However, they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
However, they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
But they expected that he would have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but when they were long in expectation and beheld nothing amiss came to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
But they had the idea that they would see him becoming ill, or suddenly falling down dead; but after waiting a long time, and seeing that no damage came to him, changing their opinion, they said he was a god.
Yet they looked when he would have swelled, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
But they expected that he would have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, but when they watched for a long time and saw nothing bad happen to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
But they expected that he would have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but when they were long in expectation, and beheld nothing amiss came to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
When he should have swollen - Πιμπρασθαι, When he should have been inflamed: by means of an acrid poison introduced into the blood, it is soon coagulated; and, in consequence, the extremities of the vessels become obstructed, strong inflammation takes place, and all the parts become most painfully swollen. Lucan, ix. v. 791, gives a terrible account of this effect of the bite of a serpent: -
- illi rubor igneus ora
Succendit, tenditque cutem, pereunte figura
Miscens cuncta tumor jam toto corpore major:
Humanumque egressa modum super omnia membra
Efflatur sanies late tollente veneno.
Ipse latet penitus, congesto corpore mersus;
Nec lorica tenet distenti corporis auctum.
And straight a sudden flame began to spread,
And paint his visage with a glowing red.
With swift expansion swells the bloated skin,
Nought but an undistinguished mass is seen;
While the fair human form lies lost within,
The puffy poison spreads and heaves around,
continued...
When he should have swollen - When they expected that he would have swollen from the bite of the viper. The poison of the viper is rapid, and they expected that he would die soon. The word rendered "swollen" πίμπρασθαι pimprasthai means properly "to burn; to be inflamed," and then "to be swollen from inflammation." This was what they expected here, that the poison would produce a violent inflammation.
Or fallen down dead suddenly - As is sometimes the case from the bite of the serpent when a vital part is affected.
They changed their minds - They saw that he was uninjured, and miraculously preserved; and they supposed that none but a god could be thus kept from death.
That he was a god - That the Maltese were idolaters there can be no doubt; but what gods they worshipped is unknown, and conjecture would be useless. It was natural that they should attribute such a preservation to the presence of a divinity. A similar instance occurred at Lystra. See the notes on Acts 14:11.
28:6 They changed their minds, and said he was a god - Such is the stability of human reason! A little before he was a murderer; and presently he is a god: (just as the people of Lystra; one hour sacrificing, and the next stoning:) nay, but there is a medium. He is neither a murderer nor a god, but a man of God. But natural men never run into greater mistakes, than in judging of the children of God.