Bible Strands
Acts 28:3
Paul gathered a bundle of sticks, and as he laid them on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself to his hand.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul stands before the islanders who kindled a fire for him during cold, rainy weather, and he gathers wood to add to the flames.
The words — συστρέψαντος (sustrepsantos) means "having gathered," and φρυγάνων (phruganōn) means "of sticks," describing the immediate physical action before the viper emerges.
The thread — The viper imagery appears in Matthew 12:34 and Matthew 23:33 as a metaphor for spiritual corruption, while Acts 28:4 records the islanders seeing the creature and interpreting it as divine punishment.
Why it lands — It demands the reader examine whether physical peril or human judgment accurately reflects God’s purpose, rather than assuming danger proves guilt.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Matthew 23:33 You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell?
- Matthew 12:34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
- Acts 28:4 When the islanders saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “Surely this man is a murderer. Although he was saved from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”
- 2 Corinthians 11:23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am speaking as if I were out of my mind.) I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death.
- Job 20:16 He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.
- Isaiah 30:6 This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.
- Isaiah 41:24 Behold, you are nothing and your work is of no value. Anyone who chooses you is detestable.
- Isaiah 59:5 They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched.
- Matthew 3:7 But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
- 2 Corinthians 6:9 unknown, yet well-known; dying, and yet we live on; punished, yet not killed;