But the barbarians shewed us no common kindness; for, having kindled a fire, they took us all in because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold.
The ship is gone, and two hundred and seventy-six soaking survivors stand on an unknown beach in the rain. What meets them is not plunder but a fire. Who were these islanders, and who moved them to act like this?
Luke's word for the islanders marks them out as speakers of another language, not as savages. One commentator clears away the insult the old word "barbarous" now carries:
The people are called "barbarous." This only means they were not Greek or Jewish, not the cultured classes. There is nothing insulting in the term.
A reference work shows where else that word turns up:
The word signifies "foreigner, alien": the Romans used it for any people who did not understand Latin or Greek. In Romans 1:14 such people stand in contrast to the Greeks. In 1 Corinthians 14:11, a person who hears another speak in a language he does not understand would count him a foreigner — and would be counted a foreigner by him.
The fire they built shows how far that kindness went:
The barbarians, or men of a foreign tongue, showed unusual philanthropy… They did not light just a "fire," but one so large that the word used is the one usually applied to a funeral pyre. Such a blaze was needed for a dripping crowd, with heavy rain falling and severe cold.
What makes the welcome remarkable is how many landed on the islanders at once:
Those two hundred and seventy-six men must have been wet and cold, considering the way they had been saved. Such a large company was thrown on the islanders all at once, yet they found the kindness of the islanders equal to the occasion.
The islanders could have stripped a helpless crowd. They did the opposite, and one writer traces that back to God:
The people of the island did not plunder the wrecked company. Instead they showed them much kindness and made them comfortable in the cold rain which fell… It was God who moved the hearts of these islanders to show such hospitality to the shipwrecked company for the sake of His servants.
The same care that had held the ship through the storm did not stop at the water's edge:
We still see the protecting hand of God stretched over Paul and his companions when they had landed on Malta. The inhabitants were "barbarians" in Roman eyes, yet they showed exceptional kindness to the shipwrecked party. Events were so overruled that they soon discovered one of these visitors was no ordinary person.
The word behind "kindness" here is philanthropy — love toward man. Scripture speaks that word of God only once, and that one place lifts it far above anything these islanders could have known:
We find the word used of people in Acts 28:2. But this is the only passage in Scripture where we hear of "philanthropy," or love of mankind, spoken of God our Saviour. Is that not worthy of inspiration? The philanthropy of God means His special affection toward man. As we shall see, He shows it in a way no creature could ever manage.
That link does not make human kindness worthless. It sets the standard for it:
Far from philanthropy being worthless, it is what every true Christian must have. He must be a follower of Christ, and have the spirit of Christ. Now, what did He do? Never could anyone show such love to man as Christ did. God was in all His thoughts, but He laid Himself out completely for the service of man.
- Foreigners. "Barbarian" points to an unfamiliar language, not a low character. The label tells us only that these islanders were neither Greek nor Roman.
- Fire. The word used is the word for a funeral pyre — a blaze big enough for nearly three hundred drenched people in the rain and cold.
- Force. God moved their hearts, so the islanders warmed a helpless company instead of robbing it. The same hand that steered the ship steered the welcome.
- Philanthropy. The word for their kindness is philanthropy, love toward man. Scripture speaks it of God just once — of God our Saviour.
- Follow. Christ laid Himself out completely for the service of man. So this love is not an extra for a Christian; it is the family likeness.
And Paul having gathered a [certain] quantity of sticks together in a bundle and laid [it] on the fire, a viper coming out from the heat seized his hand.
A ship has just broken apart. The soaked, freezing survivors have crawled ashore on Malta, where the islanders build them a fire. Into that scene of warmth and rescue comes a snake. The real question here is not about the snake. It is about what God is doing with the man it bites.
Paul had every reason to sit down. He had just come through a shipwreck. Instead he is out collecting firewood. One writer notes what that cost him — and what was still on his wrists.
Paul is active even then. The shipwreck and privations must have told on the great man of God physically, yet we see him going about gathering a bundle of sticks for the fire. This labour must have been difficult, since as a prisoner he wore a chain on his hands.
The striking thing is the gap between what Paul could do and the job he was doing. He shakes a venomous snake into the very fire he had helped to build. One writer sets that beside the risen Lord getting a meal ready on the shore.
The great apostle to the Gentiles would gather sticks to help make up the fire. And the Lord of prophets and apostles, even after He had risen from the dead, would get the meal ready on the sea shore! And yet what great power lay in their hands all the while. The apostle shakes a venomous creature into the very fire he was kindling... Oh, the beautiful, godlike condescension of real power!
The snake was not lying in the open. It hid in the very wood Paul picked up, cold and still, until the fire woke it. It came out "because of the heat" — warmth Paul himself had helped create.
The apostle, with his usual earnestness and lowly love, gathered a bundle of sticks near the spot and laid it on the fire. Then the heat roused a viper that had no doubt lain asleep until then in the neglected wood. Angered, it seized the hand of Paul. God ordered this, to make good the promise of the Lord Jesus (Mark 16:18), and as a sign to these kind people who did not know Him.
Some have argued the creature was harmless, since venomous snakes are not found on Malta today. Two answers are given in the commentary. The first is the islanders' own reaction: people who lived with these creatures knew exactly what they were watching for.
They all knew it was a venomous snake, and one native to the island. The local people thought his fate was sealed. He could not escape the poison, they thought, even if he somehow kept his life. They knew well what such a bite does, so they watched for its victim to swell up or fall down dead.
The second answer is that today's Malta proves nothing about the Malta of Paul's day.
We have no doubt it was a poisonous viper. Some critics deny this, because poisonous snakes are not found on the island of Malta. However, that is no proof that they did not exist there at that time.
One writer looks past the snake to the enemy behind it. The bite landed on the hand that had just been busy helping others.
We may be sure that Satan will oppose such a servant and such service. The concentrated fury of the enemy is seen in the viper as it fastens on the hand of Paul. Satan hated those hands; hands that remind us in their service of Christ will be hated by the enemy. But those hands had been busy in a service of lowliness and love to the brothers. The enemy's attack came to nothing in the very warmth his service had produced.
Paul was on this island as a prisoner, on a journey he had brought on himself by appealing to Caesar. That did not put him outside God's care.
God honours His servant on the island where he and his companions had been cast. He works miracles, and receives no harm from the viper which fastens itself to his hand. Paul had brought captivity on himself by his appeal to Caesar, but still God was with him... Far from abandoning him, He displays His grace and power to him most fully.
- Serving — Fresh from shipwreck and still in chains, Paul gathers firewood. No task was beneath the man God used most.
- Struck — The snake hid in the wood he carried, and the fire he built woke it. The attack came out of the very service he was giving.
- Shaken off — The islanders knew the creature well and expected him to swell up or drop dead. He shook it into the flames instead.
- Sign — Commentators read the escape as God verifying His own word (Mark 16:18) and marking Paul out as His servant before people who did not know Him.
- Sustained — Prisoner, shipwreck survivor, snake-bitten: at every step God stayed with him and showed His power through him.
And when the barbarians saw the beast hanging from his hand, they said to one another, This man is certainly a murderer, whom, [though] saved out of the sea, Nemesis has not allowed to live.
Paul and the others have just come ashore from a shipwreck on Melita, the island of Malta, and the people there have lit a fire for them. A snake then fastens on the hand of the man gathering sticks, and the islanders read the scene at once — and read it wrong.
Older translations call these people "barbarians," which sounds like an insult. The word carried no such sting.
The word means "foreigner, alien." The Romans used it for any people who did not understand Latin or Greek. In Romans 1:14 they stand in contrast to the Greeks. In 1 Corinthians 14:11, a person hears someone speak a language he does not understand. He would think that speaker a foreigner, and be thought one himself. Luke calls the inhabitants of Melita by this name.
The word behind "Justice" here is a legal one. It is also the root of a whole family of New Testament terms.
The Greek word dike carries the thought of a judicial sentence, or penalty. The New Testament translates it as vengeance or judgment. On its own it occurs only four times: judgment against Paul (Acts 25:15); vengeance, of Paul and the viper (Acts 28:4); the punishment of the unbeliever (2 Thessalonians 1:9), literally "shall suffer the penalty"; and Jude 7, "the vengeance" — literally "penalty" — "of eternal fire." Dike is the parent word of the group. It underlies every part of the righteousness credited to the believer… Christ has borne the penalty due to us. God has freely blessed us in Him and through Him, and has even made us righteous.
The islanders meant something else. To them this was not a principle but a person hunting a fugitive.
The ancients viewed Dike — that is, Justice — as a goddess.
One writer sets out their reasoning, and adds something they may have learned about the prisoner.
He had escaped drowning. Now the viper's bite would kill him. They had probably learned that he was a prisoner on his way to Rome, and so they jumped to this conclusion all the more readily.
The snake was no accident. The islanders' mistake was to do their arithmetic without God.
God ordered it, to verify the promise of the Lord Jesus (Mark 16:18), and as a sign to these kind islanders. It was all the more a sign because at first they quite mistook its meaning. They left God out, which is unbelief's habit. When they saw the dangerous creature hanging from his hand, they were sure he must be a murderer, escaped from the sea only to meet a just punishment… Little could they imagine that he was a man of God. He was a prisoner in foreign hands because of the deadly hatred of God's people, the Jews — and that hatred came from the good news of Christ he preached to non-Jews.
Soon the same crowd swings the other way and calls Paul a god.
The superstitious islanders put their own interpretation on this. But what they expected did not follow, so they changed their minds and jumped to the opposite conclusion. Superstition never comes to right conclusions.
The islanders were watching for a death. What they saw instead was God's answer about the man in chains.
God honours His servant on the island where the sea had cast him and his companions. He works miracles, and the viper that fastens on his hand does him no harm. Paul had brought captivity on himself by his appeal to Caesar, but God was still with him. He had to bear witness before Caesar… Far from abandoning him, He shows him His grace and power in full.
One writer looks at the hand itself, and at what it had been doing.
We may be sure that Satan will oppose such a servant and such service. We see the concentrated fury of the enemy in the viper as it fastens on Paul's hand. Satan hated those hands. The enemy hates hands whose service reminds us of Christ. But those hands had been busy in humble, loving service to fellow believers… and in the very warmth that his service had produced, the enemy's attack came to nothing.
- The word. "Justice" here translates dike, a legal word for a sentence or penalty. To the islanders it named a goddess chasing an escaped killer. The same word stands behind the penalty Christ bore for us.
- The verdict. A prisoner survives the sea, then a snake bites him. They passed sentence on the spot: murderer, and the snake is his executioner.
- The flaw. They read the event and left God out. That is unbelief's habit, and it is what made their verdict wrong.
- The reversal. Soon the same men called him a god. Superstition never comes to right conclusions, in either direction.
- The truth. They saw a condemned criminal. God honoured His servant, stayed with Paul in his chains, and kept him for the witness he still had to give.