No description could be more clear and precise, selecting the essential points and omitting all others. Smith quotes some interesting parallels from modern narratives of shipwreck.
Some doubt has arisen whether "the bank between two seas" was a shoal separated from the shore by deep water, or, as Smith says, a neck of land projecting towards the island of Salmonetta, which shelters St. Paul's Bay on the north-west. But the active term "drove the ship on it" (hreiceCkav) implies purpose, and decides in Smith's favour. The fact that they "chanced on a ridge between two seas" might at the first glance seem to imply want of purpose ; but, as Smith points
Sec. 8. On Shore. 341
out, they could not, while lying at anchor, see the exact character of the spot. They selected a promising point, and as they approached they found that luck had led them to the isthmus between the island and the main- land. In their situation the main object was to get the ship close up to the shore, and safe from being rapidly and utterly smashed up by the waves. No place could have better favoured their purpose. The ship (which probably drew eighteen feet of water) " struck a bottom of mud, graduating into tenacious clay, into which the fore part would fix itself, and be held fast, while the stern was exposed to the force of the waves". Thus the foreship was held together, until every passenger got safe to dry land. Only the rarest conjunction of favour- able circumstances could have brought about such a fortunate ending to their apparently hopeless situation ; and one of the completest services that has ever been rendered to New Testament scholarship is James Smith's proof that all these circumstances are united in St. Paul's Bay. The only difficulty to which he has applied a rather violent solution is the sandy beach : at the tradi- tional point where the ship was run ashore there is no sandy beach ; but he considers that it is " now worn away by the wasting action of the sea ". On this detail only local knowledge would justify an opinion,
In v. 41 "the violence" is the expression used by a person standing on the shore and watching the waves smash up the ship : he does not need to specify the kind of violence. This expression takes us on to the beach, and makes us gaze on the scene. The humblest scribe can supply Kv^idroiv here, and most of them have done so.
342 The Voyage to Rome. Chap. XIV.
In v. 43 Luke mentions that the directions were given, and leaves the reader to understand that they were carried into effect (compare pp. 181, 233, 295).
9. MALTA. (XXVIII I) AND WHEN WE WERE ESCAPED, THEN WE LEARNT THAT THE ISLAND IS CALLED MELITA (2) AND THE BARBARIANS SHOWED US NO COMMON KINDNESS ; FOR THEY KINDLED A FDRE, AND WELCOMED US ALL, BECAUSE OP THE PRESENT RAIN AND BECAUSE OF THE COLD. (3) BUT WHEN PAUL HAD GATHERED A BUNDLE OF STICKS AND LAID THEM ON THE FIRE, A VIPER CAME OUT BY REASON OF THE HEAT AND FASTENED ON HIS HAND. (4) AND WHEN THE BARBARIANS SAW THE BEAST HANGING FROM HIS HAND, THEY SAID TO ONE AN- OTHER, " NO DOUBT THIS MAN IS A MURDERER, WHOM, THOUGH HE HATH ESCAPED FROM THE SEA, YET JUSTICE WILL NOT SUFFER TO LIVE". (5) HOWBEIT HE SHOOK OFF THE BEAST INTO THE FIRE, AND TOOK NO HARM. (6) BUT THEY EXPECTED THAT HE WOULD HAVE SWOLLEN OR FALLEN DOWN DEAD SUDDENLY ; BUT WHEN THEY WERE LONG IN EXPECTATION AND BEHELD NOTHING AMISS COME TO HIM, THEY CHANGED THEIR MINDS, AND SAID THAT HE WAS A GOD. (7) NOW IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THAT PLACE WERE LANDS BELONGING TO THE FIRST man OF THE ISLAND, NAMED POPLIUS, WHO RECEIVED US AND ENTERTAINED US THREE DAYS COURTEOUSLY. (8) AND IT WAS SO THAT THE FATHER OF POPLIUS LAY SICK OF A FEVER AND DYSENTERY ; AND PAUL ENTERED IN UNTO HIM, AND PRAYED, AND LAYING HIS HANDS ON HIM HEALED HIM. (9) AND WHEN THIS WAS DONE THE REST ALSO WHICH HAD DISEASES IN THE ISLAND CAME AND WERE