DISSERTAZIONI DI DOTTORATO
2025-2026

BUGEJA Sinclair

Insularity and Continentality as Markers of Missionary Universality. The Function of the Sea Voyage in Acts 27,1–28,16.

Mod.: Prof. R.P. Clifard Sunil RANJAR, S.J.

The object of this study is to determine the function of the sea voyage in Acts 27,1–28,16. The Introduction to this work identifies five peculiarities that characterise this Lukan passage: (1) it is recounted in the first-person plural; (2) it has a distinctively rich style; (3) it is spread over a length of sixty verses; (4) it is strategically placed at the end of the Book of Acts; and (5) it has an abundance of allusions to the sea storm type-scene from antiquity. Several scholarly solutions have been proposed to explain these characteristics. None have been shown to be wholly satisfactory. The narrative exegesis of the text in Part I emphasises tensions between the they-group and the we-group in the shipwreck account. These tensions are shown to contain hidden transcripts that reveal Christianity’s claims to universalism, rivalling those made by the Roman Empire. The Malta episode comes to represent two geographical novelties for the spread of the Gospel. These are examined further in Part II. Here, Chapter VI discusses how Malta, through its insularity, comes to symbolise Isaianic eschatological peripheries and fulfils the dominical promises in Acts 1,8. Chapter VII, on the other hand, examines how the island’s historical African ties signal the irruption of the Word onto the third and last continent of the then-known world. Having conquered the world as far as the ends of the earth and the Hamitic peoples, the most stubborn of Noah’s descendants, Paul’s entry into Rome at the end of Acts reinforces the perspective that the whole globe has been won over to Christ. The function of Acts 27,1–28,16, then, is universalist in nature. This missionary function helps explain the five main peculiarities of Acts 27,1–28,16: the use of the first person plural narration in the paired Macedonian episode in Acts 16 has continental implications for the spread of the Gospel; the style, length and the use of the sea storm type-scene reinforce the significance of the episode to the evangelisation effort in Acts; while its position, at the end of Acts, serves the function of reading the Malta episode as the fulfilment of the Gospel reaching the ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς of Acts 1,8, as well as the third and most obstinate of continents – that of Ham. Often overlooked, Paul’s evangelising mission on the Punic island has far-reaching missionary consequences to the spread of the Christian message: it has reached the people at the peripheries, as well as Ham’s descendants, historically impervious to God’s saving actions. The Gospel has truly spread all over the globe.