Melita

Malta, an island in the Mediterranean Sea where Paul was shipwrecked on his journey to Rome (Act 28:1).

Malta is an island in the Mediterranean Sea mentioned in the New Testament in connection with the apostle Paul's journey to Rome. After Paul's ship was caught in a violent storm, it ran aground on a sandbar near Malta (Act.27.39-44). Paul and the other survivors made it safely to shore, where they were welcomed by the islanders (Act.28.1-2). During his three-month stay on Malta, Paul healed the father of Publius, the chief official of the island, as well as many others who were sick (Act.28.7-9). The kindness shown by the people of Malta to Paul and his companions exemplifies the hospitality that Christians should extend to others (Act.28.10).

(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).