MEN-STEALERS
MERCY-SEAT
29
The scene of the wreck was about 8 miles N.W. of Valetta, and 5 miles N. of Medina, or Cittii Vecchia, the old capital. The local tradition on the subject is certainly ancient, either dating back to the event itself, or resting on early and reason- able conjecture. The earliest maps of Malta, made in the IGth cent., contain the Ca/e cli S. Priolo. To the Hellenist Luke the kind-hearted natives of the island were ' barbarians ' (28^), a term which does not imply that they were savages, but merely that they did not speak Greek. Tliey belonged to the highly civilized Phoenician race, of which the Carthaginians were a branch. The educated men in the island, of course, knew Greek, and bilingual inscriptions, in Greek and Punic, come down from the 1st century. St. Paul and his company spent three months in Melita, and Publius, the Trpiiros, or chief man, of the island, who was subject to the prietor of Sicily, treated them with marked respect (vv.'' '"). That TTpuTos was an official designation is proved by a Greek inscription bearing the name of Prudens, a Roman knight, Tpiiro^ MfXirafui' Kai ndTpuji', and bj' a Latin one containing the words ' Municipii Melitensium primus omnium.' The fact that no snakes (v.^), either venomous or harm- less, are now found in jlelita is accounted for by the increase of the population and the cultivation of the soil. St. Paul's further labours in Melita, apart from certain acts of healing (vv.*- *), are left unrecorded by the historian, whose mind and pen hurry on to Rome. And one other fact which tells decisively against the Dalmatian Melita is the call which the Dioscuri made at Syracuse on the way to Puteoli (v.'^). There was a tradition, referred to by Chrysostom (Horn. 54) that St. Paul's stay at Melita resulted in the conversion of the inhabitants. The Maltese have attached the name of San Paolo to a church (1610) and a tower near the bay, and they drink out of the 'Ayin tal Razzal, or Fountain of the Apostle.
LlTERiTPRE.— Albert Mayr, Die Insel Malta im Attertum, 1909 ; W. M. Ramsay, S(. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen^', 1900, p. 314 I. ; W. J. Conybeare and J. S. Howson, St. Paul, 1865, ii. 421 f. ; R. L. Playfair, in Murray's Handbook to the Mediterranean^, 1890. JaMES STRAHAN.
MEN-STEALERS.— The word occurs only once in the NT— in the First Epistle to Timothy (l'"), where the writer includes the term in his list of those for whom the Law is intended. ' A law is not intended for a righteous man but for the law- less and unruly . . . for men-stealers (avSpairo- SujTah, plagiariis\y\iL\g.'\).' That kidnapping was regarded as a serious offence by the Hebrews is clear from the definite statements in Ex 21'^ (' and he that stealeth a man ... he shall surely be put to death ') and in Dt 24' (' if a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel . . . then that thief shall die'). By the time of this Epistle, however, the term had less special colour and could describe that subtler form of man-stealing by which one man is made the victim of another's will and the instrument of his selfishness.
R. Strong.
MERCURY. — 'Mercury' (Ac 14" RV ; AV 'Mercurius,' RVm ' Gr. Hermes'), like 'Jupiter' (q.v.), is used as the Greek equivalent of some local Lycaonian god. Hermes ' is the name of a Greek god (corresponding to the Roman Mercury) whose origin and real character are perhaps more difficult to define than is the case with any other Greek deity' (Ramsay, EBt^ x\. [1880] 749). He was the accredited messenger between gods and men. Be- sides this he was the god of social intercourse, and hence came to be regarded as the personification of cleverness ; that he should then be regarded as the patron of thieves was but a step. He is also spoken of as conducting the souls of the departed
to their last home — an i<lea inherited from the Vedic mythology. Because of his connexion witii the wind he is generally represented as wearing winged shoes. St. I'aul, however, was dubbed 'Hermes,' 'because he was the chief speaker,' which reminds us that this deity was thought of as the god of elo<iuence. The statue of the god by Praxiteles in the Ileraion at Ulympia conceived him as possessing peculiar beauty and grace, which accords ill with the traditional portrait of the Apostle. The fact is that the J-ycaonians were so wrought upon by the miracle that had been per- formed, and so delighted at the eloquence of St. Paul, that they did not stop to consider .such details.
F. W. WORSLI'.V.
MERCY (fXeos, olKTipij.6s). — -"EXeo! means |)ropcrly 'a feeling of sympathy,' 'fellow-feeling with misery,' 'compassion.' In the sense of God's pity for human woe, which manifests itself in His will of salvation, eXeos is found not infrequently in the apostolic writings (cf. Ro 9=^ 15", 1 P P, .liide-', 2 Ti l'"- "). It is found joined with dydirri in Eph '_", with inaKpodv/iia in 1 Ti I"', and with x<'-P'^ i" He 4'^. We find the group, grace, mercj', peace, in the greeting's of 1 Ti P, 2 "Ti 1", 2 Jn ^ ; mercy and peace together in Gal 6'", Jude^.