Actschapter 28
31 verses · BSBActs book hub →
Speaks with:Acts 27×6Acts 28×4Acts 25×4Acts 26×4Hebrews 13×2Luke 13×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Malta. The viper on Paul's hand; healings. Voyage to Puteoli and Rome. Two years in his own hired house: 'preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.' Acts ends open; the gospel has reached the capital.
Context
History · Luke — Acts overview
- A. 1–10 A Viper on Malta and Healings Across the Island
- B. 11–16 To Rome at Last: Brethren Meet Him on the Road
- C. 17–31 Preaching the Kingdom Unhindered in His Own Hired House
The outline
A.A Viper on Malta and Healings Across the Islandvv. 1 to 10
Read vv. 1 to 10 →B.To Rome at Last: Brethren Meet Him on the Roadvv. 11 to 16
Read vv. 11 to 16 →C.Preaching the Kingdom Unhindered in His Own Hired Housevv. 17 to 31
Read vv. 17 to 31 →
The world behind this chapter
Acts 28The history
The islanders are called "barbarians" simply because they spoke neither Greek nor Latin; the native tongue of Malta was Punic, a descendant of Phoenician. Their assumption that a snakebite proved divine justice, then that surviving it proved divinity, is ordinary ancient reasoning about fate.
The ship they leave on has the Twin Brothers as its figurehead — Castor and Pollux, the patron gods of sailors. Luke notices the carving the way a traveller does.
Puteoli was the great port for Rome before Ostia was enlarged, and there were already believers there. The two stopping places on the road north, the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns, were real waystations about forty-three and thirty-three miles from the city; Christians walked out that far to meet him.
Paul's confinement is the lighter Roman form: he rents his own lodging, keeps a soldier with him, and receives whoever comes. It cost money, which means someone was supporting him. Two full years of that is where Luke stops the story — before any verdict, which is one of the strongest reasons for dating Acts to this period.
What it meant to them
The meeting with the Jewish leaders of Rome closes a pattern the whole book has followed: he goes to his own people first, some are convinced and some are not, and he turns to the Gentiles quoting Isaiah's hard words about ears that will not hear.
The last sentence is the point of the whole book. A prisoner in the empire's capital is preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. The gospel has reached Rome, and nothing has stopped it.
Sources cited
- F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts (NICNT)
- William M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Acts 28. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.