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Easton's Bible Dictionary
"The chief man of the island" of Malta ( Acts 28:7 ),
who courteously entertained Paul and his shipwrecked companions for three days,
till they found a more permanent place of residence; for they remained on the
island for three months, till the stormy season had passed. The word here rendered
"chief man" (protos) is supposed by some to be properly a Maltese term, the official
title of the governor.
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
common
Smith's Bible Dictionary
The chief man --probably the governor-of Melita, who received
and lodged St. Paul and his companions on the occasion of their being shipwrecked
off that island. ( Acts 28:7 ) (A.D.55.)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
pub'-li-us (Poplios, from the Latin praenomen Publius,
derived from populus, "popular"; according to Ramsay it is the Greek form of the
Latin nomen Popilius; the Greek title meaning "first," applied to Publius in Acts
28:7, was an official one, and has been found on an inscription from the island
of Gaulus near Malta (compare Bockh, Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, number 5,
754)):
Publius held office under the governor of Sicily. As the leading official in Malta,
he was responsible for any Roman soldiers and their prisoners who might land there,
but the account in Acts 28:7 implies that he displayed more than ordinary solicitude
for Paul and his shipwrecked company, for, according to the writer, he "received
us, and lodged us three days courteously" (the King James Version). The Apocryphal
"Acts of Paul" (see APOCRYPHAL ACTS, sec. B, I) states also that "he did for them
many acts of great kindness and charity" (compare Budge, Centendings of the Apostles,
II, 605). On this occasion Paul miraculously healed the father of Publius, who
"lay sick of fever and dysentery" (Acts 28:8). The exactitude of the medical terms
here employed forms part of the evidence that the writer of Acts was a physician.
Tradition relates that Publius was the first bishop of Malta and that he afterward
became bishop of Athens.
C. M. Kerr
Tags:
apostle paul (stayed with), bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, father healed by paul, governor, island, malta, melita, publius, shipwreck
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