Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Honoured us with many honors - The word τιμη, as Bishop Pearce has remarked, is often used to signify a pecuniary recompense, or present. The Greek word seems to be thus used in Ti1 5:17. Let the elders which rule well be accounted worthy of double Honor, τιμης, which St. Chrysostom, on the place, explains thus: την των αναγκαιων χορηγιαν· a supplying them with all necessary things. Diodorus Siculus, and Xenophon, used the word in the same way. In the sense of a pecuniary recompense, or price, paid for any thing, the word τιμη is met with in Co1 6:20; and Co1 7:23. And in the Septuagint, Num 22:17; compared with Num 22:18; Psa 8:5; and Psa 49:12; Pro 3:9. Bp. Pearce.
Such things as were necessary - They had before given them many presents, and now they gave them a good sea stock; all that was necessary for their passage.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
who also honoured us . . . and when we departed they laded us, &c.--This was not taking hire for the miracles wrought among them (Mat 10:8), but such grateful expressions of feeling, particularly in providing what would minister to their comfort during the voyage, as showed the value they set upon the presence and labors of the apostle among them, and such as it would have hurt their feelings to refuse. Whether any permanent effects of this three months' stay of the greatest of the apostles were left at Malta, we cannot certainly say. But though little dependence is to be placed upon the tradition that Publius became bishop of Malta and afterwards of Athens, we may well believe the accredited tradition that the beginnings of the Christian Church at Malta sprang out of this memorable visit.
John Gill Bible Commentary
Who also honoured us with many honours,.... Not with divine honours, with religious adorations, as if they had been so many deities; for these they would not have received, nor have recorded them, to the commendation of the inhabitants; but civil honours, expressions of respect and gratitude; and particularly gifts and presents, large and valuable, in which sense the phrase is used by Jewish writers; so upon those words in Jdg 13:17. "What is thy name, that when the sayings come to pass, we may do thee honour?" they make this paraphrase (z),
"Manoah said to him (the angel), tell me thy name, that I may inquire where to find thee, when thy prophecy is fulfilled, and give thee "a gift", , "for there is no honour but a present", or "offering"; or wherever this phrase is used, it signifies nothing else but a gift, as it is said, Num 22:17. "For honouring I will honour thee":''
that is, with money and gifts, as Balaam's answer in the next verse shows, and so the Jewish commentators interpret it (a); See Gill on Ti1 5:17;
And when we departed; from the island, which was not till three months from their first coming ashore:
they laded us with such things as were necessary; that is, for the voyage: they provided a proper supply of food for them, which they put into the strip, for their use in their voyage; by which they expressed their gratitude for the favours they received from Paul; for whose sake not only his company, but the whole ship's company fared the better: and very likely many of them were converted under the apostle's ministry; for it can hardly be thought that the apostle should be on this island three months, as he was, and not preach the Gospel to the inhabitants of it, in which he always met with success, more or less; and the great respect shown him at his departure seems to confirm this; though we meet with no account of any church, or churches, or preachers of the word in this place, in ecclesiastical history, until the "sixth" century, when mention is made of a bishop of the island of Melita (b); indeed in the "fourth" century, Optatus Milevitanus is said by some, through mistake; to be bishop of Melita, when he was bishop of Milevis, a city in Africa upon the continent; and, through a like mistake, this island is said to be famous for a council held in it under Pope Innocent, against Pelagius, in the beginning of the "fifth" century; when the council was held at the above place Milevis, and not at Melita, from whence it was called the Milevitan council.
(z) Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 10. fol. 199. 1. Vid. Laniado in Judg. xvii. 13. (a) Jarchi & Aben Ezra in loc. (b) Magdeburg. Eccl. Hist. cent. 6. c. 2. p. 5.