Acts 28:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Those very ones who thought that "he would have swelling," that is, would perish from inflammation, saw that nothing evil happened to him and said that he was a god. Again they pay him excessive honor, as did the inhabitants of Lycaonia. "They were expecting," says the writer. That is, they waited a long time for him to die. The miracle did not occur immediately, but they waited for some time, so that it would not be taken for an apparition. Therefore this was neither deception nor apparition.

"They expected him to swell up," that is, they thought Paul's body would burst. "But after waiting a long time..." The miracle was not revealed at once, but the people waited for it for some time. Thus the event was not a deception or a mere trick. "They said that he was a god," because they were accustomed to call anyone who did something extraordinary a god. So the ancients called gods those who, whether by physical strength, like Heracles, performed greater feats than their contemporaries, or drove spectators mad by the art of magic, like Simon in Samaria.

“But he shook off the serpent into the fire.” For believers are stronger than any treachery that comes from man or animal. They are like gods, according to Scripture: “I said, You are gods... But you shall die like men” (Ps 81:6-7), because of unbelief. Therefore the barbarians, seeing that he did not die but escaped certain death, decided that he was a god. For they were accustomed to call anyone a god who did something extraordinary. They also called ancient men gods when they accomplished by strength something beyond their own power, as, for example, Heracles, the son of Semele, or when they astonished spectators through magic, as Simon did in Samaria; see Acts 8:9.

The circumstances of the disastrous voyage were meant to draw Paul's companions' attention to him. The event on the island of Malta was meant to dispose the local inhabitants favorably toward him. The harmless bite of the serpent and the healing of many sick people, including the father of the chief man of the island, Publius, during the three-month stay on Malta, were a preparatory means of Providence for the conversion of the island's inhabitants.

When those who were saved had landed, they learned that they were on the island of Melita, or Malta. The inhabitants of this island treated the saved men humanely. They kindled a fire and warmed them, for the weather was rainy and cold. At this time a miraculous event occurred, which made a strong impression on the islanders, who were pagans. When the Apostle Paul had gathered much brushwood and was laying it on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. The pagans thought that this most venomous serpent would cause the apostle certain death. But he shook it off into the fire and suffered no harm. This so astonished the pagans that they came to think Paul was God.

The inhabitants received the shipwrecked men kindly and helped them gather wood to warm their limbs, stiffened by cold and damp. The Apostle Paul also gathered wood. But when he brought a large bundle of dry brushwood and threw it on the fire, a viper, warmed back to life, sprang out of it and “fastened on the apostle’s hand.” Seeing the venomous serpent hanging from his hand. And noticing that he was a prisoner, the simple islanders began saying to one another that he must be some murderer. Though saved from the sea, righteous vengeance was pursuing him even on land. The apostle, not troubled in the least, calmly shook the viper into the fire and suffered no harm. The natives expected that he would fall down dead at once. For a long time they watched him anxiously. When they saw that no harm followed, they changed their opinion, like the rough inhabitants of Lystra, and said that he was God.

They changed their minds and said that he was a god. That is, according to their pagan notion, he was one of the gods who had taken upon himself the form of a man; compare Acts 14:11 and the note there. For they saw an extraordinary act, surpassing human powers, and guessed that an ordinary man could not do what Paul had done. Today there are no venomous serpents on Malta. The natives have a tradition or belief that, from the time when the Apostle Paul shook the viper into the fire, this whole kind of venomous reptile lost its venom. This tradition bears witness to Paul’s stay on precisely this island, and under precisely the circumstances spoken of here.

Paul’s preservation from harm when the venomous viper touched him so astonished the local inhabitants, who knew well the properties of this serpent, that they called him God. As they had exaggerated their view of the prisoner’s guilt, so also they exaggerated his powers. Yet in both cases, according to their immediate judgment, they were partly near the truth. In this case they were right precisely in this: the deed was not human, but divine. It was accomplished through such a man as, from their standpoint, could be recognized as superhuman, that is, as a god, like other anthropomorphic gods, mighty men, heroes, and the like.