Exposition of Acts Chapter Twenty Eight
       
by Jameison-Faussett-Brown
• Key
Verses
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Acts
28:1-31. THE WINTERING
AT MALTA, AND NOTABLE OCCURRENCES THERE--PROSECUTION OF THE
VOYAGE TO ITALY AS
FAR AS PUTEOLI, AND
LAND JOURNEY THENCE TO ROME--SUMMARY OF THE APOSTLE'S
LABORS THERE FOR THE
TWO FOLLOWING YEARS.
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Verse 1. knew the island was called
Melita--(See on Acts
27:39). The opinion that this island was not Malta to the
south of Sicily, but Meleda in the Gulf of Venice--which till
lately had respectable support among Competent judges--is now
all but exploded; examination of all the places on the spot,
and of all writings and principles bearing on the question, by
gentlemen of the highest qualification, particularly SMITH (see on Acts
27:41), having set the question, it may now be affirmed,
at rest.
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Verse 2. the barbarous people--so
called merely as speaking neither the Greek nor the
Latin language. They were originally PhÅ"nician
colonists.
showed us no
little--"no ordinary"
kindness, for they kindled a fire, and received us every
one, because of the present rain--"the rain that was on
us"--not now first falling, but then falling heavily.
and because of the
cold--welcomed us all, drenched and shivering, to these
most seasonable marks of friendship. In this these
"barbarians" contrast favorably with many since bearing the
Christian name. The lifelike style of the narrative here and
in the following verses gives it a great charm.
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Verse 3. when Paul had gathered a bundle
of sticks--"a quantity of dry sticks." The vigorous
activity of Paul's character is observable in this
comparatively trifling action [WEBSTER and
WILKINSON].
and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the
heat--Having laid itself up among the sticks on the
approach of the cold winter season, it had suddenly recovered
from its torpor by the heat.
and
fastened--its fangs.
on his
hand--Vipers dart at their enemies sometimes several feet
at a bound. They have now disappeared from Malta, owing to the
change which cultivation has produced.
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Verse 4-6. No doubt this man is a
murderer--His chains, which they would see, might
strengthen the impression.
whom
. . . vengeance suffereth not to live--They
believed in a Supreme, Resistless, Avenging Eye and
Hand, however vague their notions of where it
resided.
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Verse 5. shook off the beast and felt no
harm--See Mark
16:18.
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Verse 6. they looked--"continued
looking."
when he should have
swollen or fallen down dead--familiar with the effects of
such bites.
and saw no harm come
to him, they changed their minds, and said . . . he
was a god--from "a murderer" to "a god," as the Lycaonian
greeting of Paul and Silas from "sacrificing to them" to
"stoning them" (Acts
14:13, 19). What has not the Gospel done for the
uncultivated portion of the human family, while its effects on
the educated and refined, though very different, are not less
marvellous! Verily it is God's chosen restorative for the
human spirit, in all the multitudinous forms and gradations of
its lapsed state.
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Verse 7, 8. possessions of the chief
man--"the first man."
of the
island--He would hardly be so styled in the lifetime of
his father, if his distinction was that of the family.
But it is now ascertained that this was the proper
official title of the Maltese representative of the
Roman prÃ|tor to Sicily, to whose province Malta belonged; two
inscriptions having been discovered in the island, one in
Greek, the other in Latin, containing the same
words which Luke here employs.
who
received us--of Paul's company, but doubtless including
the "courteous" Julius.
and lodged
us three days courteously--till proper winter lodgings
could be obtained for them.
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Verse 8. the father of Publius lay sick
of a fever--"fevers." The word was often thus used in the
plural number, probably to express recurring attacks.
and of a bloody flux--"of
dysentery." (The medical accuracy of our historian's
style has been observed here.)
to
whom Paul entered in, and prayed--thereby precluding the
supposition that any charm resided in himself.
and laid his hands on him, and healed
him--Thus, as our Lord rewarded Peter for the use of his
boat (Luke 5:3,
4, &c.), so Paul richly repays Publius for his
hospitality. Observe the fulfilment here of two things
predicted in Mark
16:18 --the "taking up serpents," and "recovering of the
sick by laying hands on them."
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Verse 9. this . . . done,
others . . . came and were healed--"kept coming
to [us] and getting healed," that is, during our stay, not all
at once [WEBSTER and WILKINSON].
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Verse 10. who also honoured us
. . . and when we departed they laded us,
&c.--This was not taking hire for the miracles wrought
among them (Matthew
10:8), but such grateful expressions of feeling,
particularly in providing what would minister to their comfort
during the voyage, as showed the value they set upon the
presence and labors of the apostle among them, and such as it
would have hurt their feelings to refuse. Whether any
permanent effects of this three months' stay of the greatest
of the apostles were left at Malta, we cannot certainly say.
But though little dependence is to be placed upon the
tradition that Publius became bishop of Malta and afterwards
of Athens, we may well believe the accredited tradition that
the beginnings of the Christian Church at Malta sprang out of
this memorable visit.
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Verse 11. we departed in a ship of
Alexandria--(See on Acts
27:6).
which had wintered in
the isle--no doubt driven m by the same storm which had
wrecked on its shores the apostle's vessel--an incidental mark
of consistency in the narrative.
whose sign--or "figurehead"; the figure, carved or
painted on the bow, which gave name to the vessel. Such
figureheads were anciently as common as now.
was Castor and Pollux--the tutelar gods of
mariners, to whom all their good fortune was ascribed. St.
Anthony is substituted for them in the modern superstitions of
Mediterranean (Romanist) sailors. They carry his image in
their boats and ships. It is highly improbable that two ships
of Alexandra should have been casually found, of which the
owners were able and willing to receive on board such a number
of passengers (Acts
27:6). We may then reasonably conceive that it was
compulsory on the owners to convey soldiers and state
travellers [WEBSTER and WILKINSON].
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Verse 12, 13. landing at
Syracuse--the ancient and celebrated capital of Sicily, on
its eastern coast, about eighty miles, or a day's sail, north
from Malta.
we tarried
there three days--probably from the state of the
wind. Doubtless Paul would wish to go ashore, to find out and
break ground among the Jews and proselytes whom such a
mercantile center would attract to it; and if this was allowed
at the outset of the voyage (Acts
27:3), much more readily would it be now when he had
gained the reverence and confidence of all classes with whom
he came in contact. At any rate we cannot wonder that he
should be regarded by the Sicilians as the founder of the
Church of that island.
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Verse 13. from thence we fetched a
compass--that is, proceeded circuitously, or
tacked, working to windward probably, and availing
themselves of the sinuosities of the coast, the wind not being
favorable [SMITH]. What follows confirms
this.
and came to Rhegium--now
Reggio, a seaport on the southwest point of the Italian
coast, opposite the northeast point of Sicily, and at the
entrance of the narrow straits of Messina.
after one day the south wind blew--a south wind
having sprung up; being now favored with a fair wind, for want
of which they had been obliged first to stay three days at
Syracuse, and then to tack and put in for a day at Rhegium.
the next day to Puteoli--now
Pozzuoli, situated on the northern part of the
magnificent bay of Naples about one hundred eighty miles north
of Rhegium, a distance which they might make, running before
their "south wind," in about twenty-six hours. The Alexandrian
corn ships enjoyed a privilege peculiar to themselves, of not
being obliged to strike their topsail on landing. By this they
were easily recognized as they hove in sight by the crowds
that we find gathered on the shore on such occasions [HOWSON].
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Verse 14, 15. Where we found
brethren--not "the brethren" (see on Acts
21:4), from which one would conclude they did not expect
to find such [WEBSTER and WILKINSON].
and were
desired--"requested."
to tarry
with them seven days--If this request came from Julius, it
may have proceeded partly from a wish to receive instructions
from Rome and make arrangements for his journey thither,
partly from a wish to gratify Paul, as he seems studiously and
increasingly to have done to the last. One can hardly doubt
that he was influenced by both considerations. However this
may be, the apostle had thus an opportunity of spending a
Sabbath with the Christians of the place, all the more
refreshing from his long privation in this respect, and as a
seasoning for the unknown future that lay before him at the
metropolis.
so we went toward
Rome.
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Verse 15. And from thence, when the
brethren--of Rome
heard of
us--by letter from Puteoli, and probably by the same
conveyance which took Julius' announcement of his arrival.
they came to meet us as far as
Appii Forum--a town forty-one miles from Rome.
and the Three Taverns--thirty miles from
Rome. Thus they came to greet the apostle in two parties, one
stopping short at the nearer, the other going on to the more
distant place.
whom when Paul saw,
he thanked God--for such a welcome. How sensitive he was
to such Christian affection all his Epistles show (Romans
1:9, &c.).
and took
courage--his long-cherished purpose to "see Rome" (Acts
19:21), there to proclaim the unsearchable riches of
Christ, and the divine pledge that in this he should be
gratified (Acts
23:11), being now about to be auspiciously realized.
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Verse 16. when we came to Rome--the
renowned capital of the ancient world, situated on the Tiber.
the centurion delivered the
prisoners to the captain of the guard--the PrÃ|torian
Prefect, to whose custody, as commander of the PrÃ|torian
guard, the highest military authority in the city, were
committed all who were to come before the emperor for trial.
Ordinarily there were two such prefects; but from A.D. 51 to 62, one distinguished
general--Burrus Aframus, who had been Nero's
tutor--held that office; and as our historian speaks of
"the captain," as if there were but one, it is thought
that this fixes the apostle's arrival at Rome to be not later
than the year 62 [WIES]. But even though
there had been two when Paul arrived, he would be committed
only to one of them, who would be "the captain" who got
charge of him. (At most, therefore, this can furnish no more
than confirmation to the chronological evidence otherwise
obtained).
but Paul was suffered
to dwell by himself with a--"the"
soldier that kept him--"guarded" him. (See on Acts
12:6). This privilege was allowed in the case of the
better class of prisoners, not accused of any flagrant
offense, on finding security--which in Paul's case would not
be difficult among the Christians. The extension of this
privilege to the apostle may have been due to the terms in
which Festus wrote about him; but far more probably it was
owing to the high terms in which Julius spoke of him, and his
express intercession in his behalf. It was overruled, however,
for giving the fullest scope to the labors of the apostle
compatible with confinement at all. As the soldiers who kept
him were relieved periodically, he would thus make the
personal acquaintance of a great number of the PrÃ|torian
guard; and if he had to appear before the Prefect from time to
time, the truth might thus penetrate to those who surrounded
the emperor, as we learn, from Philippians
1:12, 13, that it did.
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Verse 17-20. Paul called the chief of the
Jews together--Though banished from the capital by
Claudius, the Jews enjoyed the full benefit of the toleration
which distinguished the first period of Nero's reign, and were
at this time in considerable numbers, wealth, and influence
settled at Rome. We have seen that long before this a
flourishing Christian Church existed at Rome, to which Paul
wrote his Epistle (see on Acts
20:3), and the first members of which were probably Jewish
converts and proselytes. (See Introduction
to Romans.)
yet was I delivered
prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans--the
Roman authorities, Felix and Festus.
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Verse 19. I was constrained to appeal
. . . not that I had aught to accuse my nation
of--"I am here not as their accuser, but as my own
defender, and this not of choice but necessity." His object in
alluding thus gently to the treatment he had received from the
Jews was plainly to avoid whatever might irritate his visitors
at the first; especially as he was not aware whether any or
what information against him had reached their
community.
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Verse 20. For this cause . . .
have I called for you . . . because . . .
for the hope of Israel--(See on Acts
26:6, 7).
I am bound with this
chain--"This cause is not so much mine as yours; it is the
nation's cause; all that is dear to the heart and hope of
Israel is bound up with this case of mine." From the touching
allusions which the apostle makes to his chains, before
Agrippa first, and here before the leading members of the
Jewish community at Rome, at his first interview with them,
one would gather that his great soul felt keenly his being in
such a condition; and it is to this keenness of feeling, under
the control of Christian principle, that we owe the noble use
which he made of it in these two cases.
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Verse 21, 22. We neither received letters
out of Judea concerning thee, &c.--We need not suppose
(with THOLUCK and others) that there was
any dishonest concealment here. The distinction made between
himself, against whom they heard nothing, and his "sect," as
"everywhere spoken against," is a presumption in favor of
their sincerity; and there is ground to think that as the case
took an unexpected turn by Paul's appealing to CÃ|sar, so no
information on the subject would travel from Jerusalem to Rome
in advance of the apostle himself.
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Verse 22. we desire--"deem it proper"
to hear of thee what thou
thinkest--what are thy sentiments, views, &c. The
apparent freedom from prejudice here expressed may have arisen
from a prudent desire to avoid endangering a repetition of
those dissensions about Christianity to which, probably,
SUETONIUS alludes, and which had led to
the expulsion of the Jews under Claudius [HUMPHRY]. See on Acts
18:2.
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Verse 23, 24. there came
many--"considerable numbers"
into his lodging--The word denotes one's place
of stay as a guest (Philemon
22), not "his own hired house," mentioned in Acts
28:30. Some Christian friends--possibly Aquila and
Priscilla, who had returned to Rome (Romans
16:3), would be glad to receive him, though he would soon
find himself more at liberty in a house of his own.
to whom he expounded and testified the
kingdom of God--opening up the great spiritual principles
of that kingdom in opposition to the contracted and secular
views of it entertained by the Jews.
persuading them concerning Jesus--as the ordained and
predicted Head of that kingdom.
out of the law . . . and the
prophets--drawing his materials and arguments from a
source mutually acknowledged.
from
morning till evening--"Who would not wish to have been
present?" exclaims BENGEL; but virtually
we are present while listening to those Epistles
which he dictated from his prison at Rome, and to his
other epistolary expositions of Christian truth against the
Jews.
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Verse 24. and some believed
. . . some not--What simplicity and candor are
in this record of a result repeated from age to age where the
Gospel is presented to a promiscuous assemblage of sincere and
earnest inquirers after truth, frivolous worldlings, and
prejudiced bigots!
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Verse 25-29. when they--the Jews.
agreed not among
themselves--the discussion having passed into one between
the two parties into which the visitors were now divided,
respecting the arguments and conclusions of the apostle.
they departed--the material of
discussion being felt by both parties to be exhausted.
after Paul had spoken one
word--one solemn parting testimony, from those Scriptures
regarded by both alike as "the Holy Ghost speaking" to
Israel.
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Verse 26. Hearing, ye shall hear,
&c.--(See on Matthew
13:13-15 and John
12:38-40). With what pain would this stern saying be wrung
from him whose "heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
was that they might be saved," and who "had great heaviness
and continual sorrow in his heart" on their account (Romans
10:1; 9:2)!
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Verse 28. the salvation of God is sent to
the Gentiles, and they will hear--(See on Acts
13:44-48). "This departure to the Gentiles" he had
intimated to the perverse Jews at Antioch (Acts
13:46), and at Corinth (Acts
18:6); now at Rome: thus in Asia, Greece,
and Italy" [BENGEL].
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Verse 29. the Jews departed, and had
great--"much"
reasoning among
themselves--"This verse is wanting in many manuscripts
[and omitted by several recent editors], but certainly without
reason. Probably the words were regarded as superfluous, as
they seem to tell us what we were told before, that Paul
"departed" (see Acts
28:25). But in Acts
28:25 it is the breaking off of the discourse that is
meant, here the final departure from the house" [OLSHAUSEN].
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Verse 30. in his own hired
house--(See on Acts
28:23), yet still in custody, for he only "received all
that came to him"; and it is not said that he went to
the synagogue or anywhere else.
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Verse 31. with all confidence, no man
forbidding him--enjoying, in the uninterrupted exercise of
his ministry, all the liberty of a guarded man. Thus
closes this most precious monument of the beginnings of the
Christian Church in its march from east to west, among the
Jews first, whose center was Jerusalem; next among the
Gentiles, with Antioch for its headquarters; finally, its
banner is seen waving over imperial Rome, foretokening its
universal triumphs. That distinguished apostle whose
conversion, labors, and sufferings for "the faith which once
he destroyed" occupy more than half of this History, it leaves
a prisoner, unheard, so far as appears, for two years. His
accusers, whose presence was indispensable, would have to
await the return of spring before starting for the capital,
and might not reach it for many months; nor, even when there,
would they be so sanguine of success--after Felix, Festus, and
Agrippa had all pronounced him innocent--as to be impatient of
delay. And if witnesses were required to prove the charge
advanced by Tertullus, that he was "a mover of sedition among
all the Jews throughout the [Roman] world" (Acts
24:5), they must have seen that unless considerable time
was allowed them the case would certainly break down. If to
this be added the capricious delays which the emperor himself
might interpose, and the practice of Nero to hear but one
charge at a time, it will not seem strange that the historian
should have no proceedings in the case to record for two
years. Begun, probably, before the apostle's arrival, its
progress at Rome under his own eye would furnish exalted
employment, and beguile many a tedious hour of his two years'
imprisonment. Had the case come on for hearing during this
period, much more if it had been disposed of, it is hardly
conceivable that the History should have closed as it does.
But if, at the end of this period, the Narrative only wanted
the decision of the case, while hope deferred was making the
heart sick (Proverbs
13:12), and if, under the guidance of that Spirit whose
seal was on it all, it seemed of more consequence to put the
Church at once in possession of this History than to keep it
back indefinitely for the sake of what might come to be
otherwise known, we cannot wonder that it should be wound up
as it is in its two concluding verses. All that we know of the
apostle's proceedings and history beyond this must be gathered
from the Epistles of the Imprisonment--Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon--written during this
period, and the Pastoral Epistles--to Timothy and
Titus, which, in our judgment, are of subsequent date. From
the former class of Epistles we learn the following
particulars: (1) That the trying restraint laid upon the
apostle's labors by his imprisonment had only turned his
influence into a new channel; the Gospel having in consequence
penetrated even into the palace, and pervaded the city, while
the preachers of Christ were emboldened; and though the
Judaizing portion of them, observing his success among the
Gentiles, had been led to inculcate with fresh zeal their own
narrower Gospel, even this had done much good by extending the
truth common to both (See on Philippians
1:12-18; Philippians
4:22); (2) That as in addition to all his other labors,
"the care of all the churches pressed upon him from day
to-day" (2 Corinthians
11:28), so with these churches he kept up an active
correspondence by means of letters and messages, and on such
errands he lacked not faithful and beloved brethren enough
ready to be employed--Luke; Timotheus; Tychicus; (John)
Mark; Demas; Aristarchus; Epaphras; Onesimus; Jesus,
called Justus; and, for a short time, Epaphroditus (See
on Colossians
4:7; Colossians
4:9-12; Colossians
4:14; Philemon
23, 24; see Introduction
to Ephesians, Introduction
to Philippians, and Introduction
to Philemon). That the apostle suffered martyrdom under Nero
at Rome has never been doubted. But that the appeal which
brought him to Rome issued in his liberation, that he was at
large for some years thereafter and took some wide missionary
circuits, and that he was again arrested, carried to Rome, and
then executed--was the undisputed belief of the early Church,
as expressed by CHRYSOSTOM, JEROME, and EUSEBIUS, in the
fourth century, up to CLEMENT OF ROME, the "fellow laborer" of the apostle himself
(Philippians
4:3), in the first century. The strongest possible
confirmation of this is found in the Pastoral Epistles, which
bear marks throughout of a more advanced state of the Church,
and more matured forms of error, than can well have existed at
any period before the appeal which brought the apostle to
Rome; which refer to movements of himself and Timothy that
cannot without some straining (as we think) be made to fit
into any prior period; and which are couched in a manifestly
riper style than any of his other Epistles. (See Introduction
to First Timothy, Introduction
to Second Timothy Introduction
to Titus and Notes). All this has been called in
question by modern critics of great research and acuteness
[PETAVIUS, LARDNER,
DE WETTE, WIESELER, DAVIDSON, and
others]. But those who maintain the ancient view are of equal
authority and more numerous, while the weight of argument
appears to us to be decidedly on their
side.
• Key
Copyright Statement
These files are a derivative of an electronic edition
prepared from text scanned by Woodside Bible Fellowship.
This expanded edition of the Jameison-Faussett-Brown
Commentary is in the public domain and may be freely used and
distributed.
Bibliography
Information
Jamieson, Robert, D.D.
"Commentary on Acts 28". "Commentary Critical and
Explanatory
on the Whole Bible".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/jfb/view.cgi?book=ac&chapter=028>.
1871.
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