Acts 28:4

saw the venomous beast There is nothing in the Greek to represent "venomous," though it was because the inhabitants knew that such was its character that they were so astonished at what happened.

Vengeance suffereth not to live [R. V."Justice hath not suffered to live"] This is an instance in which the A.V. expresses far more truly than the R. V.the sense of the Greek. The indefinite meaning of the Greek aorist is often more like what we call the English present than the perfect. "I eat" does not necessarily mean "I am eating" and covers more time than "I have eaten." It may be present, but it can refer both to past and future time. What the people meant to say was that Justice, as her wont is, is finding out the wrong-doer.