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.
*He* however, having shaken off the beast into the fire, felt no harm.
A shipwrecked crowd is drying off around a fire on Malta when a snake fastens on the hand of the prisoner who fetched the wood. The islanders wait for him to drop dead; he shakes it into the flames unharmed — luck, or God at work?
Everything here turns on the snake being deadly. Some object that Malta has no such snakes today. One writer answers from how the islanders reacted, then points past the snake to Satan's end:
We have no doubt it was a poisonous viper. Some critics deny this, arguing that poisonous snakes are not found on the island of Malta. But that is no proof that they did not exist there at that time. The people of the island expected Paul to fall down dead. If it had been a harmless snake, why would they expect that? God's power was shown on his behalf… The viper also reminds us of Satan and his end. As Paul threw the viper into the fire, so Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire.
One writer sees God's hand behind the timing, and traces the islanders' wrong verdict to a habit of mind:
It was ordered of God to confirm the promise of the Lord Jesus (Mark 16:18), and as a sign to the kind-hearted islanders. This was all the more so because at first they mistook its meaning by leaving God out, as unbelief always does. For when they saw the dangerous creature hanging from his hand, they were sure he must be a murderer. He had escaped the sea, they thought, only to meet the punishment he deserved.
The bite landed on hands that had been busy serving:
We can be sure that Satan will oppose such a servant and such service. The enemy's concentrated fury is seen in the viper as it fastens on Paul's hand. Satan hated those hands; hands whose service reminds us of Christ will be hated by the enemy. But those hands had been busy in lowly, loving service to fellow believers, following again the example of his Lord in John 13. The enemy's attack came to nothing in the very warmth that his service had created.
The islanders judged Paul twice, and both times they guessed without knowing what God had promised:
Seeing it fastened to his hand, they formed an unfavourable opinion of the Apostle… But Paul shook off the venomous creature and felt no pain. They changed their minds just as quickly, and jumped to the conclusion that he must be a god. They were completely wrong, of course, and knew nothing of our Lord's promise to His disciples (Mark 16:18). Yet they were unbiased witnesses to the Lord's faithfulness to His word… This was not Vengeance chasing down its victim. It was God confirming that Paul was His servant.
Another writer sets Paul's calm beside the islanders' swing:
Paul, however, paid no more attention to it than to shake the creature off into the fire. When it became clear that the snake had done him no harm, the islanders went to the opposite extreme and decided that Paul was a god. This shows how unreliable and foolish men's superstitions are.
Paul came to Malta as a prisoner, and by his own appeal to Caesar. That did not lower his standing with God:
God honours His servant on the island where he and his companions had been washed up. He works miracles, and takes no hurt from the viper that fastens on his hand. 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, God displays His grace and power to him most fully.
The escape fits a promise the Lord made to those who carry His message:
In their work they would meet the hostility of a world under the power of Satan, that old serpent. But He who was in them would be greater than he who was in the world (1 John 4:4). See the case of literal protection in the incident of Paul and the viper (Acts 28:1-6). Further, the enemies of the gospel would stop at nothing to take the preachers' lives. But the Lord promised they would be safe until their hour had come and their work was finished. This held even when enemies used the most subtle means, such as poison.
- Serving hands. The bite came while Paul was gathering firewood for the fire; the enemy struck at hands busy in lowly, loving service.
- God's order. God ordered the moment. It confirmed the Lord's promise in Mark 16:18 and gave the islanders a sign.
- Real danger. The islanders expected Paul to fall down dead. That expectation shows the snake was poisonous, and God's power kept him unharmed.
- Man's verdict. Murderer, then god — unbelief leaves God out and lands wide of the truth both times.
- God's witness. The end was not Vengeance catching a criminal but God owning His servant — and the viper in the flames pictures Satan's own end in the lake of fire.
But *they* expected that he would have swollen or fallen down suddenly dead. But when they had expected a long time and saw nothing unusual happen to him, changing their opinion, they said he was a god.
Paul has just survived a shipwreck, and a snake from the fire has fastened on his hand. He shakes it off unharmed, and the crowd that called him a murderer now calls him a god.
They were not guessing at a harmless grass snake. Commentators point out that the crowd's own reaction is the best evidence of what the creature was. Their long watch ended in a second verdict as wrong as the first.
They watched to see its victim swell or fall down dead. To their surprise, neither happened... They changed their minds just as quickly and jumped to the conclusion that he must be a god. We know they were all wrong... Yet they were unbiased witnesses of the faithfulness of the Lord to His word. That it was a venomous snake there can be no doubt. What the islanders expected, and their surprise at the result, prove it... But instead of Vengeance chasing its victim, this was God showing that Paul was His servant.
Their reasoning followed familiar lines. People of that time had a god or a story ready for every event.
When the scriptures were written, the public mind was full of these myths and gods... When Paul healed a crippled man, they were going to offer him sacrifice. Because Barnabas kept a dignified silence, they took him for the god Jupiter. Because Paul spoke with fervour, they took him for Mercury. If a viper stung him, Nemesis — vengeance — would not let him live. When he received no harm, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
The same men gave two opposite verdicts, and neither came near the truth about the man in front of them.
But he shook off the serpent into the fire and suffered nothing unusual. They looked long in vain for either violent swelling or sudden collapse. Then everything changed, and they called him a god. Such is the worth of human opinion outside its own sphere. Little could they imagine that he was a man of God, a prisoner in pagan hands because of the deadly hatred of God's own people, the Jews — and really because of the good news of Christ he preached to non-Jews... Of one thing we may be sure: the natural man is here always astray.
Their mistake had one root. They read the event and left God out:
God ordered the bite to verify the promise of the Lord Jesus (Mark 16:18), and as a sign to these kind islanders who did not know Him. It was all the more a sign because at first they mistook its meaning. They left God out, as unbelief usually does.
Behind both verdicts stood a simpler fact. God kept His servant alive because He still had work for him to do.
God honours His servant on the island where he and his companions had been cast. Paul works miracles, and receives no hurt from the viper that fastens on his hand. Paul had brought captivity on himself by his appeal to Caesar, but still God was with him. It was necessary that he should bear witness before Caesar... Far from abandoning him, He displays His grace and power to him most fully.
One writer sees a picture in what became of the snake:
God showed His power on Paul's behalf. It was a fulfilment of the promise in Mark 16:18: "they will pick up serpents with their hands... it will not hurt them." The viper also reminds us of Satan and his fate. As Paul threw the viper into the fire, so Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire.
Some today claim this promise for themselves. One writer points out which half of it they leave alone.
They emphasise the speaking with tongues and the divine healing. They say little about casting out demons, and still less about picking up serpents and drinking poison. These last two even the most enthusiastic Pentecostalist is not eager to put to the test.
- Real venom. The islanders knew the local snakes. They waited for swelling or sudden death, and that expectation proves the bite was deadly.
- Real rescue. Paul shook the creature into the fire and felt nothing. Christ had promised His servants would pick up serpents and not be hurt.
- Wrong twice. First a murderer hunted down by Vengeance, then a god. Same crowd, opposite verdicts, both wide of the mark. Unbelief reads events with God left out.
- Right once. This was not vengeance chasing its victim. It was God marking Paul out as His servant, and the startled onlookers became unbiased witnesses to it.
- Kept for a purpose. Paul had to testify before Caesar, so no sea and no snake could end him early. The sign served that mission. It was never a technique for others to test.