Acts 27:39-28:11

Living Bible

³⁹ When it was day, they didn’t recognize the coastline, but noticed a bay with a beach and wondered whether they could get between the rocks and be driven up onto the beach. ⁴⁰ They finally decided to try. Cutting off the anchors and leaving them in the sea, they lowered the rudders, raised the foresail, and headed ashore. ⁴¹ But the ship hit a sandbar^[a] and ran aground. The bow of the ship stuck fast, while the stern was exposed to the violence of the waves and began to break apart.

⁴² The soldiers advised their commanding officer to let them kill the prisoners lest any of them swim ashore and escape. ⁴³ But Julius^[b] wanted to spare Paul, so he told them no. Then he ordered all who could swim to jump overboard and make for land, ⁴⁴ and the rest to try for it on planks and debris from the broken ship. So everyone escaped safely ashore!

28 ^1-2 We soon learned that we were on the island of Malta. The people of the island were very kind to us, building a bonfire on the beach to welcome and warm us in the rain and cold.

³ As Paul gathered an armful of sticks to lay on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, fastened itself onto his hand! ⁴ The people of the island saw it hanging there and said to each other, “A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live!”

⁵ But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. ⁶ The people waited for him to begin swelling or suddenly fall dead; but when they had waited a long time and no harm came to him, they changed their minds and decided he was a god.

⁷ Near the shore where we landed was an estate belonging to Publius, the governor of the island. He welcomed us courteously and fed us for three days. ⁸ As it happened, Publius’s father was ill with fever and dysentery. Paul went in and prayed for him, and laying his hands on him, healed him! ⁹ Then all the other sick people in the island came and were cured. ¹⁰ As a result we were showered with gifts,^[c] and when the time came to sail, people put on board all sorts of things we would need for the trip.

¹¹ It was three months after the shipwreck before we set sail again, and this time it was in The Twin Brothers of Alexandria, a ship that had wintered at the island.