28:1-6
The place where Paul and the rest of the ship’s complement had landed was not near the harbour where ships normally docked in Malta, which is modern day Valletta. The locals gave a warm welcome to the shipwrecked folk, hospitality, especially to unfortunates such as Paul and the others, was a valued virtue. While making a fire Paul was bitten by a viper. We then see how fickle people’s views can be! First of all they decide that this snake bite must mean that Paul was a murderer, so he was receiving his just deserts. However, Paul shook off the snake and came to no harm. This is perhaps an example of Mark 16:18, a verse infamously misused by some! Once it became apparent that Paul was not going to die, they decided he must be a god! So, a quick journey from murderer to god for Paul!
28:7-10
Publius, described as “the leading citizen” may have been the governor. Of the island, and he offered hospitality to the ship’s folk. His father was very ill. The illness could have been typhoid or malaria. Paul went in and prayed for the sick man, laid hands on him and he was healed. Following this many on the island came to Paul and were also healed. So Paul and the others were now honoured guests. We should note that in the earlier parts of Acts miracles and gifts (especially tongues and prophecy) feature quite a lot. In the latter part there is far less mention, but incidents such as this show that it would be a big mistake to assume that the gifts and miracles were actually becoming less common. It is just that they are not mentioned as much because they were no longer central to the message that Luke is giving in his account.
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