The "first man" of Malta
The odd title Acts gives the leading man of Malta is the title Malta's own inscriptions use for that office.
Fakapapau'i 'e he keliTohi tongi maka1st–2nd century AD
Acts calls Publius, who received Paul's shipwrecked party, "the chief man of the island" — in Greek, prōtos. Inscriptions from Malta use exactly that word, and its Latin equivalent primus, as the title of the island's leading official.
…the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously.
- Na'e 'ilo'i
- Malta — Recorded from the eighteenth century onward
- 'Oku tauhi 'i
- National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta
- Lea
- Greek and Latin
- Na'e a'u mai fēfē kiate kitautolu
- Na'e keli hake, pe 'oku kei tu'u 'i he potu na'e langa ai.
Ko e me'a 'oku ne fakahā
The office is attested; no inscription names this Publius.
Founga hono ngāue'aki 'e he kau hisitōlia
A standard note in commentaries and in the epigraphy of Roman Malta.
'I he Folofola
Fekau'aki mo
Ngaahi ma'u'anga fakamatala
- Hemer, The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History (1989)
'Oku 'i he lea faka-Pilitānia 'a e ngaahi fakamatala ko 'eni he taimi ni. 'E muimui mai 'a e liliu.