THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES - Chapter 28 - Verse 2

Verse 2. And the barbarous people. See Barnes "Ro 1:14".

The Greeks regarded all as barbarians who did not speak their language; and applied the name to all other nations but their own. It does not denote, as it does sometimes with us, people of savage, uncultivated, and cruel habits, but simply those whose speech was unintelligible. See 1 Co 14:11. The island is supposed to have been peopled at first by the Phoecians, afterwards by the Phoenicians, and afterwards by a colony from Carthage. The language of the Maltese was that of Africa, and hence it was called by the Greeks the language of barbarians. It was a language which was unintelligible to the Greeks and Latins.

The rain. The continuance of the storm.

And of the cold. The exposure to the water in getting to the shore, and probably to the coldness of the weather. It was now in the month of October.

{c} "barbarous people" Ro 1:14; Col 3:11 {d} "received us every one" Mt 10:42; Heb 13:2