John Gill Commentary Acts 28

And when they were escaped
From the danger they were exposed to by shipwreck, and were got safe to land; this is omitted in the Syriac version:

then they knew that the island was called Melita ;
an island toward the African shore, where it is placed both by Pliny ^F7 , and Ptolomy {h}; in which, the latter says, was the city Melita: it lies between Sicily and Tripolis of Barbary, and is now called Malta: it was famous for the knights of Rhodes, which are now called the knights of Malta: it has its name from (jlm) , "to escape", it being formerly a refuge to the Phoenicians, especially in stormy weather, in their long voyage from Tyre to Gades; and was indeed a place of escape to the Apostle Paul, and those that were with him. And perhaps it might be so called from its being a refuge for pirates; for Cicero ^F9 says, here pirates used to winter almost every year, and yet did not spoil the temple of Juno, as Verres did: though some say it was so called from the great abundance of honey found in it; for it was a very pleasant and fruitful island, bringing forth great plenty of wheat, rye, flax, cummin, cotton, figs, wine, roses, thyme, lavender, and many other sweet and delightful herbs, from which bees gathered great plenty of honey.

It was, according to Pliny, distant from Camerina eighty four miles, and from Lilybaeum a hundred and thirteen. It is said to be distant from the promontory of Sicily a hundred miles, though others say sixty. It was also distant from Syracuse, which is the next place the apostle came to in this voyage, and was distant from Africa a hundred and ninety miles.

On the east side, a little from the chief city of it, now called Malta, was a famous temple of Juno, spoiled by Verres, as before observed; and on the south side another of Hercules, the ruins of both which are yet to be seen. The compass of the island is about sixty miles, the length twenty, and the breadth twelve, and has in it five ports, and about sixty villages.

FOOTNOTES:

• F7: Nat. Hist. l 3. c. 8.
• F9: Orat. 9. in Verrem, c. 17.

And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness
The inhabitants of this island are called barbarians, not from the country of Barbary, near to which they were; nor so much on account of their manners, for, though Heathens, they were a civil and cultivated people, being, as appears from the name of the chief man of the island, under the Roman government; but because of their language, see (1 Corinthians 14:11) , it being neither Hebrew, Greek, nor Latin; for as the inhabitants were originally a colony of the Phoenicians, they spoke their language; and now though it is inhabited by such as are called Christians, they speak the Saracen or Arabic language, and little different from the old Punic or Phoenician language.

However, though the inhabitants could not understand their language, they understood their case, and were very civil and humane to them, and showed them extraordinary kindness:

for they kindled a fire ;
or set fire to a large pile of wood; for a large fire it must be to be of service to such a number of people, in such a condition as they were:

and received us everyone :
though their number were two hundred threescore and sixteen;

because of the present rain, and because of the cold ;
for a violent rain fell on them, as is usual upon a storm, and much wetted them, so that a fire was very necessary; and it being winter or near it, it was cold weather; and especially they having been so long in a storm, and now shipwrecked; and some having thrown themselves into the sea, and swam to the island; and others having been obliged to put themselves on boards and planks, and get ashore, and were no doubt both wet and cold; so that nothing was more needful and more agreeable to them than a large fire.

And when Paul has gathered a bundle of sticks
Had picked up some sticks, and put them in a bundle fit for the fire, as everyone was busy to assist in this extremity; nor did the apostle think such an action below him, who in all things was a man of great humility and condescension:

and laid them on the fire ;
to increase it:

there came a viper out of the heat :
a viper is a kind of serpent, which brings forth its young living, to the number of twenty, only one in a day, which come forth wrapped up in thin skins, which break on the third day, and set them at liberty; and so is reckoned among viviparous animals, from which it seems to have its name, whereas other serpents lay eggs and hatch them. It is said ^F11 , that this remarkable reptile has the biggest and flattest head of all the serpent kind; its usual length is about half an ell, and its thickness an inch; its snout is not unlike that of a hog; it has sixteen small immovable teeth in each jaw, besides two other large, sharp, hooked, hollow, transparent, canine teeth, situate at each side of the upper jaw, which are those that do the mischief: these are flexible in their articulation, and are ordinarily laid flat along the jaw, the animal never raising them but when it would bite The roots or bases of these teeth, or fangs, are encompassed with a vesicle or bladder, containing the quantity of a large drop of a yellow insipid salivous juice.

It has only one row of teeth, whereas all other serpents have two; its body is not at all fetid, whereas the inner parts of the bodies of other serpents are intolerable.--It creeps very slowly, and never leaps like other serpents, though it is nimble enough to bite when provoked.--Its body is of two colours, ash coloured or yellow, and the ground speckled with longish brown spots; the scales under its belly are of the colour of well polished steel. Its bite is exceeding venomous, and its poison the most dangerous.

Now when this viper here is said to come out of the heat, the meaning is, that it came out from the sticks, which were laid upon the fire, being forced from thence by the heat of it: and so the Syriac version renders it, "there came out of them" (the sticks) "a viper, because of the heat of the fire"; it lay quiet among the sticks, among which, and such like things, this creature often lies; but when the fire began to heat it, it sprung out:

and fastened on his hand ;
or wrapped itself about his hand: the Syriac and Arabic versions render it, "bit his hand"; but that does not seem so likely, since he felt no harm by it; the Ethiopic version, "hung upon his hand"; which agrees with what follows; nor is it inconsistent with its wrapping itself about his hand, which is the more proper signification of the word used.

FOOTNOTES:

• F11: Chambers's Cyclopaedia in the word "Viper".

And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast
The viper is called "Therion", a beast, it being of the viviparous kind; and hence comes "Theriaca", or "Venice treacle", the foundation of which composition is vipers' flesh; and it is called venomous, because it is of all serpents the most venomous: this when the country people saw

hang on his hand ,
having wrapped itself about it,

they said among themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer :
they might see he was a prisoner by his chain, or might learn it from some of the company, and therefore took it for granted he had been guilty of some crime; and by the viper's fastening on him, they concluded it was murder he was guilty of; for the same notion might obtain among them, as among the Jews, that a murderer that could not be legally convicted, was sometimes punished this way. Says R. Simeon ben Shetach ^F12 , may I never see the consolation, if I did not see one run after his friend into a desert place; and I ran after him, and I saw the sword in his hand, and the blood dropping, and he that was slain panting; and I said to him, O wicked man, who has slain this? either I or you; but what shall I do? for your blood is not delivered into my hand; "for the law says, by the mouth of two or three witnesses he shall surely die" ((Deuteronomy 17:6) ): may he that knows the thoughts take vengeance on that man that slew his friend; they say, they did not remove from thence, (vxn abv de) , "till a serpent came", and bit him, and he died.''

So the Jews observe, that when the execution of capital punishments was taken away from them, yet such who deserved them were punished by God in a way equivalent to them: so for instance, if a man committed a crime, for which he deserved to be burnt, either he fell into the fire, or (wkvwn vxn) , "a serpent bit him" ^F13 ; or if he deserved to be strangled, either he was drowned in a river, or died of a quinsy.

There is a kind of an asp which the Egyptians call "Thermuthis", which they reckon sacred, and worship: this they say will not hurt good men, but destroys the wicked; and if so, says the historian, then (dikh) , "vengeance", or justice has honoured this creature, to be so sharp sighted as to discern the good from the bad; and they say, Isis sends it to the most wicked ^F14 .

Agreeably to which these men reason,

whom though he has escaped the sea :
has not been drowned there, when shipwrecked,

yet vengeance suffers not to live .
The Greek word "Dice" rendered "vengeance", is the name of a goddess among the Heathens, said to be the daughter of Jupiter and Themis ^F15 . She is represented as sitting by her father Jupiter; and when anyone does injury to another, informs him of it ^F16 . She is painted sorrowful, and with a contracted forehead, a grave countenance, and a rough aspect, to strike terror in unrighteous persons, and give confidence to righteous ones ^F17 , agreeably to her name, which signifies "justice". This deity the barbarians supposed pursued Paul; and though she let him escape the sea, she will not suffer him to live any longer; for they looked upon the viper's fastening on him, as to be sent by her, so to be immediate death to him.

FOOTNOTES:

• F12: T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 37. 2. & Shebuot, fol. 34. 1.
• F13: Bemidbar Rabba, fol. 214. 2. & T. Bab. Sanhedrin, ib. & Sota, fol. 8. 2.
• F14: Aelian de Animal l. 10. c. 31.
• F15: Apollodarus de Deorurn Origon. l. 1. p. 6. Phurnutus de Natura Deorum, p. 80.
• F16: Hesiod Opera v. 254, 255.
• F17: Chrysippus apud Geilium, l. 14. c. 4.

And he shook off the beast into the fire
Having held it a while, and as being master of it, and as not being afraid of it, though it was the ready way to provoke it to fasten on him again:

and felt no harm ;
it having not bit him, nor infected him with its poison; and hereby was fulfilled what our Lord promised to his disciples, (Mark 16:18) ;