The Malta Miracle
The Lord had assured Paul that he must go to Rome. He had also promised to give him the lives of all the 275 others who were on board. He did as He had promised. After arriving safely on land they found out the island was called Malta (Phoenician or Canaanite for “refuge”). It was south of Sicily and its people were descended from Phoenician colonists who settled there about 1000 B.C., and who probably spoke a dialect closely related to Hebrew. Rome had conquered the island in 218 B.C. The islanders received them graciously. Throughout this passage Luke uses the Greek term barbaroi to refer to the “islanders.” Barbaroi is translated variously, including “natives” (NASB), “rough islanders” (NEB), and “barbarous people” (KJV). But Luke does not mean that they were degraded or uncivilized. To the Greeks any foreigner who could not speak Greek was a barbarian. Later they gave the Romans a certain level of inclusion by redefining “barbarian” as one who could not speak Greek or Latin. I