Maltese Bible History (3)

**List: Maltese Ministry Bible ( Bibbja ) Maltese... "MALTA, the ancient Melita, is an island of the Mediterranean, situated at a distance of sixty-two miles from Cape Passaro in Sicily, and one hundred and ninety-seven miles north of Tripoli in Africa.   It comprises an area of only ninety-eight square miles, its greatest length being seventeen miles, and its extreme breadth nine miles: its population amounted, at the latest census, to 142,500.    But, although so small an island, Malta has been the theatre of some of the most remarkable events recorded in history.   Originally in the hands of the Phœnicians and Carthaginians, it passed, during the first Punic war, under the dominion of Rome.   While subject to that empire, it was visited by the Apostle Paul, on his passage from Cæsarea to Rome; and the creek on which he was stranded is called to this day "St. Paul's Bay."   On the decline of the Roman empire, Malta was transferred to the Goths, then to the Saracens, and afterwards to the crown of Sicily.   In the sixteenth century it again became renowned as the scene of the valiant exploits of the Knights of St. John.   The island was presented to this order by the Emperor Charles V., and continued under their sway till 1798, when it capitulated to the French, but was taken by the English in the following year.   By the treaty of 1814, Malta was ceded to England.    The religion of the Maltese is Roman Catholicism; and it is supposed that there are scarcely 4600 Protestants in the island, including the British residents, who number about 4000.   There are (or were but recently) 16,000 priests and friars, and it is believed that not a single member of the ancient order of knights so long the masters of the island is now to be found there.   The Maltese lan- guage is spoken not only in Malta, but also in Gozzo, a small island lying at a distance of about four miles off its coast, containing a population of 16,500 individuals. I.--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE.    Maltese would be a pure Shemitic dialect, were it not alloyed with Italian and Latin words. It was thought by some, as for instance by the learned Agius, that the Maltese language was identical with the ancient Punic or Phœnician.   But Gesenius has demonstrated that it is a dialect of the modern Arabic, in which there may be a few words derived from the ancient language of Tyre or of Carthage. It approximates closely to the Mogrebin, or Moorish-Arabic, particularly in the conjugation of verbs; and most of its words are either Arabic or of Arabic origin.   It resembles modern Arabic, in having no variations of termination to denote the distinctions of case, particles being prefixed to the noun instead of the ancient case-endings.   In the Maltese alphabet the twenty-eight sounds of the Arabic alphabet are recognised; but with these are conjoined three other letters which never occur in Arabic, and which are principally met with in words derived from the Italian.   The Roman letters are used in writing, Arabic characters being unknown to the Maltese. II.--VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE.    The first attempt to translate the Scriptures into Maltese was made in the early part of the present century, by the Rev. W. Jowett, of the Church My. Society.   He was assisted by Giuseppe Cannólo, a native of Malta; and in 1822 a small edition of the Gospel of St. John, with the Maltese and Italian in parallel columns, was published in London as a specimen of the work.   The translation was so much approved by competent judges, that a version of the Four [g]ospels and [a]cts was printed in 1829, at the expense of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge: the Latin Vulgate, from which the translation had been made, was appended in parallel columns.   The Liturgy of the Church of England has since been translated under the auspices of the same Society, and they likewise printed, in 1847, the entire New Testament in Maltese."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only] MALTESE.   [MALTA.]--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: "1847" John 1:1-14 {correct w/ "mnissel-wahdu" @ John 1:14}; used Alla.]

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