Acts 28

Once we were safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta.

1And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita.

NoteThe King James "Melita" is Malta, a small island about sixty miles south of Sicily. The ship carrying Paul had been driven there by a two week storm, described in the previous chapter.

2The local people, who did not speak Greek, were unusually kind to us. They lit a fire and welcomed every one of us, because it was raining and cold.

2And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.

Note"Barbarous" and "barbarians" in verse 4 do not mean savage or uncivilized. The Greek word simply labels people who did not speak Greek; it imitates the bar-bar sound their speech made to Greek ears. The Maltese spoke a Phoenician dialect. The King James uses the word without insult, but a modern reader hears one that is not there.

3Paul gathered an armful of sticks. As he laid them on the fire, a poisonous snake came out because of the heat and clamped onto his hand.

3And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.

4When the local people saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, "This man must be a murderer. He got away from the sea, but Justice has not let him live."

4And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.

Note"Vengeance" here translates the Greek word Dike, which was also the name of a goddess who personified justice and punished the guilty. The islanders are not making a general remark about fate; they are naming a power they believed hunted down killers who had slipped free of other punishment.

5But Paul shook the snake off into the fire, and he was not hurt at all.

5And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.

6They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But after watching for a long time and seeing nothing bad happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

6Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.

7In that same area were lands belonging to the chief official of the island, a man named Publius. He took us in and treated us as his guests for three days.

7In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and lodged us three days courteously.

Note"The chief man of the island" renders a Greek phrase, ho protos, that inscriptions found on Malta show was an actual title for the island's leading Roman official. It is an office, not just a description of a rich neighbor.

8It happened that the father of Publius was in bed, sick with a fever and with dysentery. Paul went in to him, prayed, placed his hands on him, and healed him.

8And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him.

Note"Bloody flux" is the old English name for dysentery, a severe intestinal infection causing bloody diarrhea. It was often fatal, and combined with fever it marked the man as seriously ill.

9After that happened, the rest of the sick people on the island came too, and they were healed.

9So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came, and were healed:

10They gave us many gifts to show their respect, and when we sailed away, they loaded on board the supplies we needed.

10Who also honoured us with many honours; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary.

NoteThe Greek word behind "honours" can mean marks of respect or payments and fees. Both senses are live here, so the gifts may have been gestures of gratitude, or something closer to a fee for medical help, or both. "Laded" is simply the old past tense of load.

11After three months we sailed away on a ship from Alexandria that had spent the winter at the island. Its figurehead was the twin gods Castor and Pollux.

11And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux.

NoteAlexandria in Egypt was the port from which the great grain ships sailed to feed Rome. Sailing across the open Mediterranean effectively stopped between roughly November and March because of storms, which is why the ship had spent the winter in harbor. A ship's "sign" was the carved figure or painted emblem at its bow. Castor and Pollux were twin sons of Zeus in Greek and Roman belief and were regarded as protectors of sailors, so their image was a common and reassuring choice.

12We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days.

12And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days.

NoteSyracuse was a major port on the east coast of Sicily.

13From there we sailed around the coast and came to Rhegium. A day later a south wind began to blow, and on the following day we reached Puteoli.

13And from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli:

Note"Fetched a compass" is a sailor's phrase of 1611 meaning to go around by an indirect course, tacking rather than running straight. Rhegium sits at the toe of Italy, across the strait from Sicily. Puteoli, on the Bay of Naples, was the main harbor where Rome's grain ships unloaded, still about a hundred and forty miles south of the city.

14There we found fellow believers, and they asked us to stay with them seven days. And so we came to Rome.

14Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome.

Note"Brethren" here means fellow believers rather than blood relatives. "Were desired to tarry" means were asked to stay; in the King James "desire" often means to request, not to want.

15The believers there had heard about us, and they traveled out to meet us as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and was encouraged.

15And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.

NoteBoth places were stops on the Appian Way, the main road south from Rome. The Forum of Appius was a market town about forty three miles out, and Three Taverns about thirty three. "Taverns" here means shops or inns of any kind, not only drinking houses. Walking that far to meet a prisoner on the road was a deliberate journey of a day or more.

16When we reached Rome, the officer handed the prisoners over to the commander of the guard. But Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

16And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him.

NoteA centurion commanded roughly eighty to a hundred men. The arrangement described, a prisoner living in his own quarters with a single soldier attached, was a recognized light form of Roman custody, usually with the prisoner's wrist chained to the guard's. Note that the first sentence of this verse, about handing the prisoners over to the commander of the guard, is missing from the earliest Greek manuscripts and appears only in later ones.

17Three days later Paul called together the leading Jews of the city. When they had gathered, he said to them, "Brothers, I have done nothing against our people or against the customs handed down from our ancestors. Even so, I was handed over as a prisoner in Jerusalem to the Romans.

17And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.

NoteThe Jewish community in Rome was large and organized in several synagogues rather than under one head, so "the chief of the Jews" means its leading men collectively. "Men and brethren" is a standard formal address, roughly "my fellow Jews."

18"They questioned me and wanted to set me free, because I had done nothing that deserved a death sentence.

18Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me.

19"But when the Jewish leaders objected, I had no choice but to appeal to Caesar. I did not do this because I had any charge to bring against my own nation.

19But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar; not that I had ought to accuse my nation of.

NoteA Roman citizen facing a criminal charge could demand that his case be removed from a provincial governor's court and heard by the emperor. Once made, the appeal could not be withdrawn, which is why Paul says he had no choice: the appeal itself is what sent him to Rome.

20"That is why I asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain."

20For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.

Note"The hope of Israel" is Paul's shorthand for what his nation had long expected from God. In his earlier defenses in Acts he ties this hope specifically to the resurrection of the dead. "Bound with this chain" is literal; he is speaking while wearing it.

21They said to him, "We have not received any letters about you from Judea, and none of our people who came from there has reported or said anything bad about you.

21And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee.

22"But we would like to hear from you what you think, because we know that people everywhere speak against this group."

22But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against.

Note"Sect" translates the Greek hairesis, meaning a party or school of thought. The same word is used in Acts for the Pharisees and the Sadducees, so it is not automatically an insult; it marks a recognizable group within Judaism rather than a separate religion.

23So they set a day to meet him, and many came to the place where he was staying. From morning until evening he explained things to them and gave his testimony about the kingdom of God. He tried to convince them about Jesus, using the law of Moses and the prophets.

23And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.

Note"The law of Moses" and "the prophets" were the two great divisions of the Jewish scriptures, so the phrase means Paul argued from their shared sacred writings rather than from anything new. "Expounded" means laid out and explained in detail.

24Some were convinced by what he said, and some would not believe.

24And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.

25They could not agree with each other, and they began to leave after Paul made one last statement: "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah, when he said:

25And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers,

Note"Holy Ghost" is the King James rendering of Holy Spirit; in 1611 "ghost" simply meant spirit. "Esaias" is the Greek form of the name Isaiah. The quotation that follows is from Isaiah chapter 6, given in the wording of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures that Greek-speaking Jews used.

26"'Go to this people and say, You will hear and keep hearing, but you will never understand. You will look and keep looking, but you will never see.

26Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

27"'For this people's heart has grown hard. They barely hear with their ears, and they have shut their eyes. If they did not, they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn back to me, and I would heal them.'

27For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Note"Waxed gross" means grown thick or fat, used of a heart that has become insensitive. "Converted" here carries its plain older sense of turning around or turning back, not the modern sense of changing religion.

28"So I want you to know that this rescue that comes from God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen to it."

28Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.

Note"Gentiles" means all the nations other than the Jews. The word behind "salvation" means rescue or deliverance, and would have been heard as a concrete saving rather than an abstract religious status.

29After he said this, the Jews left, arguing strongly among themselves.

29And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves.

ManuscriptsMost modern translations leave this verse out. It is in the Greek text the King James translators worked from, but not in the older manuscripts found since, so scholars generally take it as a copyist’s addition rather than part of the original.

NoteThis verse is absent from the earliest Greek manuscripts of Acts and appears only in later ones, which is why many modern translations omit it or move it to a footnote.

30Paul stayed there two full years in the house he rented for himself, and he welcomed everyone who came to see him.

30And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,

Note"His own hired house" means lodging he rented at his own expense, which a prisoner in this light form of custody was expected to pay for himself. The account gives no verdict on his case; it simply stops at the end of these two years.

31He preached about the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking boldly and openly, and no one stopped him.

31Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

Note"No man forbidding him" translates a single Greek adverb meaning unhindered, and it is the final word of the book of Acts. "With all confidence" means openly and without fear rather than with certainty.