Acts 28:1-6

Sticks and snakes in Melita, 1-6

Verse 1: Having escaped safely to land, they found “the island was called Melita.” Melita, mentioned only here in the Bible, is properly identified with the island currently called Malta (also sometimes referred to as Valletta). The island of Melita is about 50 or 60 miles south off the coast of Sicily. It is over 500 miles to the west (as the crow flies) from where the ship initially began (The fair havens) was headed (Phenice). The ship (which was ultimately headed to Italy) floundered helplessly out of control across the Adria in the clutches of a tempestuous storm. The Lord who has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm landed them all safely at a place on the way to Rome.

Verse 2: The barbarous people are the native people of Melita/Malta. Barbarians were non-Greek people who spoke a different language.[1] Compare Romans 1:14 and I Corinthians 14:11. Cold and raining at the time – coupled with the mention of a three-month winter stay (v. 11) – indicates they arrived in late fall or early winter. 

Verse 3: Paul was industrious. He did not merely enjoy the fire, but added fuel to it. In the process, a viper warmed by the heat fastened on his hand.[2]

Matthew Henry reminds us:

See how many perils human life is exposed to, and what danger we are in from the inferior creatures, which have many of them become enemies to men, since men became rebels to God; and what a mercy it is that we are preserved from them as we are. We often meet with that which is mischievous where we expect that which is beneficial; and many come by hurt when they are honestly employed, and in the way of their duty.[3]

Verse 4: The immediate reaction of the locals – “he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live” – certifies that the viper was a venomous creature.[4] Compare Amos 5:19 on the certainty of not escaping justice. See also Ecclesiastes 10:8. The religious, philosophical, or superstitious beliefs of the people of Melita included the idea of a divine law of retribution, that bad things happen to people because they have done bad things – “No doubt this man is a murderer.” What happened to Paul was proof enough to them. He could not escape justice. They thought like Job’s friends. Cf. Job 4:7-8; 8:6; 11:20; This is truth mixed with error. Some suffering is specific discipline or judgment because of sin (e.g., Numbers 12:1-10; II Samuel 12:14-18; Acts 5:1-11). Some suffering is for the glory of God, as well as our good (cf. Job 1:9-12; John 9:3; 11:4; 16:33; Acts 5:41; Romans 8:17-18; II Corinthians 4:17-18; Peter 4:12-14).

Verse 5: When the serpent fastened on Paul’s hand, he simply shook it off into the fire – a very nonchalant reaction to a snakebite! “he…felt no harm” suggests the bite did not hurt, but certainly attests that the normal effect of the poison did not affect Paul. Compare Mark 16:18 “they shall take up serpents…it shall not hurt them,” of which promise this is a fulfillment. The promise of Mark 16:18 is not an incitement for the apostles (or Christians) to go about handling snakes and drinking poison in worship services.[5] However, God’s miraculous protection of those in the apostolic age who do was a sign that followed them, affirming the belief they had and the gospel they preached.

Verse 6: Though Paul simply shook off the beast into the fire, the Melitans watched for Paul’s hand to swell and for him to drop dead. Nothing happened! Based on the fact of the serpent bite, the people took Paul for an evildoer; then based on the fact of no harm coming to Paul, “they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.” Oh, how fickle, how unstable, how double-minded, how tossed to and fro are the men who are not grounded in God’s word.

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[1] In modern usage, people most often mean an uncivilized savage by the word “barbarian.” This is not what it means in Acts 28:2. It those the Greeks and Romans could not understand, who in their native tongues seemed to be saying, “bar-bar bar-bar.”
[2] Viper, εχιδνα, a poisonous snake.
[3] Henry, Commentary, Vol. VI, p. 350.
[4] Some have sought to create a difficulty because there are now no vipers on the island of Malta. For example, Ramsay claims “that the snake was a constrictor, and not (as Luke calls it) a viper, which does not occur in Malta.” See Ramsay, Pictures of the Apostolic Church, p. 355. Simpler than denying Luke’s accuracy is to realize that this variety of snake was there when Paul visited, but is now extinct on the island. As an urban geographical area of 95 square miles holding over 450,000 people (2019, Eurostat), it is not surprising that certain wildlife has disappeared from the island.
[5] For example, the Church of God with Signs Following is a “Pentecostal Holiness Church” that not only believes that tongues, healing, and miracles are for today, but they also practice handling snakes and drinking poison during their church worship services. Most other Pentecostals who believe that miracles and signs are for today nevertheless interpret taking up serpents and drinking deadly things as symbolic rather than literal.

The republic is no more

“Many a head was bowed, many a broad chest heaved, and many a manly cheek was wet with tears when that broad field of blue in the center of which, like a signal light, glowed the lone star, emblem of the sovereignty of Texas, was furled and laid away among the relics of the dead republic.”

Written by Noah Smithwick, a blacksmith in attendance at a ceremony lowering the Republic of Texas flag at the republic/state capitol, February 19, 1846. (The Evolution of a State, or, Recollections of Old Texas Days, p. 283)

After the Texas flag was lowered from its place and folded, Anson Jones, last president of the republic, stated, “The Republic of Texas is no more.”

Anapestic Meter

What? What is that?

Awhile back, I ran across on Archive.Org the hymn book Sacred Poetry and Music Reconciled, Or, A Collection of Hymns Original and Compiled, by Samuel Willard. (Boston, MA: Leonard C. Bowles, 1830). In it I noticed several hymns labeled with the meters “C.M.A.,” “L.M.A.,” “S.M.A.” I had never noticed that kind of labeling before...

And I am always up for learning more about the meter designations. The hymn meter is the pattern of syllables and stresses in the hymn text. I have posted a number of times on the subject. Here are most, if not all:

1. Common Meter Extended hymns
2. Explanation of Meter, from The Baptist Standard Hymnal
3. Hymn meter
4. Hymn Meter Again
5. Hymn Meter Explanations and Information
6. Metrical Index of Tunes
7. Online metrical indices
8. 50th hymn meter

Willard’s explanation of his designations are as follows:

• L. M. A. - Long Meter Anapestic. 10.10.11.11. (usually, but not always; this also includes hymn with 4 lines of 11s. and one 8-line hymn that is 10.11.11.11.12.11.11.11.)
• C. M. A. - Common Meter Anapestic. 11.8.11.8.
• S. M. A. - Short Meter Anapestic. 8.8.11.8.

Some relevant excerpts from Willard’s book Sacred Poems:

A considerable number of hymns in this collection are in the anapestic measure, like the first, fourth, and eighteenth, containing in general three syllables for a measure or bar; while most of the tunes, which are named for them, have usually been sung in iambic verse, dividing each measure into two parts, the first a semibreve, or other notes equivalent to it, and the second a minim. If these hymns should be adopted in any society, where these tunes are not actually divided in the collections of music in use, the following rule will remove every difficulty in performing these or any other tunes of the kind, in the manner required; viz.

Let every measure, intended for three syllables, be divided into three equal parts, by splitting semibreves, or removing slurs, and let every part be sounded on the same tone, it would otherwise be. Thus, for instance, in the tune of Froome, named for the first hymn, let the slur be removed from the crotchets in the first full measure of the first line, and let the minim in the first measure of the second line be performed like two crotchets. The only exceptions to this rule are those, which are signified by numbers or points in several hymns, and which may be observed, or not, as may be found convenient. When the first syllable in a measure has the number 1 over it, it is to fill two thirds of the bar, and for the two following syllables, marked with the number 4, the last third of the bar. is to be divided, as in hymn 4. (pages 11-12)

Some of the metres are distinguished in this book into seven varieties, and are marked by the figures 1, 2, 3, &c. prefixed to the tunes, which are named. The first variety is pure iambic from the beginning to the end of every line. The second is precisely the same with the first, excepting a trochee in the beginning of the first line. With a little attention, the chorister will understand the other diversities, which, in the adaptation of tunes, are almost as important to be observed, as the difference of metre. (page 18)

Willard says that most of the named tunes in his book can be found in the Bridgewater, Handel and Haydn, and American Psalmody collections.

A little about Samuel Willard:

Samuel Willard, the son of William Willard and Catherine Wilder, was born April 18, 1775 (his daughter wrote 1776). His grandfather was a Congregational minister and his father a deacon. He graduated from Harvard College and became a Congregational minister. The initial council declined to ordain him due to his Unitarian tendencies, but a more liberal-thinking group was convened and ordained him. Willard became a long-time influential Unitarian in Massachusetts. He compiled two hymn books – Sacred Poems (1830), Regular Hymns: on a Great Variety of Evangelical Subjects and Important Occasions: with Musical Directions, for all the Varieties of Appropriate Expression (1824), and The Family Psalter (circa 1857). The latter may have never been published, and his other books probably found only limited use outside his region (and probably not much outside the Unitarian fold). His daughter writes:

…he gave much thought and time to the subject of sacred music. He composed many hymns; on his favorite plan of adapting the poetical to the musical emphasis. He left a manuscript collection of four hundred or more of these hymns;, about one hundred of which were composed in his eighty-second year. After his birthday of eighty-two he prepared an elaborate preface to this collection, in which he emphasized the idea, that sacred music and poetry, fitly adapted to each other, are to be among the great factors in harmonizing the discordant elements of the world. This collection he named ‘The Family Psalter’.” (Life of Samuel Willard, D.D. A.A.S. of Deerfield, Mass, Mary Willard, editor. Boston, MA: George H. Ellis, 1892, pp. 22-23)

As far as I have discovered, the C.M.A., L.M.A., and S.M.A. metrical designations seem to be limited in use to Willard’s work. They may have been created by him for his work, and not used elsewhere. In Regular Hymns, Willard does not use metrical designations, but simply gave tunes for the hymn. He wrote, “In general, I have named two tunes for each hymn, taken either from the third edition of Deerfield Collection, or the tenth of the Bridgewater Collection. Those from the former are marked with a star, and those from the latter with a cross; to prevent any mistake” (pp. x-xi).

Samuel Willard died October 8, 1859, and is buried at the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Deerfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts.

Baptists who were U.S. Presidents

Four men affiliated with Baptist churches have become President of the United States. Three were Democrats and one was a Republican. Two were northerners* and two were southerners.

1.     Warren G. Harding (Republican from Ohio, 1921–23), 29th president. He was a member and trustee of the Trinity Baptist Church, Marion, Ohio. He joined the church on May 6, 1883, when he was 17 years old and it was still called the Free Baptist Church. Historians have generally ranked Harding as one of the worst Presidents. This is based on the idea that he accomplished little while in office, and for corruption during his administration – several of his appointees went to prison for various scandals. I don’t think Harding himself was accused of improprieties beyond allowing it to go on.

2.     Harry S. Truman (Democrat from Missouri, 1945-1953), 33rd president. Truman is probably best known for following Roosevelt, being plain-spoken, and authorizing dropping the bombs on Japan. I know little about his presidency otherwise, or of his Baptist beliefs. At the age of 18, Truman was baptized at the Benton Boulevard Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was living at the time. He later became a member of the First Baptist Church of Grandview, Missouri, (then called the Grandview Baptist Church) in 1916. In 1945 Truman wrote, “I am a Baptist because I think that sect gives the common man the shortest and most direct approach to God.” (Source: Michael Devine, director of Harry S. Truman Library and Museum)

3.     James Earl “Jimmy” Carter (Democrat from Georgia, 1977-1981). Carter is often remembered for speaking of being born-again (and by some for giving away the Panama Canal). His presidency by many is thought of as ineffective, and after one term the American people replaced him with Ronald Reagan. At the time of his presidency he was a Southern Baptist, but later his church are affiliated with the more liberal Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He was a popular Sunday School teacher at Maranatha Baptist Church, Plains, Georgia. As a Baptist he would be considered on the liberal end of the spectrum. No questionable moral dealings or improprieties are associated with his presidency.

4.     William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton (Democrat from Arkansas, 1993-2001). He was baptized by Park Place Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. One of the most remembered acts of this Southern Baptist president is the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Though a Baptist, the president and his family attended the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. while he was president.

Related:

Abraham Lincoln was raised by Baptist parents, but he was never a member of any church. George Washington was purportedly baptized by John Gano during the Revolutionary War. Regardless of the truth of it – two of Gano’s grandchildren claimed in an affidavit that their aunt, John Gano’s oldest daughter, told them that her father had baptized Washington – it seems that George Washington remained outwardly affiliated with the Episcopal Church.

* Missouri may best be considered a “border state” rather than “Northern.”

Obey God

You can choose to run from God, but God can capture you on the ship you’ve chosen to flee on, and throw you in the belly of a whale. His arsenal is bigger and badder than yours. It’s best to just do as God says.

Our Master

1. Immortal Love for ever full,
For ever flowing free,
For ever shared, for ever whole,
A never-ebbing sea.

2. Our outward lips confess the name
All other names above;
Love only knoweth whence it came
And comprehendeth love.

3. We may not climb the heavenly steeps
To bring the Lord Christ down;
In vain we search the lowest deeps,
For him no depths can drown:

4. But warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is he;
And faith has still its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.

5. The healing of his seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch him in life’s throng and press,
And we are whole again.

6. Through him the first fond prayers are said
Our lips of childhood frame;
The last low whispers of our dead
Are burdened with his name.

7. Alone, O Love ineffable,
Thy saving name is given;
To turn aside from thee is hell,
To walk with thee is heaven.

The American Quaker poet and abolitionist, John Greenleaf Whittier, wrote the above poem.  This poem, entitled “Our Master” and originally written in 1856, appears in Whittier’s work, The Tent on the Beach, and other Poems (1867) on page 143-152. There it has 38 stanzas of 4 lines. Some portions of it have been adapted to Christian hymnals. The above seven stanzas are verses 1, 2, 5, 13, 14, 15, and 31 in the 1867 printing.

Whittier was born at Haverhill, Massachusetts, December 17, 1807, the son of John Whittier and Abigail Hussey. He grew up on a farm and also learned the trade of shoemaking. Whittier died September 7, 1892, and is buried at Union Cemetery in Amesbury, Essex County, Massachusetts.

The poetry of “Our Master” is often set to the tune Bishopthorpe by Jeremiah Clarke, an English chorister and composer born 1674 and died in 1707. Clarke composed both sacred and secular music. He is buried at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, England.

The “M’s” have it

Morphing off of a Facebook post by Pastor Jason Skipper, October 2025.

“M’s” you can mention in order to get in a big fuss with someone:

• Men only as preachers
• Music in church
• Modesty in apparel
• Manuscripts of the Bible

Traits of a good hymn

“A hymn ought to be as regular in its structure as any other poem; it should have a distinct subject, and that subject should be simple, not complicated, so that whatever skill or labour might be required in the author to develope his plan, there should be little or none required on the part of the reader to understand it. Consequently, a hymn should have a beginning, middle, and end.”

...

“A line is no more metre because it contains a certain concatenation of syllables, than so many crotchets and quavers, pricked at random, would constitute a bar of music.”

James Montgomery in his “Introductory Essay” to The Christian Psalmist; or, Hymns, Selected and Original, pp. xiv, xvi.

Immersion of the eunuch by Philip

Acts 8:38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.

l. They both went down to the water.] Considering how frequently bathing was used in those hot countries, it is not to be wondered that baptism was generally administered by immersion, though I see no proof that it was essential to the institution. It would be very unnatural to suppose that they went down to the water, merely that Philip might take up a little water in his hand to pour on the eunuch. A person of his dignity had, no doubt, many vessels with him in his baggage on such a journey through so desert a country, a precaution absolutely necessary for travellers in those parts, and never omitted by them. See Dr. Shaw’s Travels, Pref. p. 4.

Philip Doddridge (1702–1751), “Philip Baptizes the Ethiopian Eunuch,” The Family Expositor; Or, a Paraphrase and Version of the New Testament, With Critical Notes, London: Frederick Westley and A. H. Davis, 1831, p. 403.

Today Philip Doddridge is perhaps best remembered as a hymnwriter. However, he was an important Non-conformist (Congregationalist) pastor, author, and educator in his day. The above quote from his comments on the baptism of the eunuch supply an oft-needed corrective to modern pedobaptists who would deny the early practice of immersion. Doddridge himself did not see immersion as inherent or essential to the ordinance, but nevertheless was able to read the immersion of the eunuch performed by Philip – without wearing pedobaptist glasses that saw it as a sprinkling or pouring.

His reference to “Dr. Shaw’s Travels” is as follows:

“We took Care in the first Place, to provide ourselves with a sufficient Quantity of Goat’s Skins, which we filled with Water, every four or five Days, or as often as we found it.” Travels; or Observations, Relating to Several Parts of Barbary and the Levant, Thomas Shaw, Oxford: At the Theatre, 1738, p. iv.

Yes, Doug, I am a genealogist

“A half truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth.” -- J. I. Packer

Last week, in contrast to Jonathan Burris, I mentioned that I have found non- and anti- KJV controversialists who are open, honest, and sincere.[i] I find others who are stuck playing one string on their banjoes and can pluck no other! In some cases, they may be willingly ignorant, determined to debate (regardless), and even deceivers & being deceived.

The Gary Hudson-Doug Kutilek-Rick Norton team of contenders seem to fit that description. They have lit on their “true truth,” found the one string they can pluck, and will not be dislodged from it regardless of the evidence. In “The TRUE Genealogy & Genesis of ‘KJV–Onlyism,’” Doug Kutilek writes:

In the realm of King-James-Version-Onlyism, just such a genealogy of error can be easily traced. All writers who embrace the KJV-only position have derived their views ultimately from Seventh-day Adventist missionary, theology professor and college president, Benjamin G. Wilkinson (died 1968), through one of two or three of his spiritual descendants.

They have determined to dismiss “King James Only” theology and history out of hand by foisting on it a genealogy error. Doug Kutilek and others have made a cottage industry out of it.

Find someone who believed only the King James Bible was the word of God before Benjamin Wilkinson? “Dismissed! They can’t be KJVO because that does not fit our pre-determined genealogical scheme.” If my Baptist ancestors never heard of Benjamin Wilkinson, J. J. Ray, Fuller, or Ruckman, but believed their King James Bibles represented the inspired word of God? “Dismissed! This can’t be so, because we have already set the parameters and drawn the lines.” There is no reasoning with these guys. They will not be budged by any kind of evidence. How do we know? We’ve tried, and they still won’t move.[ii] 

The H-K-N team excels in hypocrisy. When olden King James Bible supporters say they could accept some changes in the KJV, this team then erases them from the line of “KJV Only” supporters. However, when contemporary King James Bible supporters say they could accept some changes in the KJV, this team charges that these are lying and are still to be considered “KJV Only.”

These are:

• Deceivers, Deceiving, Being Deceived?
• Woefully Willfully Ignorant?
• Dogmatically Dead-Set to Debate?
• Quibblers Qualified in Quibbling?

“A half truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth.” -- J. I. Packer

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[i] When I first became acquainted with him, I thought Mark Ward fit in that category. Continued interactions with him make me doubt it.
[ii] 1. One of Rick Norton’s perennial lines is that Archbishop Richard Bancroft (or another prelate or somebody) altered “robbers of temples” in Acts 19:37 to make it say “robbers of churches.” He can find one old 1671 quote to that effect; inflate the claim with dozens of others with no evidence other than the first claim; ignore the fact that that translation previously appeared in the translations of Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthew, Taverner, the Great Bible, and the Bishop’s Bible; ignore the fact that the King James translators used “churchrobber” in 2 Maccabees 4:42, clearly in reference to the temple; and then just keep repeating the claim ad infinitum. 2. Plenty of Pre-Wilkinsonian historical evidence has been provided of the existence of supporters of the exclusive use of the King James Bible as the word of God. It seems to be dismissed out of hand because they simply cannot be KJVO. For a few samples, see HERE, HERE, and HERE.