Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 28:1-10, Malta: the viper and the goddess Justice
The islanders of Malta welcome the shipwrecked with a fire. When a viper fastens on Paul's hand they decide that Justice will not let a murderer live; when he takes no harm they call him a god. Publius, the island's chief man, takes them in, and Paul heals his father and many others.
Acts 28:1-10, in every translation this tool compares.
The survivors find they are on Malta, and the islanders welcome them warmly with a fire against the rain and cold. When a snake bites Paul as he adds wood, the locals conclude that divine justice is punishing a murderer the sea failed to drown, then decide he must be a god when he suffers no harm. Publius, the island's leading official, hosts them, and Paul heals his father of fever and dysentery. Other sick islanders come and are healed, and when the party leaves, the people load them with honors and supplies.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/pagan-gods-and-idols\/","n":"Many gods and their images","s":"The Greek and Roman world was full of gods, each with temples, statues, priests and local stories. Jews and Christians called the images things made with hands, while holding that there were real powers behind them.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/patrons-and-benefactors\/","n":"Patrons, clients and benefactors","s":"Favors in the Roman world came with strings. A patron gave help and protection, the client paid it back in loyalty and public honor, and rulers who gave gifts to the public were hailed as benefactors.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sea-travel\/","n":"Travel by sea","s":"Outside winter, ships were the quickest and cheapest way to travel, but they were built for cargo, not passengers, and from mid-September the sea grew dangerous. The great grain ships of Alexandria fed Rome.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/greeks-and-barbarians\/","n":"Greeks, barbarians and the nations","s":"Greeks split humanity into Greeks and barbarians, people whose speech sounded like babble. Jews split it into Israel and the nations. Paul uses both maps.","r":""}
The word for the islanders meant people who did not speak Greek, without contempt here; most Maltese spoke Punic (Keener and his notes; the ESV Study Bible), and Malta was a prosperous Roman municipium whose fine houses Cicero praised (the Zondervan Bible dictionary). Hospitality to strangers was a valued virtue, owed above all to the shipwrecked (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener). Justice, Dike, was a personified goddess, and stories told of people who escaped the sea only to die another way as the gods' curse caught up with them (Keener and his notes; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). The CSB Study Bible notes that there are no poisonous snakes on Malta today. Those who survived snakebite were thought holy men, sometimes divine, a reversal ancient readers would find comic (Keener and his notes); Wright sets it against Lystra, where the crowd went from god to stoning. Publius's title, first man, appears on Maltese inscriptions, probably for the island's governor (Keener and his notes; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). The honors and supplies follow the Mediterranean rule of reciprocity (the cultural backgrounds notes), and Wright notes that some take the honors as a tactful word for payment.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 28:2, 28:4, 28:6 and 28:7
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 28:2, 28:4, 28:6, 28:7 and 28:10
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Acts 28:2, 28:4 and 28:7
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Acts 28:2-4 and 28:7
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part Two, comment on Acts 28:1-10
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Malta
