Mark 16:18. They shall take up serpents. See Acts 28:3-5, where this promise was fulfilled in the case of Paul. We therefore retain the simple meaning: they shall take up serpents without injury, as a ‘sign.' As the word translated ‘take up' has a variety of secondary meanings, some explain it here, ‘drive forth,' ‘destroy,' but the other is the more obvious sense. Most untenable is the fanciful symbolical interpretation which finds an allusion to the brazen serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14).

Even if they drink any deadly thing. While literal fulfilments of this promise are not recorded in the New Testament, such may have occurred.

And they shall be well. Instances abound in the Acts of the Apostles.

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Old Testament