1. Once we had reached safety we learned that the island was called Malta.
2. The natives showed us extraordinary hospitality; they lit a fire and welcomed all of us because it had begun to rain and was cold.
3. Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire when a viper, escaping from the heat, fastened on his hand.
4. When the natives saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “This man must certainly be a murderer; though he escaped the sea, Justice has not let him remain alive.”
5. But he shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no harm.
6. They were expecting him to swell up or suddenly to fall down dead but, after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.