Acts 28:1 ¶ And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. 2 And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. 3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. 5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. 6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god. 7 In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously. 8 And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him. 9 So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed: 10 Who also honoured us with many honours; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary.
Melita is usually
considered to be modern-day Malta, about 60 miles south of Sicily in the Mediterranean.
You know Sicily as the large island the boot-shaped Italy appears to be kicking
on the map. It was a blessed thing to be treated with such kindness as
shipwrecked and helpless sea voyagers. There were some cultures that robbed and
murdered shipwrecked sailors. I am reminded of the Cornish wreckers of England
who would direct ships to the rocks and then pillage them or the Outer Banks of
North Carolina where some sources, but not all, indicate that Nag’s Head got
its name from the practice of hanging a lantern around a horses neck to mislead
sailors. But, no misadventure will happen here except Paul being bitten by a
venomous serpent.
A venomous serpent?
There are no venomous serpents on Malta. Never have been. Is there something we
are missing from the text? Now, go back to 27:27.
27 But when the fourteenth night was come, as we
were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they
drew near to some country;
The Adria is the
Adriatic Sea between Italy and the former Yugoslavia and Albania. A 2014
article in the Times of Malta directs the reader to the island of Meleda or Mljet off the coast of modern-day
Croatia.[1] Mljet has been said to be
infested with poisonous snakes although I read in a travel guide that they
tried to quell the problem by introducing the Indian Mongoose in 1910 but were
unsuccessful.
So, once again, a literal reading
of the Bible goes against the accepted view put in place by centuries of
agenda-driven myth-making. Pliny the Elder called the island off the coast of
present day Croatia, Melita, as it is written here. Sorry to you, Roman
Catholic Church. It wasn’t Malta.
On top of that first century writers
speak of the wealth of the Maltese and their fine buildings. They were hardly
barbarous people. Melita, however, was a stop that Greek shippers made on the
way to Adriatic settlements and they stayed there in bad weather.
[1] Stephan Mifsud, “Which Viper bit
St. Paul in Malta?” Times of Malta, (Feb. 18, 2014), https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/Which-viper-bit-St-Paul-in-Malta-.507396.
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