1Once we had made our way to safety we identified the island as Malta. 2The rough islanders treated us with uncommon kindness: because it was cold and had started to rain, they lit a bonfire and made us all welcome. 3Paul had got together an armful of sticks and put them on the fire, when a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened on his hand. 4The islanders, seeing the snake hanging on to his hand, said to one another, 'The man must be a murderer; he may have escaped from the sea, but divine justice has not let him live.' 5Paul, however, shook off the snake into the fire and was none the worse. 6They still expected that any moment he would swell up or drop down dead, but after waiting a long time without seeing anything extraordinary happen to him, they changed their minds and now said, 'He is a god.'
7In the neighbourhood of that place there were lands belonging to the chief magistrate of the island, whose name was Publius. He took us in and entertained us hospitably for three days. 8It so happened that this man's father was in bed suffering from recurrent bouts of fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and, after prayer, laid his hands upon him and healed him; 9whereupon the other sick people on the island came also and were cured. 10They honoured us with many marks of respect, and when we were leaving they put on board provision for our needs.
11Three months had passed when we set sail in a ship which had wintered in the island; she was the Castor and Pollux of Alexandria. 12We put in at Syracuse and spent three days there; 13then we sailed round and arrived at Rhegium. After one day a south wind sprang up and we reached Puteoli in two days. 14There we found fellow-Christians and were invited to stay a week with them. And so to Rome. 15The Christians there had had news of us and came out to meet us as far as Appii Forum and Tres Tabernae, and when Paul saw them, he gave thanks to God and took courage.
16WHEN WE ENTERED ROME Paul was allowed to lodge by himself with a soldier in charge of him.
23So they fixed a day, and came in large numbers as his guests. He dealt at length with the whole matter; he spoke urgently of the kingdom of God and sought to convince them about Jesus by appealing to the Law of Moses and the prophets. This went on from dawn to dusk. 24Some were won over by his arguments; others remained sceptical. 25Without reaching any agreement among themselves they began to disperse, aut not before Paul had said one thing more: 'How well the Holy Spirit spoke to your fathers through the prophet Isaiah 26 [ Is.6.9-10. ] when he said, "Go to this people and say: You will hear and hear, but never understand; you will look and look, but never see. 27people's mind has become gross; their ears are dulled, and their eyes are closed. Otherwise, their eyes might see, their ears hear, and their mind understand, and then they might turn again, and I would heal them." 28Therefore take notice that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles: the Gentiles will listen.' 29
30He stayed there two full years at his own expense, with a welcome for all who came to him, 31proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the facts about the Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and without hindrance.
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