Acts 28


Acts 28 is the twenty-eighth and final chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Bible. It records the journey of Paul from Malta to Italy until he is at last settled in Rome. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 31 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
This chapter mentions or alludes to the following places :

Verse 1

The text refers to Μελίτη, which is generally acknowledged to mean the island of Malta. It has also been argued that the Dalmatian island of Meleda in the Adriatic Sea, known as Melita Illyrica, was the location. This reading was first put forward in the tenth century by Constantine the Porphyrogenite, and was advocated later by a Dalmatian monk, Padre Georgi, who was a native of Meleda. William Robertson Nicoll argues that "there is no need... to refute view", dismissing Georgi's argument because he was "no doubt jealous for the honour of his birthplace and his monastery".

Verse 2

The native inhabitants of the island are called barbaroi in Greek, the standard term for non-Greek speakers. They originally came from Carthage and their native language was Punic. The castaways were brought to a local landowner with the common Roman praenomen, Publius, whose Maltese title as 'first man' is attested from ancient inscriptions found in the island. The healing of Publius's sick father recalls Jesus' healing of Peter's mother-in-law, and as in the gospels, prompts other islanders to come for healing, indicating that 'God whom Paul serves is still with him' and that 'the whole shipwreck incident has served to load him with honor'.

Verse 4

A viper had attached itself to Paul's hand. The word translated as "justice" in the Greek is "η δικη", i.e. Dike or Dice, the goddess or personification of justice.

Verse 6

From the Biblos Interlinear Bible:
For comparison, see the debate on John 1:1 regarding the translation "the Word was a god".
The islanders regarded "Paul's imperviousness to snakebite" as a sign of his divine status. This was a common attitude among both Greek-speaking people and 'barbarians'. Chariton of Aphrodisias wrote in his historical novel, Callirhoe, about a pirate who was saved from shipwreck, who then claimed divine intervention. In this case the pirate was saved so that he could receive a just punishment for his crimes.

Verse 8

Regarding "fever and dysentery", the Pulpit Commentary noted about this verse that "the terms here used are all professional ones". The word,, "fevers" in the plural, is frequently found in the ancient medical writings of Hippocrates, Aretaeus, and Galen, but elsewhere by other writers in the New Testament always in the singular πυρετός. The term,, only found here in the New Testament, is the regular technical word for "dysentery", and used frequently in medical writings coupled with fevers, to indicate different stages of the same illness.
The Ethiopic version of Acts adds after "Paul went in to him and prayed", "and he entreated him to put his hand upon him" meaning either that Publius asked this favor on behalf of his father, or the Publius' father himself asked this.

Journey from Malta to Rome (verses 11–16)

An Alexandrian ship wintered in the island gives weight to the identification of 'Melita' with Malta, on the usual line of sea travel from Alexandria to Italy, while the other suggestion, Meleda was far out of the way. The ship stopped in the ports along the east coast of Sicily and the 'toe' of Italy, featured prominently in ancient Greek writings of voyages to the area, but thereafter the account prefers the Italian names, such as "Puteoli" instead of the Greek Dicaearchia. In Rome there were already 'brothers' who came out to provide Paul a ceremonial escort along the Appian Way leading into the city. Verse 16 reminds that Paul was still a prisoner with limited liberty.

Verse 11

  • "After three months": Based on and, Ellicott calculated that the time of the sailing fell in beginning of February.
  • "Whose figurehead was the Twin Brothers": translated from the Greek phrase παρασήμῳ Διοσκούροις . The word "parasemo", that was attested in an ancient Greek dedicatory inscription, can be translated as "whose sign was" or "marked with the image or figure of". Cyril of Alexandria wrote about the Alexandrian method to decorate each side of the ship prow with figures of deities. "Twin Brothers" or "Dioscuri" refer to "Castor and Pollux", who were specially honored in the district of Cyrenaica, not far from Alexandria. Horace wrote of them as "the children of Leda", and the “brothers of Helen, beaming stars”, because the constellation named after Castor and Pollux stars provides bright starlight for mariners, so they are honored as the protector gods of sailors. In his tale of shipwreck, Lucian of Samosata wrote about the important role of the Dioscuri for the safety of the ships, but Paul does not need other help than from God to get through the storm, so the mention here is purely about on the aspect of decoration.

    Paul's reception in Rome (verses 17–22)

Paul finally reached Rome, after a long journey starting in and, as a faithful Jew, he started by approaching the leaders of the Jewish community in Rome to request a fair hearing on his gospel. Significantly, the Jewish community in Rome shows an open-minded attitude with no sign of the animosity which Paul has encountered in Asia Minor, while Paul called the leaders of the community as 'brothers', and assured them that his appeal to Caesar does not imply any disloyalty to 'my nation', hoping to get them on his side before word arrived from Jerusalem. The community saw Paul's teaching as related to the 'sect which is spoken against', but they want to decide themselves as Paul preach to them in similar way as in all his trials, using the term 'hope of Israel' to refer the 'waiting for the consolation of Israel' for those in the temple.

Paul's last words (verses 23–31)

The content of Paul's preaching to the local community was not recorded, but it can be inferred as a repetition of the arguments presented elsewhere in the book of Acts. Some listeners were 'convinced', but the overall state of the community at that time was 'disharmony'. The prophecy in was cited to reflect Jewish rejection of Jesus as a tragic failure of 'this people' to 'take advantage of the proffered 'salvation', and related to Simeon's prophecy in . The final two verses of the chapter record Paul's continued witness to 'all who came' over a two-year period with the confidence that the 'proclamation of the gospel will go on into an uncertain future with all boldness and without hindrance'.

Verse 28

There is a repeated pattern: 'Jewish rejection of the gospel leads to an emphasis on Gentile inclusion'.

Verse 31

The narrative of Acts ends with Paul:
  • "No one forbidding him" is translated from Greek ἀκωλύτως,, "unhinderedly".