Acts 28:6

Howbeit, 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.

When the people on the wrecked vessel had reached the land in safety, then only did they find out that Melita, or Malta, was the island's name. They had therefore, in the two weeks, been driven a matter of almost five hundred miles; for the island is due south of Sicily, forming, with Gozo and several other smaller island, a group now known as the Maltese Islands. Luke calls the islanders barbarians, not as a term of reproach, but because that was the name given to all foreigners, to all such as did not speak Greek, by the Greeks and Romans. The people of the island were of Phoenician descent and had come under the dominion of Rome after the Second Punic War. They here proved themselves hospitable in an unusual degree; they showed the shipwrecked company extraordinary kindness. It must have been with some difficulty that they kindled a Eire and received them all: gave them a warm welcome, which no doubt was rendered doubly so because they were all cold and wet to the skin; besides, there was a continued driving rain. and the cold chilled to the bone. Paul by no means stood back when the others were all engaged in replenishing the fire. but cheerfully gathered fagots with the rest of them. When, however, he was just heaping up a bundle of sticks and then laying them on the fire. a serpent, awakened by the warmth, glided out through the sticks, and, before Paul could withdraw his hand, bit him, and held fast to the wound. When the islanders saw the creature suspended from his hand thus, they were greatly shocked and expressed their opinion of the matter by saying that certainly this man must be a murderer, whom Justice had not permitted to live, though he had been saved from the sea. They knew that Paul was a prisoner because he was under guard, and their conclusion was as rash as that of most people under like circumstances. From experience they knew the virulence of the poison of these serpents, and in their eyes Paul was already dead; the goddess of justice, in whom they believed, had taken vengeance upon him. But Paul shook off the viper into the fire by a jerking movement of his hand and suffered no evil, no disagreeable consequences, of any kind. But the islanders watched him, sure that he was destined to swell up or to drop down dead suddenly. But neither of these effects took place. Luke, as a physician, being fully acquainted with such symptoms. And when they had waited a long time and watched, and yet nothing unusual happened, then the inhabitants changed their minds and said that he was a god. Their superstitious minds could reach no other conclusion; it was the way which their training had taught them to follow. Note: Modern people may want to smile deprecatingly over this show of superstition, but with almost the entire world guilty of similar beliefs in one form or another, there certainly is no room for casting Stones upon others. It was the Lord that had held His sheltering hand over His servant; according to His promise, Mark 16:18.