MELITA
(lat. from the gr. «Melite»).
The island on which the ship carrying Paul ran aground (Acts 28:1).
In ancient times there were two islands that bore the name Melita:
(a) What is currently called Meleda, on the Adriatic, along Dalmatia.
(b) The present island of Malta.
Probably all commentators today consider Malta to be the island on which Paul was shipwrecked. M. Smith’s maritime experiences support this position.
Accustomed to traveling the Mediterranean by yacht, this scholar discovered the direction from which the Euroclidon blows (Acts 27:14).
He set about determining the course a drifting ship would follow and its probable speed under storm conditions; He was thus able to verify that the ship would reach Malta in the period of time indicated by Acts.
Paul’s ship had been carried back and forth across the “Adriatic” (a designation that in ancient times referred to the Mediterranean between Greece and Italy, Acts 27:27). (See ADRIATIC).
St. Paul’s Bay is the traditional site of the shipwreck, on the northeast coast of the island. Luke designates the inhabitants of the island as “barbarians” (Gr. term for foreigners), because they were neither Greeks nor Romans.