Acts 28:5

5 He, in turn, shook off the creature into the fire [and] suffered no harm.

Acts 28:5 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 28:5

And he shook off the beast into the fire
Having held it a while, and as being master of it, and as not being afraid of it, though it was the ready way to provoke it to fasten on him again:

and felt no harm;
it having not bit him, nor infected him with its poison; and hereby was fulfilled what our Lord promised to his disciples, ( Mark 16:18 ) ;

Acts 28:5 In-Context

3 And [when] Paul had gathered a large number of sticks and was placing [them] on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat [and] fastened itself on his hand.

4 And when the local people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, "Doubtless this man is a murderer whom, [although he] was rescued from the sea, Justice has not permitted to live!"

5 He, in turn, shook off the creature into the fire [and] suffered no harm.

6 But they were expecting [that] he was going to swell up or suddenly to fall down dead. So [after] they had waited for a long [time] and saw nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds [and] began saying [that] he was a god.

7 Now in the [regions] around that place were fields belonging to the chief official of the island, {named} Publius, who welcomed us [and] entertained [us] hospitably [for] three days.

Footnotes

• [a] *Here "[and]" is supplied because the previous participle ("shook off") has been translated as a finite verb