Malta Is a Possible Alternative to Crete

The island of milet off the croatian coast near de brovne is suggested as a possible alternative to malta. But this identification is unpersuasive and rejected by scholars when we consider the direction of the wind that drove them away from crete. Malta is by far the more likely location. Several commentators note that the name of malta means refuge, although luke does not seem to make anything of the etymology here. The local people are here described as barbarians in verse two, neither greek nor latin speakers. And likely without the greco roman culture associated with those languages, they would probably chiefly have been people of phoenician origin speaking pun