindling a fire because of the rain, and because of the cold. Wet and cold must those two hundred and seventy-six men have been, considering the way they had been saved. But large as their company was to be thrown thus suddenly on the islanders, they found the kindness of the latter equal to the occasion. Who the new-comers were, beyond the fact that some of them were Romans, the islanders probably knew not. Soon, however, were they to hear that one of the company, of no commanding exterior, nor eloquent in speech, was anything but a common person; and further, that his unexpected visit to the island would be fraught with blessing to the sick and suffering in their midst. How they first discovered something about Paul we are now to hear.

A fire kindled, Paul, ever ready to help, collected some sticks to feed it. And now a word spoken by One in Palestine years before, and of whom all the islanders were as yet ignorant, was to come true, and they were to be eyewitnesses of it. A viper, aroused from its dormant condition by the heat of the fire, having been unawares taken up by Paul with the sticks, came out of the heat and fastened on the Apostle's hand. A venomous snake all knew it to be, and one indigenous to the island. His fate they, the natives, thought was sealed. To be poisoned by it he could not escape, even if perchance his life was spared. Perfectly familiar with the effects of the bite of such a reptile, they watched to see its victim swell or to fall down dead. To their surprise neither happened. He quietly shook it off into the fire.

Seeing it fastened to his hand, they formed an unfavourable opinion of the Apostle. No doubt, was their thought, that he is a murderer whom Vengeance, or Justice, [99] suffereth not to live. He had escaped drowning. By the bite of the viper he would now be killed. Learning, probably, that he was a prisoner on his way to Rome, they the more readily jumped to this conclusion. But when, after shaking off the venomous creature, Paul felt no pain, they as quickly changed their minds, and jumped to the conclusion that he must be a god. All wrong we know they were, and ignorant, of course, of our Lord's promise to His disciples (Mark 16:18). Yet they were unbiassed witnesses of the faithfulness of the Lord to His word. That it was a venomous snake there can be no doubt. The expectations of the islanders and their surprise at the result attest that. That Paul was unharmed by the reptile is also beyond, dispute. Miraculous it was all must admit. But instead of Vengeance pursuing its victim, it was God attesting that Paul was His servant.

They soon found out the island they were cast upon was Melita, now well-known under the name of Malta. The people of the island received the shipwrecked mariners and passengers with great kindness, and kindled a fire because of the rain and the cold.

We gather from Paul’s life that whenever there was anything to be done, he was ever ready and helpful to do his part, whether in labouring with his hands for his own necessities, or in helping to throw the tackle out of a ship in distress. Here he is seen gathering sticks to help keep the fires alight. In so doing a viper came out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. The superstitious natives, when they saw this, came to the conclusion that he was a murderer, whom, though he had escaped the sea, was not suffered by the gods to live.

However he shook off the viper and took no harm. The people looked to see him swell, and fall down dead suddenly with the fatal poison of the viper’s fangs. Looking a long while and seeing no harm come, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

Melita, which means "honey," is the island of Malta. It was even then a prominent place for navigation where many vessels wintered. Luke calls the inhabitants Barbarians, a term used by the Greeks for all peoples who did not use their language. The wrecked company was not plundered by the people of the island, but instead received much kindness and were made comfortable in the cold rain which fell.

It was God who moved the hearts of these islanders to show such hospitality to the shipwrecked company for the sake of His servants. Paul is active even then. The shipwreck and privations must have told on the great man of God physically, yet we see him going about gathering a bundle of sticks for the fire. This labor must have been difficult, since as a prisoner he wore a chain on his hands. A viper, which had been benumbed by the cold and revived by the heat of the fire, fastened on his hand. We doubt not it was a poisonous viper. This is denied by some critics on the plea that poisonous snakes are not found in the island of Malta. However, that is no proof that such did not exist at that time. The inhabitants of the island expected Paul to fall dead. If it had been a harmless snake, why such an expectation? God's power was manifested in his behalf. It was a fulfillment of the promise in Mark 16:18: "they shall take up serpents and it shall not hurt them." The viper also reminds us of Satan and his fate. As Paul cast the viper into the fire, so Satan will be cast into the lake of fire. Then there was a manifestation of the gracious power of the Lord towards the inhabitants of the island.

'And when got safe we then ascertained that the island was called Melita. And the barbarians [or, natives] showed us no common kindness; for they kindled a fire-heap and took us all in because of the then rain and because of the cold. But when Paul gathered a certain quantity of sticks and laid [it] on the fire-heap, a viper came out through the heat and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the beast hanging from his hand, they said one to another, Certainly a murderer is this man, whom though got safe from the sea, justice refused to let live. He, however shook off the beast into the fire and suffered no harm. And they expected that he would be inflamed or fall down dead suddenly; but when they were long expecting and beheld nothing amiss happen, they, changing their mind, said that he was a god' (vers. 1-6).

Mr. Smith has well explained that there is no difficulty in understanding how the crew and the officers failed to make out the locality, even if ever so familiar in a general way as an Alexandrian ship with the great harbour of the island. They had drifted there in the dark, and there is no such definite landmark on the adjacent coast as to make identification easy; and whatever peculiarity may be there, they only discovered when they got close in before the ship ran aground. But the barbarians, or men of a foreign tongue,1 behaved with unusual philanthropy, which puts to shame what has too often been experienced on British shores and other coasts alas! since Christianity. They lit not a 'fire' merely, but one so large that the term employed is one usually applied to a funeral pyre (πυρά), as indeed would be needed to meet the urgent need of such a dripping crowd with rain falling heavily, and severe cold. {1 Their tongue was then Punic fundamentally, as springing from Phoenicia, the great source of eastern enterprise and commercial marine. So it was in Carthage also. But Malta has seen radical changes, and in nothing more than its race of inhabitants and consequent language, which is now and has long been an Arabic patois, however much they flatter themselves on their descent from the Phoenicians.}

This gave occasion to the incident related so graphically in verses 3-6. The apostle, with his usual earnestness and lowly love, gathers a faggot of sticks near the spot and laid it on the fire-heap, when a viper, no doubt before this dormant in the neglected wood, was roused as well as irritated by the heat and seized on the hand of Paul. It was ordered of God to verify the promise of the Lord Jesus (Mark 16:18), and as a sign to the kind heathen, and so much the more as they quite mistook its import at first by leaving out God as unbelief habitually does. For when they saw the noxious creature hanging from his hand, they were assured that he must be a murderer, escaped from the sea, only to meet a just retribution. But when he shook off the serpent into the fire without suffering anything out of the way, and they looked long in vain for either virulent inflammation or sudden falling dead, all was changed, and they called him a god. Such is the worth of human opinion outside its own sphere. Little could they conceive that he was a man of God, a prisoner in heathen hands because of the deadly hatred of God's people, the Jews, and this really because of the good news of Christ he preached to the Gentiles. But moral enigmas in this world are more surprising than the greatest of intellectual difficulties. Of one thing we may be sure, that the natural man is here invariably astray.