Acts 28:1-6

New Testament for Everyone

The snake on Malta

28 When we reached safety, we discovered that the island was called Malta. ² The local inhabitants treated us with unusual kindness: they set to and built a fire for us all, since it was cold and had started to rain. ³ Paul had collected quite a bundle of brushwood, and was putting it on the fire, when a viper, escaping the heat, fastened onto his hand. ⁴ The natives saw the animal clinging to his hand.

“Aha!” they said to one another. “This man must be a murderer! He’s been rescued from the sea, but Justice hasn’t allowed him to live.”

⁵ Paul, however, shook off the snake into the fire and suffered no harm. ⁶ They kept watching him to see if he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited and watched for quite some time, and nothing untoward had happened to him, they changed their minds.

“He must be a god,” they said.