Acts 28:3
And when Paul had gathered together a bundle of sticks, and had laid them on the fire, a viper coming out of the heat, fastened on his hand.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cum congregasset autem Paulus sarmentorum aliquantam multitudinem, et imposuisset super ignem, vipera a calore cum processisset, invasit manum ejus.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- συστρέψαντος δὲ τοῦ Παύλου φρυγάνων τι πλῆθος καὶ ἐπιθέντος ἐπὶ τὴν πυράν, ἔχιδνα ἀπὸ τῆς θέρμης ἐξελθοῦσα καθῆψε τῆς χειρὸς αὐτοῦ.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian Scorpiace, Chapter I
The earth brings forth, as if by suppuration, great evil from the diminutive scorpion. The poisons are as many as are the kinds of it, the disasters as many as are also the species of it, the pains as many as are also the colours of it. Nicander writes on the subject of scorpions , and depicts them. And yet to smite with the tail, which tail will be whatever is prolonged from the hindmost part of the body, and scourges, is the one movement which they all use when making an assault. Wherefore that succession of knots in the scorpion, which in the inside is a thin poisoned veinlet, rising up with a bow-like bound, draws tight a barbed sting at the end, after the manner of an engine for shooting missiles. From which circumstance they also call after the scorpion, the warlike implement which, by its being drawn back, gives an impetus to the arrows. …
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily LIV on Acts xxviii. 1
Acts XXVIII. 1 “And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.”
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XIII
Wouldst thou see the hands too? those which he now hath? Or wouldest thou rather behold first their former wickedness? ( Acts viii. 3 .) “Entering (this very man) into the houses, he haled,” of late, “men and women,” with the hands not of man, but of some fierce wild beast. But as soon as he had received the colors of the Truth and the spiritual experience, no longer were these the hands of a man, but spiritual; day by day being bound with chains. And they never struck any one, but they were stricken times without number. Once even a viper ( Acts xxviii. 3, 5 .) reverenced those hands: for they were the hands of a human being no longer; and therefore it did not even fasten on them.