Bible Dictionary
Publius
Publius was the leading official of Malta when Paul and his companions were shipwrecked there. He courteously received them, and Paul healed his sick father.
Definition
Publius was the leading official of Malta, or Melita, when Paul and his companions reached the island after shipwreck. He received them courteously and provided lodging while they remained there.
Biblical Usage
Publius welcomed Paul and the shipwrecked company for three days. Paul healed Publius’s father, who was sick with fever and dysentery, and this event was followed by the healing of other sick people on the island.
Historical Background
The title translated “chief man” or “first” was understood as an official designation. Publius held office under the governor of Sicily and was responsible for Roman soldiers and prisoners who landed at Malta. The supplied material also notes a possible inscriptional parallel for the title on a nearby island.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
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.
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 (ISBE)
<p>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 Ac 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 Ac 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 "Ac 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" (Ac 28:8). The exactitude of the medical terms here employed forms part of the evidence that the writer of Ac was a physician. Tradition relates that Publius was the first bishop of Malta and that he afterward became bishop of Athens.</p><p>C. M. Kerr</p>