Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 28:6

"But they expected that he would have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but when they were long in expectation and beheld nothing amiss came to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god." — Acts 28:6 (ASV)

Seeing that Paul was unaffected by the snakebite, the islanders decided that he must be a god—or, perhaps, a favorite of the gods. Nothing is said about Paul’s rebuking the islanders as he had rebuked the people at Lystra (cf. 14:15– 18), for evidently they made no attempt to worship Paul. Luke gives us such a vividly detailed account of the incident because he wants his readers to appreciate that Paul was not only a heaven-directed man with a God-given message but also a heaven-protected man. The powerful account of the storm and shipwreck has shown this, and now this vignette stresses it once more.