Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 28:6
Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
6. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen ] Better (with R.V.) “But they expected that he would have swollen.” Such being the usual effect of the viper’s bite, and making itself apparent in a very short time.
but after they had looked a great while ] [ R. V. “but when they were long in expectation.”] The verb is the same as in the first clause of the verse, and does not express merely the gazing upon Paul, but the thought in their minds of what was to come. The pluperfect of the A.V. is the better English. So read “when they had been long in expectation.”
saw no harm ] [ R.V. “beheld nothing amiss.”] The adjective is the same which is used, Luk 23:41, “This man hath done nothing amiss,” and can be applied to anything abnormal, whether it be as there a breach of a law, or as here a change of condition.
and said that he was a god ] Compare the conduct of the Lycaonians in Lystra (Act 14:11 seqq.), whose behaviour afterwards shews that the opinion quickly formed was unstable, and liable to change as suddenly as it came.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
When he should have swollen – When they expected that he would have swollen from the bite of the viper. The poison of the viper is rapid, and they expected that he would die soon. The word rendered swollen pimprasthai means properly to burn; to be inflamed, and then to be swollen from inflammation. This was what they expected here, that the poison would produce a violent inflammation.
Or fallen down dead suddenly – As is sometimes the case from the bite of the serpent when a vital part is affected.
They changed their minds – They saw that he was uninjured, and miraculously preserved; and they supposed that none but a god could be thus kept from death.
That he was a god – That the Maltese were idolaters there can be no doubt; but what gods they worshipped is unknown, and conjecture would be useless. It was natural that they should attribute such a preservation to the presence of a divinity. A similar instance occurred at Lystra. See the notes on Act 14:11.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. When he should have swollen] , When he should have been inflamed: by means of an acrid poison introduced into the blood, it is soon coagulated; and, in consequence, the extremities of the vessels become obstructed, strong inflammation takes place, and all the parts become most painfully swollen.
Lucan, ix. v. 791, gives a terrible account of this effect of the bite of a serpent:-
__________________illi rubor igneus ora
Succendit, tenditque cutem, pereunte figura
Miscens cuncta tumor jam toto corpore major:
Humanumque egressa modum super omnia membra
Efflatur sanies late tollente veneno.
Ipse latet penitus, congesto corpore mersus;
Nec lorica tenet distenti corporis auctum.
And straight a sudden flame began to spread,
And paint his visage with a glowing red.
With swift expansion swells the bloated skin,
Nought but an undistinguished mass is seen;
While the fair human form lies lost within,
The puffy poison spreads and heaves around,
Till all the man is in the monster drown’d.
ROWE.
See other ensamples, in Clarke’s notes on “Nu 21:6“.
Said that he was a god.] As Hercules was one of the gods of the Phoenicians, and was worshipped in Malta under the epithet of , the dispeller of evil, they probably thought that Paul was Hercules; and the more so, because Hercules was famous for having destroyed, in his youth, two serpents that attacked him in his cradle.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Should have swollen; the word signifies primarily to be burnt, and then by burning or scalding to swell, which is accounted the ordinary symptom of the biting of a viper; to swell or blister, as if the part was burnt with fire.
Or fallen down dead suddenly; in those places where there is much more heat, there is more venom in these vipers. And though some are said to live several days after they are bit by them, yet others die very suddenly upon their biting; as the known story of Cleopatra testifies; and condemned persons were sometimes put to death by vipers set unto their breasts.
And said that he was a god; a strange extreme; so uncertain and unequal are mens minds.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. they looked“continuedlooking.”
when he should have swollenor fallen down deadfamiliar with the effects of such bites.
and saw no harm come to him,they changed their minds, and said . . . he was a godfrom “amurderer” to “a god,” as the Lycaonian greeting ofPaul and Silas from “sacrificing to them” to “stoningthem” (Act 14:13; Act 14:19).What has not the Gospel done for the uncultivated portion of thehuman family, while its effects on the educated and refined, thoughvery different, are not less marvellous! Verily it is God’s chosenrestorative for the human spirit, in all the multitudinous forms andgradations of its lapsed state.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen,…. With the venomous bite of the viper; swelling is one of the symptoms following the bite of this creature; and if the bite does not issue in death, yet the swelling continues inflamed for some time. The symptoms following the bite of a viper are said to be r an acute pain in the place wounded; swelling, first red, afterwards livid, spreading by degrees; great faintness; a quick, low, and sometimes interrupted pulse; sickness at the stomach; bilious convulsions: vomiting; cold sweats; sometimes pains about the navel; and death itself, if the strength of the patient, or the slightness of the bite, do not overcome it: if he does overcome it, the swelling continues inflamed for some time; and the symptoms abating, from the wound runs a sanious liquor, little pustules are raised about it, and the colour of the skin is as if the patient were icterical or jaundice; or had the jaundice: the Arabic and Ethiopic versions render it, “that he should burn”, or “burnt”; that is, inflamed, for the bite of the viper causes an inflammation, a hot swelling, which rises up in pustules or blisters:
or fallen down dead suddenly; for immediate death is sometimes the effect of such poison. Pliny s relates, that the Scythians dip their arrows in the sanies or corrupt matter of vipers, and in human blood, which by the least touch causes immediate death; and Pausanias t reports from a certain Phoenician, that a man fleeing from a viper got up into a tree, where the viper could not reach him, but it blew, or breathed out its poison on the tree, and the man immediately died: though the force of this creature’s poison does not always, and in all places, and in all persons operate alike; some die within a few hours, and others live some days, some to the third day, and some to the seventh u:
but after they had looked a great while; upon the apostle, to observe whether any inflammation or swelling arose, or death ensued, as they expected: when they had waited some time, perhaps an hour or two,
and saw no harm come to him; that he was neither inflamed, nor swelled, nor dead; that it had no manner of effect upon him, and no evil of punishment was inflicted on him hereby, from whence they could conclude that he was guilty of any notorious crime:
they changed their minds, and said that he was a god: before they took him to be a murderer, and now they even ascribe deity to him, as was usual with the Gentiles, when anything extraordinary was performed by men: so the Lystrians took Paul for Mercury, and Barnabas for Jupiter, upon the apostle’s curing the cripple, Ac 14:11; but what god the inhabitants of Melita thought him to be, is not certain; some think Hercules, who was worshipped in this island. The inhabitants of this island now believe that the apostle expelled all poison and venom out of it when he was there; and it is reported, that the children born in this place fear not any snakes, neither are hurt by anything that is venomous, insomuch that they will take scorpions, and eat them without danger; although, in all other parts of the world, those kind of creatures are most pernicious, and yet do no manner of hurt to men in this island; yea, it is affirmed, that there is a sort of earth found here, which kills serpents: as for the eating of them, the viper itself may be eaten; most authors agree w, that there is no part, humour, or excrement, not even the gall itself, of a viper, but may be swallowed without much harm; accordingly the ancients, and, as several authors assure us, the Indians at this day, both of the east and west, eat them as we do eels–viper’s flesh either roasted or boiled, physicians unanimously prescribe as an excellent restorative, particularly in the elephantiasis, incurable consumptions, leprosy, &c.
r Chambers’s Cyclopaedia, ut supra. (the word “Viper”) s L. 11. c. 53. t Boeotica, vel, l. 9. p. 583. u Alberus de Animal. l. 25. c. ult. w Chambers’s Cyclopaedia, ut supra. (the word “Viper”)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But they expected ( ). Imperfect active, were expecting, continued to expect.
That he would have swollen ( ). More exactly, “Expecting him to be about (or that he was about) to swell up.” is present middle infinitive from , to blow, to burn, to inflame, to cause to swell. , to swell, seems connected and both use the aorist . Our word “inflammation” likewise means a burning and a swelling. This verb is a common medical term used as Luke has it. It occurs here only in N.T.
Or fallen down dead suddenly ( ). Rather, “or was about to fall down dead suddenly.” The two common results of a bite by a viper or other poisonous snake, both medical terms used by Luke.
But when they were long in expectation ( ). Genitive absolute. “But while they were expecting for much time.”
Nothing amiss come to him ( ). “Nothing out of place coming to him” (present middle participle). the usual negative of the participle and the accusative case the object of (genitive absolute).
Changed their minds (). Aorist middle (direct) participle of , old verb to turn about or around, turning themselves about, changing their minds. Plato uses this very verb in middle voice for changing the mind.
That he was a god ( ). Accusative and infinitive in indirect discourse. At Lystra Paul was first received as a god (Mercury) and then they stoned him to kill him (Acts 14:11; Acts 14:19). So fickle is popular favour.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Swollen [] . Only here in New Testament. The usual medical word for inflammation.
Looked [] . Occurring eleven times in Luke, and only five times in the rest of the New Testament. Frequent in medical writers, to denote expectation of the fatal result of illness.
No harm [ ] . Lit., nothing out of place. The word atopov occurs three times in Luke, and only once elsewhere in the New Testament (2Th 3:2). Used by physicians to denote something unusual in the symptoms of disease and also something fatal or deadly as here. Rev., nothing amiss. Compare Luk 23:41; and Act 25:5, where the best texts insert the word.
Said [] . The imperfect, denoting current talk.
A God. “Observe,” says Bengel, “the fickleness of human reasoning. He is either an assassin, say they, or a God. So, at one time bulls, at another stones” (Act 14:13, 19).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen,” (hoi de prosedokon auton mellein pimprasthai) “Then they (the heathen natives) watched closely, anticipating that he would swell up,” expecting him to swell, as they would normally have done from such a bite. The sight normally dimmed, swelling immediately came, pain came to the stomach, then convulsions and death.
2) “Or fallen down dead suddenly:” (e ketapiptein aphno nekron) “Or they expected him to fall down dead at any instant,” with instant physical death, as if the bite would be fatal. The term “fallen down” was another medical term, used by Luke, indicating a fall of an epileptic, or one with a mortal wound, a sudden fall.
3) “But after they had looked a great while,” (epi polu de auton prosdokonton) “Then when they expected, looking on (for him to fall dead in his body), for an extended period of time,” after watching for mortal sickness or pain that never came to Paul.
4) “And saw no harm come to him,” (kai theorounton meden atopon eis auton ginomenon) “And though scrutinizing him (from head to toe in wonder and expectancy of his death) when they realized nothing amiss happening to him, that he had no real harm from the viper.
5) “They changed their minds,” (metabalomenoi) “Changing their minds,” their attitudes, dispositions, or conclusions of their own will, choice or volition, Heb 2:4.
6) “And said that he was a god.” (elegon auton linai theon) “They pronounced him to be, concluded aloud that he was a god,” much as those of Lystra had done after Paul healed the cripple man, Act 14:11-18; Act 8:10. Note the change of attitude of the islanders toward Paul, “from a murderer,” one moment, to “a god,” the next.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
−
6. Changing their minds, they said. This so wonderful and sudden a change ought to have inwardly touched the men of Melita, and to have moved them to give the glory to the mercy of God, as they did before to vengeance. But as man’s reason is always carried amiss unto extremities, they make Paul at a sudden a god, whom they took before to be a wicked murderer. But if he could not choose but be the one, it had been better for him to be counted a murderer than a god. And surely Paul would rather have wished to be condemned, not only of one crime, but also to have sustained all shame, − (661) and to have been thrust down into the deep pit of hell, − (662) than to take to himself the glory of God, which thing those knew full well who had heard him preach amidst the storms. Notwithstanding, it may be, that, being taught afterward, they did confess that God was the author of the miracle. −
Furthermore, let us learn by this history, with patient and quiet minds, to wait for the prosperous event of things, − (663) which seem at the first to tend toward the robbing of God of his honor. Which of us would not have been terrified with this spectacle which did arm the wicked to slander with all manner of slanderous speeches the glory of the gospel? Yet we see how God did in good time prevent this inconvenience; therefore, let us not doubt but that after he hath suffered his to be darkened with clouds of slanders, he will send remedy in his good time, and will turn their darkness into light. In the mean season, let us remember that we must beware of the judgment of the flesh. And because men do always forget themselves, let us beg of God the Spirit of moderation, that he may keep us always in the right mean. Furthermore, let us learn by this how ready the world is to fall to superstition. Yea, this wickedness is in a manner born with us, to be desirous to adorn creatures with that which we take from God. −
Wherefore, no marvel if new errors have come abroad − (664) in all ages, seeing every one of us is, even from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols. But lest men excuse themselves therewithal, this history doth witness that this is the fountain of superstitions, because men are unthankful to God, and do give his glory to some other.
(661) −
“
Omni infamiae genere,” every kind of infamy.
(662) −
“
Ad inferos,” to the dead.
(663) −
“
Tristium rerum,” of gloomy affairs.
(664) −
“
Subinde,” ever and anon.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) They looked when he should have swollen . . .Better, and they were expecting that . . . The verb for swollen implies literally inflammation, and one of the enormous serpents of Africa took its name. Prestes (the inflamer), from it. Lucan (ix. 790) describes the effect of its bite
Percussit Prestes, illi ruber igneus ora
Succendit, tenditque cutem, pereunte figur.
[ The Prestes bit him, and a fiery flush
Lit up his face, and set the skin a-stretch,
And all its comely grace had passed away.]
They changed their minds, and said that he was a god.The miraculous escape naturally made an even stronger impression on the minds of the Melitese than what had seemed a supernatural judgment. Their thoughts may have travelled quickly to the attributes of the deities who, like Apollo or sculapius, were depicted as subduing serpents. The sudden change of belief may be noted as presenting a kind of inverted parallelism with that which had come over the people of Lystra. (See Notes on Act. 14:11; Act. 14:19.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Swollen dead suddenly The two stages of dissolution from the bite of the viper are: First, a highly inflamed swelling beginning at the bitten place, and then a rapid death. The pain is exquisite, especially when the patient is touched. Lucian, the satirist, says of the viper, “His bite is violent, his venom thick, quickly bringing on agonies, for it burns and rots and swells, and the victim screams as if burned in fire.” The Scythians dipped their weapons in vipers’ venom, and, says Pliny, “they brought death by a light touch.”
A god A supernatural of any class.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But they expected that he would have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly. But when they were long in expectation and beheld nothing amiss came to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.’
The barbarians, however, stood around watching him and waiting for the signs of the poison to reveal themselves, expecting him to swell up and die at any moment. But when after a goodly period nothing had happened, they changed their minds about him and decided that he was a god.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 28:6. But after they had looked a great while, &c. Many of the Heathens thought there was something divine in thenature of serpents, and that deities, or good genii, who were made use of as the instruments of delivering and honouring those who were the peculiar favourites of the gods, often appeared in that shape. Hence idols were often made with serpents near them; and there have been numerous, and indeed astonishing instances of religious worship, absurd as it may seem, paid to that kind of animals. See the notes on Gen 3:15. Grotius, Whitby, and some others, think that the Melitese took St. Paul for Hercules, , (the driver away of evil,) who was worshipped in this island, and was, according to Ptolemy, one of the gods of the Phoenicians. The Lystrans would have worshipped St. Paul as a god, and afterwards stoned him as a blasphemer, and the worst of men; chap. Act 14:11-19. So soon do unthinking persons run from one extreme to another, and so little regard is to be had to the warmth of affection, where it is not grounded upon scripture, reason, and conviction.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Act 28:6 . But when they waited long (not: expectassent ), and saw , etc. On of abnormal corporeal changes , see examples in Wetstein and Kypke. Not even the expected swelling ( .) occurred.
.] taking place on him . See on Luk 4:23 ; comp. Plut. Mor . p. 786 C: .
] to turn themselves round, to change , often used even by classical writers to express change of view or opinion (without, however, supplying ). Dem. 205. 19, 349. 25, and see Kypke.
] The good-natured people, running immediately into extremes with the inferiority of their rational training, think that he is a god appearing in human form, because they could not reconcile the complete want of result from the poisonous bite of the viper, well known to them in its effects, with the knowledge which they had derived from experience of the constitution of an ordinary human body. (Act 14:11 ff.), Chrysostom. Bengel well remarks “aut latro inquiunt aut Deus ; datur tertium; homo Dei .” The people themselves do not say ( ) that they meant a definite, particular god (Grotius, Heinsius, Alberti conjecture Hercules ; Wetstein, Aesculapius ; Sepp, one of the two). Zeller finds in Act 28:6 simply an unhistorical addition “in the miraculous style of our chap. 16.,” which character belongs still more decidedly to the cures in Act 28:8-9 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
Ver. 6. That he should have swollen ] Or, have been inflamed, , viz. with the viper’s venom. The devil’s darts are called fiery for the dolour and distemper they work, Eph 6:16 ; in allusion likely to the poisoned darts that the Scythians of old and other nations now use in war, dipped in the blood and gall of vipers, the venomous heat of which, like a fire in their flesh, killed the wounded with torments; the likest hell of any other, saith one. These fiery darts sting the wicked, as the fiery serpents did the Israelites. The saints shake them off without hurt, though not always without smart.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
6. ] Both these, the inflammation of the body, and the falling down dead suddenly, are recorded as results of the bite of the African serpents. Mr. Humphry quotes from Lucan, ix. 790, ‘Nasidium Marsi cultorem torridus agri Percussit Prester ( an African serpent named from this very verb ): illi rubor igneus ora Succendit, tenditque cutem, pereunte figura:’ and, of the bite of the asp, ix. 815: ‘At tibi, Leve miser, fixus prcordia pressit Niliaca serpente cruor: nulloque dolore Testatus morsus, subita caligine mortem Accipis, et somno Stygias descendis ad umbras.’
] not, as E. V., ‘ when they had looked ,’ but when they were long looking .
. ] There is no need to supply . , though it is sometimes expressed: so . , . , Lysias, pro Nicia fratre (Wetst.): , Demosth. pro Megalop. (id.), in neither of which places can . well be understood.
] “Comparabant vel Herculi qui in ulnis adhuc jacens angues superavit: vel sculapio, qui cum serpente pingitur.” Wetst. and so also Grot. But so much as this can hardly be inferred: nor are we sure of the theogony of these Phnician barbarians.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 28:6 . : Paul shook off the viper the natives looked for a fatal result. They knew the deadly nature of the bite, and their subsequent conduct shows that they regarded it as nothing short of miraculous that Paul escaped. So St. Luke evidently wishes to describe the action, see on , Act 28:5 , and , Rendall, Acts , p. 161, Appendix. , see below. , from the form , present infinitive passive, see critical note, and Winer-Schmiedel, p. 122; cf. in LXX, Num 5:21-22 ; Num 5:27 , , H. and R., of parts of the body becoming swollen. In classical Greek means “to take fire,” and “to cause to swell,” and those two ideas are combined, as in the word ; “a venomous snake, the bite of which caused both inflammation and swelling” (Page, in loco ), cf. Lucan, ix. 790. In the N.T. the verb is peculiar to St. Luke, and it is the usual medical word for inflammation (Hobart, Zahn) in Hipp., Aret., Galen. : only in Luke in N.T., cf. Luk 8:6 , Act 26:14 , it was used by medical writers of persons falling down suddenly from wounds, or in epileptic fits; Hipp., Galen (Hobart, Zahn), cf. the asp-bitten Charmian in Ant. and Cleo. (Shakespeare), Act 5 , Scene 2. : only in Act 2:2 ; Act 16:26 . . : the two words are described by Hobart as exactly those which a medical man would use (so too Zahn), and he gives two instances of the latter word from Galen, in speaking of the bite of a rabid dog, or of poison, p. 289. The word is used elsewhere in N.T. of something morally amiss; cf. Luk 23:41 , Act 25:5 , 2Th 3:2 , but here evidently of something amiss physically. In R.V. it is rendered in each passage “amiss”. The word in N.T. is confined to Luke and Paul, but it is found several times in LXX in an ethical sense (as in N.T., except in loco ), cf. Job 4:8 ; Job 11:11 ; Job 27:6 ; Job 34:12 ; Job 35:13 , Prov. 24:55 (Pro 30:20 ), cf. 2Ma 14:23 ; so too in Thucydides, Josephus, Plutarch, etc.; but it is used of any harm happening to a person as here, cf. Jos., Ant. , viii., 14, 4; xi., 5, 2; Herodian, iv., 11. , peculiar to St. Luke in N.T.; cf. Luk 21:26 , Act 12:11 , and , in Luke six times, in Acts five, was, no doubt, frequently used in medical language (Hobart, Zahn) for the expectation of the result of a disease or paroxysm “when they were long in expectation,” R.V.), but in Jos., Ant. , viii., 14, 4, we have , and in Herodian, iv., 11, ., cf. Luk 4:23 (Klostermann, Weiss). , so frequently in classics without , cf. Jos., B. J. , v., 9, 3. : it is perhaps fanciful to suppose with Grotius and Wetstein that they compared him to the infant Hercules, or to sculapius represented with the serpent, but the latter is undoubtedly right in adding, “eleganter autem hic describitur vulgi inconstantia”; we naturally compare with Chrysostom the startling change in the people of Lystra, Act 14:11 ; Act 14:19 , “Aut latro inquiunt aut deus datur tertium: homo Dei” (Bengel).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Howbeit = But.
looked = were expecting, or watching in expectation. Greek. prosdokao. App-133.
when = that.
should have = was about to.
swollen = swell. Greek. pimpremi Only here.
fallen down. See Act 26:1 Act 26:4.
dead = a corpse. Greek. nekros. App-139.
suddenly. See Act 2:2.
a great while = for (Greek. epi. App-104.) much (time).
saw. Greek. theoreo. App-133.
no = nothing. Greek. medeis.
harm = amiss. Greek. atopos. Only here, Luk 23:41. 2Th 3:2.
changed their minds. Greek. metaballomai. Only here.
god. App-98.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
6.] Both these, the inflammation of the body, and the falling down dead suddenly, are recorded as results of the bite of the African serpents. Mr. Humphry quotes from Lucan, ix. 790, Nasidium Marsi cultorem torridus agri Percussit Prester (an African serpent named from this very verb ): illi rubor igneus ora Succendit, tenditque cutem, pereunte figura: and, of the bite of the asp, ix. 815: At tibi, Leve miser, fixus prcordia pressit Niliaca serpente cruor: nulloque dolore Testatus morsus, subita caligine mortem Accipis, et somno Stygias descendis ad umbras.
] not, as E. V., when they had looked,-but when they were long looking.
.] There is no need to supply . , though it is sometimes expressed:-so . , . , Lysias, pro Nicia fratre (Wetst.): , Demosth. pro Megalop. (id.),-in neither of which places can . well be understood.
] Comparabant vel Herculi qui in ulnis adhuc jacens angues superavit: vel sculapio, qui cum serpente pingitur. Wetst. and so also Grot. But so much as this can hardly be inferred: nor are we sure of the theogony of these Phnician barbarians.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 28:6. , they were expecting) They knew what were wont to be the effects of such bites.-, being changed) The instability of human reasoning is herein showed. He is either an assassin, say they, or a god. So at one time bulls were about to be sacrificed to Paul at Lystra, and presently after stones were thrown at him: ch. Act 14:13; Act 14:19. There is a third alternative admissible: he is a man of GOD. As to no class of men do natural men commit greater errors, than as to the saints.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
said: Act 12:22, Act 14:11-13, Mat 21:9, Mat 27:22
Reciprocal: Dan 2:46 – fell
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Act 28:6. Swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly. Either of these results might have followed from the bite of a poisonous serpent. It should be noted, however, that the former word denotes inflammation rather than swelling.
After they had looked a great while. Again we should remark the singular reality and naturalness of the description.
They changed their minds, and said that he was a god. Such a sudden revulsion of feeling is characteristic of rude and unlettered people. There had been, in St. Pauls experience, a similar instance among the Lycaonians, though in an opposite direction (Act 14:18-19).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 3
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
28:6 Howbeit they looked when he should have {c} swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: {3} but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
(c) The Greek word signifies to be inflamed or to swell: moreover, Dioscorides in his sixth book, chap. 38, witnesses that the biting of a viper causes a swelling of the body, and so says Nicander, in his remedies against poisons.
(3) There are none who are more changing in every way than they who are ignorant of true religion.