Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Acts 28:5 - 28:5
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Act 28:5. Ἀποτινάξας, having shaken off) Quintinus Hæduus, in the book concerning the Melitensian war, as quoted in Flacius, observes in this passage, “No poisonous kind of serpent either is born in Melita, or hurts any there, when introduced from elsewhere. The natives of that isle are, as it were, a terror to serpents. Scorpions, a deadly animal elsewhere, are seen harmless in the hands of children in sport. I have seen a person who ate them; which, they say, is due to Paul, when bitten, having shaken off the viper hanging to his finger without hurt. If this be true, subjoins Illyricus, we must no doubt suppose that it is the peculiar blessing of GOD, who, as it were, left an eternal memorial of the Gospel having been preached there, and so many miracles performed; even as the Scripture often testifies that GOD makes lands cither worse or better on account of the sins of men, or even, on the other hand, on account of His own extraordinary compassion. Even as evident experience testifies that the soil and clime itself of Germany, and of all the northern regions, are far milder, and more salubrious and fertile, than they were formerly before the birth of Christ, as is clear from writers worthy of credit,” etc.