Melita

2 definitions found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Melita
     (Acts 27:28), an island in the Mediterranean, the modern Malta.
     Here the ship in which Paul was being conveyed a prisoner to
     Rome was wrecked. The bay in which it was wrecked now bears the
     name of "St. Paul's Bay", "a certain creek with a shore." It is
     about 2 miles deep and 1 broad, and the whole physical condition


     of the scene answers the description of the shipwreck given in
     Acts 28. It was originally colonized by Phoenicians
     ("barbarians," 28:2). It came into the possession of the Greeks
     (B.C. 736), from whom it was taken by the Carthaginians (B.C.
     528). In B.C. 242 it was conquered by the Romans, and was
     governed by a Roman propraetor at the time of the shipwreck
     (Acts 28:7). Since 1800, when the French garrison surrendered to
     the English force, it has been a British dependency. The island
     is about 17 miles long and 9 wide, and about 60 in
     circumference. After a stay of three months on this island,
     during which the "barbarians" showed them no little kindness,
     Julius procured for himself and his company a passage in another
     Alexandrian corn-ship which had wintered in the island, in which
     they proceeded on their voyage to Rome (Acts 28:13, 14).
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Melita, affording honey