Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
The beast (to qhrion). Diminutive of qhr and so little beast. See on Mark 1:13. Aristotle and the medical writers apply the word to venomous serpents, the viper in particular (Knowling), as Luke does here. Vincent calls attention to the curious history of our word "treacle" for molasses (Latin theriaca) from qhriakh, an antidote made from the flesh of vipers. Coverdale translates Jeremiah 8:22: "There is no more treacle in Gilead." Jeremy Taylor: "We kill the viper and make treacle of him."
Hanging from his hand (kremamenon ek thv xeirov autou). Vivid picture of the snake dangling from Paul's hand. Present middle participle of kremamai, late form for kremannumi, to hang up, to suspend (cf. Galatians 3:13).
No doubt (pantwv). Literally, By all means, old adverb. Cf. Acts 21:22; Luke 4:23; I Corinthians 9:22. Only by Luke and Paul in the N.T. "They knew that he was a prisoner being taken to Rome on some grave charge, and inferred that the charge was murder" (Page).
Though he hath escaped (diaswqenta). First aorist passive participle of diaswzw (same verb used in 24:43-44; Acts 28:1), so-called concessive use of the participle (Robertson, Grammar, p. 1129).
Yet Justice (dikh). An abstraction personified like the Latin Justitia (Page). The natives speak of Dikh as a goddess, but we know nothing of such actual worship in Malta, though the Greeks worshipped abstractions as in Athens.
Hath not suffered (ouk eiasen). Did not suffer. They look on Paul as a doomed man as good as dead. These people thought that calamity was proof of guilt, poor philosophy and worse theology.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Acts 28:4:
Luke 4:23
Luke 7:3
Luke 10:19
Acts 21:22
Acts 23:24
Acts 28:2
Acts 28:17
Romans 1:17
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