Acts 28:3

And[R. V.But] when Paul had gathered This is only another sign of the active spirit of the Apostle. Whatever was to be done, if he were able to take a part in it, he was never wanting, whether it was in counselling about a difficulty, in comforting under danger, or helping by bodily labour to relieve the general distress.

a bundle of sticks The word in the original would apply very fitly to the brushwood and furze which is said to be the only material growing near St Paul's Bay of which a fire could be made.

there came a viper Dr Farrar (Life of St Paul, ii. 384, note) has noticed that the viper has disappeared from the isle of Arran, as it is now said to have done from Malta.

out of the heat [R. V.by reason of the heat] The original has the preposition usually rendered "from." The R.V.gives the better explanation of its meaning here. The creature had been numbed by the cold, and feeling the sudden warmth, woke up and sprang away from it.