Paul gathered a pile of sticks for the fire. He was putting the sticks on the fire, and a poisonous snake came out because of the heat and bit him on the hand.
When the people living on the island saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said, "This man must be a murderer! He did not die in the sea, but Justice does not want him to live."
The people thought he would swell up or fall down dead. They waited and watched him for a long time, but nothing bad happened to him. So they changed their opinion. They said, "He is a god!"
There were some fields around that same area. They were owned by a man named Publius, the most important Roman official on the island. He welcomed us into his home and was very good to us. We stayed in his house for three days.
The people on the island gave us many honors. And after we had been there three months and were ready to leave, they provided us everything we needed for our trip. We got on a ship from Alexandria that had stayed on the island of Malta during the winter. On the front of the ship was the sign for the twin gods.
We came to the city of Rhegium. The next day a wind began to blow from the southwest, so we were able to leave. A day later we came to the city of Puteoli.
The brothers and sisters in Rome heard about us and came out to meet us at the Market of Appius and at the Three Inns. When Paul saw these believers, he thanked God and felt encouraged.
Three days later Paul sent for some of the most important Jews. When they came together, he said, "My brothers, I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our fathers. But I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.
But the Jews there did not want that. So I had to ask to come to Rome to have my trial before Caesar. That doesn't mean I am accusing my people of doing anything wrong.
The Jews answered Paul, "We have received no letters from Judea about you. None of our Jewish brothers who have traveled from there brought news about you or told us anything bad about you.
Paul and the Jews chose a day for a meeting. On that day many more of these Jews met with Paul at his house. He spoke to them all day long, explaining God's kingdom to them. He used the Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets to persuade them to believe in Jesus.
They had an argument among themselves and were ready to leave. But Paul said one more thing to them: "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet. He said,
'Go to this people and tell them: You will listen and you will hear, but you will not understand. You will look and you will see, but you will not understand what you see.
Yes, the minds of these people are now closed. They have ears, but they don't listen. They have eyes, but they refuse to see. If their minds were not closed, they might see with their eyes; they might hear with their ears; they might understand with their minds. Then they might turn back to me and be healed.'