Bible Study - The Apostle Paul on Malta is Still celebrated Today - Acts 27:27-28:5 - September 7, 2026

 

Bible Study – The Apostle Paul on Malta Is Still Celebrated Today – Acts 27:27-28:5 - September 6, 2026

I thought it interesting that this event in The Apostle Paul’s life is still celebrated in Malta today.

How a 2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck Helped Shape Malta

The Feast of St Paul Shipwreck, celebrated on 10 February, is one of Malta’s national public holidays and it is uniquely tied to the islands own story: it was here, according to Acts (Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament), that the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked on his journey to Rome, traditionally dated to around AD 60.

Let’s read the Biblical account as written in Acts 27:27-28:5:

Acts 27:27-28:5

Christian Standard Bible

²⁷ When the fourteenth night came, we were drifting in the Adriatic Sea, and about midnight the sailors thought they were approaching land. ²⁸ They took soundings and found it to be a hundred twenty feet^[a] deep; when they had sailed a little farther and sounded again, they found it to be ninety feet^[b] deep. ²⁹ Then, fearing we might run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight to come. ³⁰ Some sailors tried to escape from the ship; they had let down the skiff into the sea, pretending that they were going to put out anchors from the bow. ³¹ Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” ³² Then the soldiers cut the ropes holding the skiff and let it drop away.

³³ When it was about daylight, Paul urged them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, having eaten nothing. ³⁴ So I urge you to take some food. For this is for your survival, since none of you will lose a hair from your head.” ³⁵ After he said these things and had taken some bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all of them, and after he broke it, he began to eat. ³⁶ They all were encouraged and took food themselves. ³⁷ In all there were 276 of us on the ship. ³⁸ When they had eaten enough, they began to lighten the ship by throwing the grain overboard into the sea.

Shipwreck

³⁹ When daylight came, they did not recognize the land but sighted a bay with a beach. They planned to run the ship ashore if they could. ⁴⁰ After cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and headed for the beach. ⁴¹ But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow jammed fast and remained immovable, while the stern began to break up by the pounding of the waves. ⁴² The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners so that no one could swim away and escape. ⁴³ But the centurion kept them from carrying out their plan because he wanted to save Paul, and so he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. ⁴⁴ The rest were to follow, some on planks and some on debris from the ship. In this way, everyone safely reached the shore.

Malta’s Hospitality

28 Once safely ashore, we then learned that the island was called Malta. ² The local people showed us extraordinary kindness. They lit a fire and took us all in, since it was raining and cold. ³ As Paul gathered a bundle of brushwood and put it on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. ⁴ When the local people saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “This man, no doubt, is a murderer. Even though he has escaped the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” ⁵ But he shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no harm.

I pondered the following question -----

Does Malta still recall the Apostle Paul’s visit to the island?

The answer is YES!

Yes!!! — Malta still celebrates the Apostle Paul’s visit to the islands, marking it annually on February 10 as the Feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck. This is a major national religious holiday that commemorates the biblical account in the Acts of the Apostles of Paul’s shipwreck on Malta in AD 60 while travelling to Rome publicholidays.info+1.

The feast is observed with a mix of religious devotion and traditional festivities across the archipelago. In Valletta, the main celebrations centre/center on the Collegiate Parish Church of St Paul’s Shipwreck, featuring a grand procession with a statue of St Paul, high Mass, band marches, and street decorations publicholidays.info+1. Rabat, traditionally linked to Paul’s stay, hosts processions and parish events, while Mdina commemorates the feast with liturgical ceremonies in St Paul’s Cathedral Malta Daily. Qormi and Marsalforn also mark the occasion with local processions, fireworks, and community activities Malta Daily.

The celebrations reflect Malta’s deep historical and spiritual connection to Paul’s time on the island, where he is believed to have preached the Gospel and performed miracles, laying the foundations for Maltese Christianity Aleteia. Today, the feast is a symbol of pride in Malta’s status as one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, and it draws both locals and tourists to retrace the steps of Paul’s journey through sites like St Paul’s Grotto in Rabat and the Collegiate Parish Church in Valletta Aleteia+1.

In short, Malta continues to honor Paul’s visit with annual public and religious observances that blend faith, history, and cultural tradition.

It is always exciting when History confirms the Bible and it does.

Truth is truth!!!

The Apostle Paul fought the good fight and was a warrior for JESUS and GOD’S Kingdom.

How does a person become a member of GOD’S eternal Kingdom?

Any person, regardless of race, birthright, mental capacity can experience the miracle of Spiritual Birth into GOD’S eternal family through faith in JESUS ----

Dear JESUS, thank YOU for giving YOUR sinless life upon the cross to pay the price for sin, in full. My part is to accept that fact by asking YOU, JESUS, to come into my life/heart and redeem me from the consequence of sin, which is eternal death and make me YOUR Child (SON/DAUGHTER) through the miracle of being “born again” Spiritually as JESUS told Nicodemus in John 3:1-21: Christian Standard Bible

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ² This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, (JESUS) we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”

³ Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again,^[a] he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The physical birth of all humans is our first birth and that physical birth makes all humans eligible of being “Born Again.”

This includes all human life from physical conception to physical death. GOD has a plan from conception to death -----

⁴ “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

Great question -----

⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. ⁸ The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (The Spiritual birth of a person is a mystery but real to the person “born again” and guaranteed by the confirmation of the indwelling Holy Spirit, WHO resides within every “born again” person.

⁹ “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

¹⁰ “Are you a teacher^[b] of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. ¹¹ “Truly I tell you, we speak what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven —the Son of Man.^[c]

¹⁴ “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him may^[d] have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God loved the world in this way:^[e] He gave^[f] his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. ¹⁹ This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it,^[g] so that his (or her) deeds may not be exposed. ²¹ But anyone who lives by^[h] the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

Blessings!!!