28:1-2 Malta, also called Melita (meaning refuge, which it proved to be for Paul and his companions), lies about 60 miles south of the island of Sicily. It is about 18 miles long and 8 miles wide. It is also about 500 miles west of Crete. People of Phoenician origin inhabited it in Paul's day. Luke called them "barbarians"(Gr. barbaroi) meaning people whose culture was not Greek. These people were not savages or uncultured, however, as is clear from their hospitable treatment of the shipwreck victims.
28:3 Notice that Paul made himself useful by gathering firewood; he did not sit around expecting others to take care of him. Evidently he had unknowingly picked up a small snake with his wood. It would have been sluggish because of the cold weather, but the heat of the fire woke it up. This snake is a "viper"in Greek. A viper is, of course, a specific variety of poisonous snake. The fact that there are no vipers on Malta now, which has been a stumbling block to some, simply shows that this variety of snake became extinct there after Paul's visit.961Vipers do not normally fasten on what they bite; they strike and then retreat. However in this case the snake was evidently still somewhat lethargic and did not behave normally. Perhaps it got hung up on Paul's hand by its fangs.
28:4-6 People had mistaken Paul for a god previously (14:8-18). Perhaps his reaction here was the same as it had been at Lystra. Probably he used the opportunity to preach the gospel. Luke's purpose in recording this incident was probably not to supply a background for what Paul said. It was to show that God would even miraculously heal His servant to enable him to fulfill God's purpose that he bear witness in Rome (cf 23:11; 27:24).
"Paul did not deliberately pick up this viper. Paul was not tempting God. . . .
"The promise of God in Mark 16:18 was fulfilled in Paul's experience. He suffered no ill effects from the venom. When folk today deliberately pick up snakes and claim that promise as their protection, they are far afield from what God had in mind."962
