Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 28:2

οἵ τε βάρβαροι, and the barbarians. The word is used in the original as it was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Those who did not speak their language were to them always ‘barbarians,’ not necessarily in our modern sense, but as strange and foreign folks. The language spoken in Malta was probably a Phœnician dialect, as the island had received most of its inhabitants from Carthage, but had come under Roman rule in the Second Punic War (Livy, XX. 51).

βάρβαρος is used 2Ma 10:4, by Judas Maccabeus and the Jews with him, to describe the Greek enemy under Antiochus, who certainly would not be ‘barbarians’ in the modern sense.

οὐ τὴν τυχοῦσαν φιλανθρωπίαν, especial kindness. Cf. above, Acts 19:11, note.

προσελάβοντο πάντας ἡμᾶς, they received us all, i.e. took us under their care. At first of course the hospitality would be shewn by kind treatment on the beach, evidenced by their fighting a fire. Afterwards, as the stay was of three months’ duration, the sailors and prisoners would find quarters in the dwellings of the natives. Paul, the centurion, and some others were received into the house of the chief magistrate. The rain continued after they had got ashore, and the storm had so lowered the temperature that the first thing to be done was to make a large fire.

For the verb used in this sense of hospitable entertainment, cf. Philemon 1:17. Also 2Ma 10:15, τοὺς φυγαδευθέντας�.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 28:2

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