EvangelistUnhindered witness

Acts 28 — Island hospitality and Paul’s witness in Rome — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: Acts 1–28 [V2]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

Acts 28 — Island hospitality and Paul’s witness in Rome

Hospitality and healing on the island

Verse 28:1

Greek–English Translation

After reaching safety, we learned that the island was called Melite.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Melite preserves the Greek island name rather than substituting an unargued modern geographical reconstruction.

Verse 28:2

Greek–English Translation

The non-Greek-speaking people showed us extraordinary kindness. They kindled a fire and welcomed us all because of the rain that had begun and because of the cold.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Barbaroi distinguishes the inhabitants’ language from Greek; it does not here describe cruelty or lack of hospitality. The narrator explicitly praises their kindness.

Verse 28:3

Greek–English Translation

Paul gathered a bundle of brushwood and put it on the fire. A viper came out because of the heat and fastened onto his hand.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Echidna is viper in the narrative; no modern species identification is claimed.

Verse 28:4

Greek–English Translation

When the non-Greek-speaking people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “This man is certainly a murderer. Although he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Justice renders dikē, possibly personified as a divine power in their inference. The claim that Paul is a murderer belongs to the observers and is not endorsed by the narrator.

Verse 28:5

Greek–English Translation

But he shook the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 28:6

Greek–English Translation

They expected him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. After waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Both the expected death and the later divine identification are the islanders’ changing judgments; neither is inserted as a narrator’s characterization of Paul.

Verse 28:7

Greek–English Translation

Near that place were lands belonging to the island’s chief man, named Publius. He welcomed us and hospitably gave us lodging for three days.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Prōtos, first man, is rendered chief man without assigning a more precise office than the passage names.

Verse 28:8

Greek–English Translation

Publius’s father lay sick with fevers and dysentery. Paul went in to him, prayed, laid his hands upon him, and healed him.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The source names fevers in the plural and dysentery. These ancient descriptions are retained without asserting a modern diagnosis.

Verse 28:9

Greek–English Translation

After this happened, the other sick people on the island also came and were healed.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 28:10

Greek–English Translation

They honored us with many honors, and when we sailed, they supplied what we needed.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Honors may include gifts or marks of esteem; the source’s broad term is retained, followed by its explicit provision for the voyage.

The journey to Rome

Verse 28:11

Greek–English Translation

After three months we sailed in an Alexandrian ship that had wintered at the island, with the Dioscuri as its emblem.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Dioscuri is the source’s designation for the twin divine patrons on the ship’s emblem. This reported vessel feature does not imply the travelers’ worship of them.

Verse 28:12

Greek–English Translation

We put in at Syracuse and stayed three days.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 28:13

Greek–English Translation

From there we cast off and reached Rhegium. After one day a south wind arose, and on the second day we came to Puteoli.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The selected participle perielontes is represented by cast off; the alternate perielthontes can yield went around or made a circuit. No unmentioned coastal circuit is substituted. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 28:13 lists perielontes with WH/NA28 and perielthontes, having gone around, with Treg/RP.

Verse 28:14

Greek–English Translation

There we found brothers and were invited to stay with them seven days. And so we came to Rome.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 28:15

Greek–English Translation

From there the brothers, having heard about us, came to meet us as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The two meeting places are both preserved; the narrative first summarizes arrival and then recalls the approach and welcome.

Verse 28:16

Greek–English Translation

When we entered Rome, Paul was permitted to stay by himself with the soldier guarding him.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The selected text does not include the longer transfer of prisoners to a military official before the permission clause. The soldier’s continued guard is explicit. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 28:16 assigns the expanded prisoner-handover clause to RP.

Paul meets the Jewish leaders in Rome

Verse 28:17

Greek–English Translation

After three days he called together the leading Jews. When they gathered, he said to them, “Men, brothers, although I had done nothing against the people or the ancestral customs, I was handed over as a prisoner from Jerusalem into Roman hands.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 28:18

Greek–English Translation

After examining me, they wished to release me, because there was no cause for death in my case.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 28:19

Greek–English Translation

But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, though I had no accusation to bring against my nation.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Paul explicitly disclaims an accusation against his nation, preserving the distinction between his local opponents and the people collectively. Saints: John Chrysostom, Homily 55 on Acts, on 28:17–20, emphasizes Paul’s forgiving tone and his refusal to use the appeal to attack his nation. [CHR-ACTS-55]

Verse 28:20

Greek–English Translation

For this reason I asked to see you and speak with you, for it is because of Israel’s hope that I wear this chain.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 28:21

Greek–English Translation

They said to him, “We have received no letters from Judea about you, nor has any of the brothers who arrived reported or spoken anything evil about you.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 28:22

Greek–English Translation

But we consider it right to hear from you what you think, for concerning this sect we know that it is opposed everywhere.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Sect and the claim of universal opposition are the leaders’ description, not an assertion that no Jewish hearer will believe; the following scene explicitly records differing responses.

The kingdom proclaimed without hindrance

Verse 28:23

Greek–English Translation

They appointed a day with him and came to his lodging in greater numbers. From morning until evening he explained to them, bearing solemn witness to the kingdom of God and seeking to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 28:24

Greek–English Translation

Some were persuaded by what was said, while others did not believe.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The mixed response remains explicit and is not flattened into a rejection by every Jewish listener.

Verse 28:25

Greek–English Translation

Disagreeing with one another, they began to leave after Paul made one statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke well through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers,

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Your fathers is the selected pronoun here. The Holy Spirit’s speech through Isaiah is Paul’s explicit attribution. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 28:25 lists your with WH/Treg/NA28 and our with RP.

Verse 28:26

Greek–English Translation

saying, ‘Go to this people and say: “You will hear and hear, yet never understand; you will look and look, yet never see.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The repeated hearing and seeing and their emphatic negatives are preserved from Acts’ actual Greek quotation.

Verse 28:27

Greek–English Translation

For this people’s heart has grown dull, their ears have become hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn back, and I would heal them.”’

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The people explicitly close their own eyes; no divine eye-closing subject is substituted. The final healing clause is expressed in natural English within the preceding conditional warning, retaining God as the healer.

Verse 28:28

Greek–English Translation

Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: This salvation and the future they will listen are retained. The declaration does not erase the believing Jewish response already recorded at 28:24.

Verse 28:29

Greek–English Translation

[Editorial absence notice: SBLGNT has no main-text wording at conventional Acts 28:29.]

Textual and Reception Notes

Numbering: The selected Greek proceeds from 28:28 to 28:30. The notice is editorial, not biblical text; no additional departure-and-dispute sentence is inserted. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 28:28 reports the additional departure-and-debate sentence under RP.

Verse 28:30

Greek–English Translation

He remained two whole years in his own rented lodging and welcomed all who came to him,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 28:31

Greek–English Translation

proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, unhindered.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Unhindered is the final word. The selected book ends with the continuing proclamation, without narrating Paul’s later trial outcome or death. Saints: John Chrysostom, Homily 55 on Acts, on 28:31, distinguishes bold speech from unhindered speech and sees both here. He observes that the narrative ending leaves readers wanting more. [CHR-ACTS-55]