Acts 28:5

5 Paul shook the snake off into the fire, none the worse for wear.

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 Paul pitched in and helped. He had gathered up a bundle of sticks, but when he put it on the fire, a venomous snake, roused from its torpor by the heat, struck his hand and held on.

4 Seeing the snake hanging from Paul's hand like that, the natives jumped to the conclusion that he was a murderer getting his just deserts.

5 Paul shook the snake off into the fire, none the worse for wear.

6 They kept expecting him to drop dead, but when it was obvious he wasn't going to, they jumped to the conclusion that he was a god!

7 The head man in that part of the island was Publius. He took us into his home as his guests, drying us out and putting us up in fine style for the next three days.