Công Vụ Các Sứ Đồ 28

Paul and the viper on Malta

¹Once we were safely ashore, we found out that the island was called Malta. ²The local people treated us with remarkable kindness. Because it had started to rain and it was cold, they lit a fire and made all of us welcome.^{a 3}Paul collected an armful of sticks and laid them on the fire. The heat brought out a viper, which clamped onto his hand. ⁴When the local people saw the creature dangling from his hand, they said to one another, “This man is surely a murderer. He came safely out of the sea, yet Justice will not let him live.”^{b 5}But Paul shook the creature off into the fire and was not harmed at all. ⁶They kept waiting for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. After a long wait, when they saw that nothing strange was happening to him, they changed their view and began to say that he was a god.

Healing on the estate of Publius

⁷Near that spot there was an estate that belonged to the leading man of the island, whose name was Publius. He took us in and treated us as his guests for three days. ⁸The father of Publius lay ill with bouts of fever and dysentery. Paul visited him, prayed, laid his hands on him and healed him. ⁹After that, the rest of the island’s sick people kept coming to him, and they were healed. ¹⁰They heaped honors on us, and when the time came to sail, they loaded the ship with what we needed.

From Malta to Rome

¹¹Three months later we set sail on a ship from Alexandria that had spent the winter at the island. Its figurehead was the Twin Brothers.^{c 12}We landed at Syracuse and spent three days there. ¹³From there we weighed anchor and came to Rhegium.^d After one day a wind sprang up from the south, and on the second day we made Puteoli. ¹⁴There we found some brothers and sisters, who begged us to spend seven days with them. And that is how we came to Rome. ¹⁵The brothers and sisters there had heard about us, and they came out as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of them Paul gave thanks to God and took heart.

¹⁶Once we were in Rome, Paul was given permission to live in private quarters, though a soldier guarded him.^e

Paul speaks with the Jewish leaders in Rome

¹⁷Three days later Paul called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, I have not acted against our people or against the customs of our ancestors. Even so, I was made a prisoner in Jerusalem and delivered into Roman hands. ¹⁸The Romans questioned me and were ready to let me go, since no charge against me called for death. ¹⁹But when the Jewish leaders there objected, I had no choice but to appeal to Caesar. I did this, not because I had any charge to bring against my own people. ²⁰This is the reason I invited you here, to see you and speak with you: I wear this chain for the sake of Israel’s hope.” ²¹They answered him, “No letters about you have reached us from Judea, and none of our fellow Jews who have arrived here has brought word of anything against you. ²²But we think it fair to hear your own views. What we do know about this sect is that it meets opposition everywhere.”

²³They fixed a day with him, and on it a larger group came to his lodging. From morning to evening he laid things out for them, bearing full witness to the kingdom of God and seeking to convince them about Jesus from the law of Moses and the Prophets. ²⁴His words won some of them over, but others refused to believe. ²⁵Divided among themselves, they began to go, but first Paul said one thing more: “How right the Holy Spirit was when he spoke to your ancestors through Isaiah the prophet, ²⁶saying, ‘Go to this people and tell them, “You will listen and listen but never understand. You will look and look but never see.^{f 27}For the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears are slow to hear, and they have shut their eyes, for fear that they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.”’ ²⁸Know this, then: this salvation from God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen.”^g

Two years in Rome, unhindered

³⁰For two full years Paul lived in lodgings he rented, receiving everyone who visited him. ³¹There he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught the things about the Lord Jesus Christ, with all boldness, unhindered.^h