Sec. 9. Malta. 343
CURED ; (10) WHO ALSO HONOURED US WITH MANY HONOURS, AND WHEN WE SAILED PUT ON BOARD SUCH THINGS AS WE NEEDED.
The name Poplios is the Greek form of the prcenomen Publius ; but it is not probable that this official would be called by a simple prcenomen. Poplius might perhaps be the Greek rendering of the nomen Popilius. Yet pos- sibly the peasantry around spoke familiarly of " Publius " by his prcenomen simply ; and Luke (who has no sympathy for Roman nomenclature) took the name that he heard in common use. • The title " first " is technically correct in Melita :. it has inscriptional authority.
Doubtless many of the sailors had been at Malta before, for eastern ships bound for Rome must have often touched at the island, v. 1 1. " But St. Paul's Bay is remote from the great harbour, and possesses no marked features by which it could be recognised " from the anchorage in the bay.
The objections which have been advanced, that there are now no vipers in the island, and only one place where any wood grows, are too trivial to deserve notice. Such changes are natural and probable in a small island, populous and long civilised.
The term " barbarians," v. 2, is characteristic of the nationality of the writer. It does not indicate rudeness or uncivilised habits, but merely non-Greek birth ; and it is difficult to imagine that a Syrian or a Jew or any one but a Greek would have applied the name to the people of Malta, who had been in contact with Phoenicians and Romans for many centuries.