Acts 28:1-6

The Inhabitants of Malta. The inhabitants of Malta were of Phoenician extraction; they are called barbarians in Acts 28:2, as they spoke another language than Greek; inscriptions in two languages are found in the island. The date of the landing was before the middle of November (Acts 27:9; Acts 27:27), and the weather was cold, a miserable situation but for the kindness of the inhabitants. For Paul's sentiments on such an occasion, see 2 Corinthians 1:4 and that epistle generally, written about a year before this. But all that is told us of him is that he gathered some sticks, and what came out of them (cf. Mark 16:18). Ramsay (Luke the Physician, pp. 63- 65) identifies the snake as Coronella Austriaca, a constrictor without poison fangs, similar in size and appearance to the viper. It was not the first time that Paul had been taken for a god; cf. Acts 14:11 f.