Book of Common Prayer

28 When we were safe on land, we found that the island we were on was called Malta.

² The people there were very kind to us. They made a fire for us and took care of us. It was cold and raining.

³ Paul gathered some sticks of wood. He put them on the fire. A bad snake came out of the heat and hung onto his hand.

⁴ The people of Malta saw the snake hanging on his hand. `Oh,' they said to each other. `This man has no doubt killed someone. He did not die in the water, but it is not right for him to live.'

⁵ Paul shook the snake off into the fire. It did not hurt him.

⁶ The people thought surely he would swell up or would drop down dead at once. They waited a long time and saw that nothing bad happened to him. Then they said, `We were wrong. He must be a god.'

⁷ The ruler of the island was a man named Publius. He owned some of the land there. He took us to his house for three days and was very kind to us.

⁸ The father of Publius was sick with fever, and blood was coming from his body. Paul went to see him. He talked to God and put his hands on the man. He healed him.

⁹ After this, other sick people on the island came to Paul. And they too were healed.

¹⁰ They gave us many things. When we went away, they put on the boat for us the things that we would need.

¹¹ A boat from the town of Alexandria was at the island all through the winter time. It was marked with a sign of the Twin Brothers. After we had been on the island for three months, we went on that boat.

¹² Then we went to the city of Syracuse and stayed for three days.

¹³ After that we turned the boat along the coast. We reached the town of Rhegium. When we had been there for a day, a south wind began to blow. On the second day we came to the city of Puteoli.

^14-15 here we found some Christian brothers. They asked us to stay with them for seven days. Then we went to Rome. Some of the Christians at Rome had heard about us. They came to places called the Market Place of Appius and the Three Hotels. There they met us. When Paul saw them, he thanked God. It made him strong and glad to see these brothers.

¹⁶ When we came to Rome, Paul was allowed to stay in a house by himself with the soldier who guarded him.

²⁸ About eight days after saying these things, Jesus went up on a hill to talk with God. He took Peter, John, and James with him.

²⁹ As he was talking with God, he was changed. His face was different. His clothes became very white and shining.

³⁰ And then two men were talking with Jesus. They were Moses and Elijah.

³¹ Light was shining from them. They talked about his leaving this world. That would happen when he was in Jerusalem.

³² Peter and the others were very sleepy. They woke up and saw the light shining from Jesus. And they saw the two men standing with him.

³³ When the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, `Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three places here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' Peter did not know what he was saying.

³⁴ As he said this, a cloud came over them. They were very much afraid when the cloud came around them.

³⁵ A voice in the cloud said, `This is my dear Son. Listen to him!'

³⁶ The talking stopped. Then Jesus was left alone. The disciples did not say anything. They did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.