| Acts 28 | |
|---|---|
Romans 1 → | |
.jpg) Acts 28:30-31 inUncial 0166 (5th century). | |
| Book | Acts of the Apostles |
| Category | Church history |
| Christian Bible part | New Testament |
| Order in the Christian part | 5 |
Acts 28 is the twenty-eighth and final chapter of theActs of the Apostles in theNew Testament of theBible. It records the journey ofPaul fromMalta toItaly until he is at last settled inRome. The book containing this chapter isanonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed thatLuke composed this book as well as theGospel of Luke.[1]
The original text was written inKoine Greek. This chapteris divided into 31 verses.
Some earlymanuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
This chapter mentions or alludes to the following places (in order of appearance):
The text refers toΜελίτη (melitē),[4] which is generally acknowledged to mean theisland of Malta. It has also been argued that theDalmatian island ofMeleda in theAdriatic Sea, known asMelita Illyrica, was the location. This reading was first put forward in the tenth century byConstantine the Porphyrogenite, and was advocated later by a Dalmatian monk, Padre Georgi, who was a native of Meleda.[5]William Robertson Nicoll argues that "there is no need... to refute [this] view", dismissing Georgi's argument because he was "no doubt jealous for the honour of his birthplace and his monastery".[5]
The native inhabitants of the island are calledbarbaroi in Greek, the standard term for non-Greek speakers.[7] They originally came fromCarthage and their native language wasPunic.[7] The castaways were brought to a local landowner with the common Romanpraenomen,Publius (verse 7), whose Maltese title as 'first man' is attested from ancient inscriptions found in the island.[7] The healing ofPublius's sick father (verse 8) recalls Jesus' healing ofPeter's mother-in-law, and as in the gospels, prompts other islanders to come for healing (verse 9), indicating that 'God whom Paul serves (Acts 27:23) is still with him' and that 'the whole shipwreck incident has served to load him with honor' (verse 10).[7]
From the Biblos Interlinear Bible:[9]
| hoi | de | prosedokōn | auton | mellein | pimprasthai | ē | katapiptein | aphnō | nekron |
| οἱ | δὲ | προσεδόκων | αὐτὸν | μέλλειν | πίμπρασθαι | ἢ | καταπίπτειν | ἄφνω | νεκρόν |
| - | but | they were expecting | him | to be going | to become inflamed | or | to fall down | suddenly | dead |
| epi | poly | de | autōn | prosdokōntōn | kai | theōrountōn | mēden | atopon | eis | auton | ginomenon |
| ἐπὶ | πολὺ | δὲ | αὐτῶν | προσδοκώντων | καὶ | θεωρούντων | μηδὲν | ἄτοπον | εἰς | αὐτὸν | γινόμενον |
| after a while | great | however | they | expecting | and | seeing | nothing | amiss | to | him | happening |
| metabalomenoi | elegon | auton | einai | theon |
| μεταβαλόμενοι | ἔλεγον | αὐτὸν | εἶναι | θεόν |
| having changed their opinion | said | he | was | a god |
For comparison, seeJohn 1:1.[clarification needed]
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'.[7]Chariton of Aphrodisias wrote in his historical novel,Callirhoe (mid first century AD, roughly contemporary with Acts), about a pirate who was saved from shipwreck, who then claimed divine intervention.[10] In this case the pirate was saved so that he could receive a just punishment for his crimes.
TheEthiopic version of Acts adds after "Paul went in to him and prayed", "and he entreated him to put his hand upon him" meaning either thatPublius asked this favor on behalf of his father, or the Publius' father himself asked this.[13]
An Alexandrian ship wintered in the island gives weight to the identification of 'Melita' withMalta, on the usual line of sea travel fromAlexandria toItaly, while the other suggestion,Meleda was far out of the way.[14] The ship stopped in the ports along the east coast ofSicily and the 'toe' of Italy (verses 12–13), 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 GreekDicaearchia.[15] InRome there were already 'brothers' (verse 15; NRSV: 'believers') 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.[7]
Paul finally reached Rome, after a long journey starting inActs 20:21 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.[22] Significantly, the Jewish community in Rome shows an open-minded attitude (verse 22) with no sign of the animosity which Paul has encountered in Asia Minor (Acts 21:27–28), while Paul called the leaders of the community as 'brothers' (verse 17), and assured them that his appeal to Caesar does not imply any disloyalty to 'my nation' (verse 19), hoping to get them on his side before word arrived from Jerusalem (verse 21). The community saw Paul's teaching as related to the 'sect which is spoken against' (verse 21, cf. Luke 2:34), but they want to decide themselves (verse 22) as Paul preach to them in similar way as in all his trials, using the term 'hope of Israel' (as he said to Agrippa in Acts 26:6–8) to refer the 'waiting for the consolation of Israel' for those in the temple (Luke 2:25–38).[2]
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 (verse 23).[2] Some listeners were 'convinced' (verse 24), but the overall state of the community at that time was 'disharmony' (verse 25, from Greekasymphonoi, "disagreed").[2] The prophecy inIsaiah 6:9–10 was cited (verses 26–27) to reflect Jewish rejection of Jesus as a tragic failure of 'this people' to 'take advantage of the proffered 'salvation' (verse 28: picking up earlier allusions to Isaiah inActs 26:12—23), and related to Simeon's prophecy inLuke 2:30 (cf. Luke's citation in the parable of the sower (Luke 8:10) withMatthew 13:14–15;Mark 4:12).[2] The final two verses of the chapter record Paul's continued witness to 'all who came' (that is, Jews as well as Gentiles, verse 30) 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 31).[2]
There is a repeated pattern: 'Jewish rejection of the gospel leads to an emphasis on Gentile inclusion' (Acts 13:44-47).[24]
The narrative of Acts ends with Paul:
