The big picture
Acts 28 gives the Book of Acts an ending that is both settled and unfinished. Shipwrecked strangers first meet unusual kindness on Melita, where Paul survives a viper, prays for Publius’s sick father, and becomes the means of healing for others before the travelers receive supplies for departure. The journey then resumes through ordinary ports and winds until believers meet Paul on the road to Rome and strengthen him by their presence. In the city, custody remains real, but Paul takes the initiative. He explains his chain through “the hope of Israel,” speaks from Moses and the prophets about Jesus, and receives a divided response. The book does not close with Caesar’s verdict. It closes with two years of welcome and teaching in a guarded house, the message continuing “no man forbidding him.”
Central truth
The Book of Acts brings Paul through unexpected hospitality to guarded residence in Rome, where he welcomes visitors and teaches the kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ without prohibition.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Acts 28:1: “And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita.”
Slow down at the turning point
Acts 28:17: “And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and…”
Keep this word trail visible
Paul, brethren, days, departed, hear, people
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Acts 28:1-6
A fire, a viper and two verdicts
Begin on the beach of Malta, which the King James calls Melita. Explain barbarous people as non-Greek-speaking locals, not savages; the text praises their unusual kindness. Paul, the prisoner, gathers sticks for the fire, and a viper fastens on his hand. Read the islanders’ first verdict, that justice will not let a murderer live, and their second, that he is a god. Teach that both are mistaken: Paul is neither guilty nor divine, but a servant of God kept by his promise. Many hear Mark 16:18 and Luke 10:19 here.
Acts 28:7-10
Healing on Malta
Publius, the chief official of the island, hosts them for three days. His father is sick with fever and dysentery, which is the meaning of a bloody flux. Paul goes in, prays and lays hands on him, and he is healed. Then many others come and are healed. Show that Paul prays first, so the healing is God’s answer. Note that the islanders honour them and supply what they need for the voyage. Teach this as a quiet season of mutual kindness after the storm, three months on an island.
Acts 28:11-16
The road to Rome
Trace the last voyage: an Alexandrian ship with the sign of the twin gods Castor and Pollux, Syracuse, Rhegium, Puteoli, where they find believers and stay a week. Then the road to Rome. Believers walk out to meet him at Appii forum and the Three Taverns, some forty miles and thirty miles from the city. Read verse 15 slowly. Then verse 16: in Rome, Paul is allowed to live on his own with a soldier guarding him. Teach that the promise of 23:11 and 27:24 has now been kept.
Acts 28:17-22
Meeting the Jewish leaders
After three days Paul calls the leading Jews of Rome. Show how carefully he speaks: brethren, nothing against the people or the customs, no accusation against his nation, and his chain worn for the hope of Israel. Explain the hope of Israel as the promised Messiah and the resurrection. Their answer is fair: they have received no letters against him and want to hear his view, though they know this sect is spoken against everywhere. Teach this meeting as Paul going to the Jew first, as he has done in every city in Acts.
Acts 28:23-29
A day of teaching and a divided response
On the appointed day many come, and Paul teaches from morning to evening from the law and the prophets about the kingdom and Jesus. Some believe and some do not. As they leave disagreeing, he quotes Isaiah 6:9-10, the word God gave Isaiah for his own people, about hearing without understanding. Then he says the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, who will hear it. Note that verse 29 is in the King James but missing from some manuscripts. Teach the warning soberly and with care, as a call to listen, not a verdict on a people.
Acts 28:30-31
No man forbidding him
End with the last two verses of the Book of Acts. For two whole years Paul lives in his rented house, under guard, welcoming all who come, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him. Explain that the book ends without telling us the result of the trial. Many think that is deliberate: the word has reached Rome, and it is still going. Teach that the ending is open, and the uttermost part of the earth of 1:8 still waits for witnesses.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
“The islanders were right that Paul was a god, because he survived the snake.”
The Book of Acts reports what the islanders said (28:6) as it reported their earlier verdict that he was a murderer (28:4); neither is endorsed. In Lystra Paul tore his clothes when people called him a god (14:14-15). Paul survived because God had promised he would stand before Caesar (27:24). Teach the text as showing how quickly people swing between extremes, and how God’s care is the real explanation.
“Paul’s quotation of Isaiah means God has given up on the Jewish people.”
Some of Paul’s hearers believed (28:24), and his whole approach in Rome was to call his own people first (28:17-20). Isaiah 6 was God’s word to Israel by an Israelite prophet, a warning about hardened hearing, not a final rejection. Paul himself writes in Romans 11:1-2 that God has not cast away his people. Handle this passage with great care; it has been misused, and the text does not support contempt.
“The Book of Acts ends without an ending because the writer did not finish it.”
Readers have offered several explanations: that Acts was written before Paul’s trial ended, that the writer planned another volume, or that the open ending is deliberate. What the text does is end on the word unhindered, “no man forbidding him” (28:31), with the gospel preached at the centre of the empire. Whatever the reason, the ending fits the book’s theme: the word of God keeps going.
“Being under guard meant Paul’s ministry had stopped.”
Verse 16 says a soldier kept him, and verse 20 that he was bound with a chain. Yet verses 30-31 show two years of open house, all visitors received, and teaching with all confidence. Paul’s letters from this period, such as Philippians 1:12-14, say his imprisonment actually helped the gospel. Teach that limits on a believer’s freedom do not have to limit the word of God.
Learning objectives
- Contrast the islanders’ kindness with their changing judgments of Paul.
- Describe Paul’s service and the islanders’ provisions.
- Explain the encouragement supplied by believers approaching Rome.
- Identify Paul’s explanation of the chain he wears.
- Trace the mixed response to his scriptural teaching.
- Distinguish the book’s final emphasis from unreported later events.
Teacher preparation
- Read Acts 27:43–44 into 28:1–2; begin with soaked survivors receiving warmth and welcome, not the snake alone.
- Identify “Melita” as Malta; explain “barbarous people” as outsiders to Greek language and culture, not people lacking humanity or kindness.
- Gloss “fetched a compass” in 28:13 as taking a roundabout course and “hired house” in 28:30 as rented accommodation.
- Map Syracuse, Rhegium, Puteoli, and Rome; mark the believers meeting Paul in 28:15.
- Read Isaiah 6:9–10 before teaching 28:25–27; retain both the severe warning and the explicit statement that some hearers believe.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Read Acts 28:15–16, 23–24, 30–31: Paul receives encouragement, lives under guard, encounters mixed responses, and teaches visitors for two whole years.
Scripture-supported
Compare Acts 28:20, 23 with Acts 26:6–8, 22–23: Paul presents Jesus through Israel’s hope, Moses, and the prophets rather than announcing an unrelated message.
Strong inference
Infer from Acts 28:30–31 that the ending emphasizes continuing proclamation more than a completed biography; the teaching is described, while the trial’s outcome is not.
Possible or traditional reading
Identify the traditional reconstruction of release followed by a later imprisonment. Acts 28:30–31 itself ends after two years of teaching and does not narrate that proposed sequence.
Limit
State that Acts 28:3–6 neither identifies the viper’s species nor commands deliberate snake handling, and 28:31 supplies no verdict, release account, or death account.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. How do the islanders move from welcoming Paul to calling him a murderer and then a god?
What a good answer contains
Their kindness stays the same while their explanations swing. They “shewed us no little kindness”, kindling a fire in the rain and cold (28:2). When the viper fastens on Paul’s hand they say “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live” (28:4). When he suffers no harm, “they changed their minds, and said that he was a god” (28:6). A good answer sees that the Book of Acts reports both verdicts without endorsing either; Paul is neither.
Show teacher guidance
Trace 28:2–6. Their kindness is real, but their explanations change with appearances. Distinguish their conclusions from the Book of Acts endorsing those conclusions.
2. What passes between the travelers and the island community after the rescue?
What a good answer contains
Gifts flow both ways. Publius, the chief man of the island, “received us, and lodged us three days courteously” (28:7). Paul prays, lays hands on Publius’s sick father and heals him, and then others with diseases come and are healed (28:8-9). The islanders “honoured us with many honours; and when we departed, they laded us with such things as were necessary” (28:10). A strong answer sees hospitality, prayer, healing and provision exchanged. A weak answer makes the islanders mere receivers.
Show teacher guidance
Use 28:7–10: hospitality, prayer and healing, honor, and necessary provisions. Avoid describing the islanders only as passive recipients.
3. What happens when Paul sees the believers who have come to meet him?
What a good answer contains
He is strengthened. Believers come from Rome as far as Appii forum and the Three Taverns to meet him, “whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage” (28:15). After the storm, the shipwreck and years in custody, the apostle needs encouragement and receives it. A good answer sees that God strengthens his servants through his people. A weak answer assumes Paul was beyond needing anyone, which the verse contradicts.
Show teacher guidance
Read 28:15. He thanks God and takes courage; correct any assumption that an apostle has no need of human encouragement.
4. Why does Paul say he is wearing this chain?
What a good answer contains
For the hope of Israel. He tells the Jewish leaders in Rome that he has committed nothing “against the people, or customs of our fathers” (28:17), that the Romans would have released him (28:18), and that he appealed to Caesar “not that I had ought to accuse my nation of” (28:19). Then “for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain” (28:20). A good answer sees that Paul presents his faith in Jesus as the fulfilment of Israel’s hope, not as an attack on his people.
Show teacher guidance
Read 28:17–20: identify Israel’s hope and Paul’s denial of wrongdoing; do not make his defense an attack upon all Jewish people.
5. How do the day’s teaching and the Isaiah quotation fit the divided response?
What a good answer contains
The teaching is long and full, and the response divides. Paul “expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening” (28:23). “And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not” (28:24). He then quotes Isaiah 6 about hearing without understanding, words spoken to Israel by its own prophet. A strong answer keeps the believers in view and reads the warning as addressed to resistant hearing.
Show teacher guidance
Follow 28:23–28. Some believe and others do not; the warning addresses resistant hearing. Reject the claim that the chapter reports unanimous Jewish unbelief.
6. What is restricted at the end, and what continues openly?
What a good answer contains
His freedom is restricted, but the word is not. He lives “by himself with a soldier that kept him” (28:16). Yet he “dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him” (28:30-31). A good answer sees the chain and the open door together, and does not invent the result of his trial, which the Book of Acts does not tell.
Show teacher guidance
Set the guard in 28:16 beside the welcome and teaching in 28:30–31. Paul’s circumstances are constrained, yet proclamation continues; do not supply an unreported trial outcome.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Evaluate a fictional observer who treats someone’s misfortune as proof of guilt, using the islanders’ changing verdicts in 28:4–6.
Relationships and community
Plan a practical welcome for displaced travelers, drawing on the fire, hospitality, provisions, and personal encouragement in 28:2, 7, 10, 15.
An open door within limits
Draft an accessible teaching arrangement for someone with restricted movement; avoid treating confinement as an obligation to remain constantly productive.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
45 minutes
The viper
Read 28:1-6 and take question one and the confusion about the islanders’ verdict.
Healing on Malta
Read 28:7-10 and take question two.
The road to Rome
Read 28:11-16 and take question three. Ask who has come to meet you when you needed it.
The hope of Israel
Read 28:17-22 and take question four.
A divided response
Read 28:23-29. Take question five and the confusion about Isaiah, with care.
No man forbidding him
Read 28:30-31 and take question six.
Handout
Read the key verse together and pray for the gospel to keep going unhindered.
90 minutes
Opening
Ask the group how they would want the Book of Acts to end, before reading how it does.
The viper
Read 28:1-6 with 14:11-15. Take question one and the confusion about the islanders.
Healing on Malta
Read 28:7-10 and take question two. Ask what kindness believers receive from people outside the church.
The road to Rome
Read 28:11-16 with 23:11 and 27:24. Take question three.
The hope of Israel
Read 28:17-22 and take question four.
A divided response
Read 28:23-29 with Isaiah 6:9-10 and Romans 11:1-2. Take question five and the Isaiah confusion.
No man forbidding him
Read 28:30-31 and Philippians 1:12-14. Take question six and the confusions about the ending and about being under guard.
Handout and response
Read the key verse together, return to 1:8, and ask each learner where their own witness might go next.
Adapting the lesson
Children
Light a pretend fire with paper flames and let children gather sticks with Paul. Use a toy snake that bites and is shaken off into the fire, and let the children see that Paul is fine because God was taking care of him. Then walk to Rome and have friends come out to meet him. End with Paul in a little house with a soldier, happily telling everyone about Jesus.
Youth
Ask how quickly people online decide someone is a villain or a hero, and read 28:4-6. Then the friends who came to meet Paul in 28:15: ask who has encouraged them when they were worn out. Finish with the open ending in 28:30-31 and ask what it means that the book stops while the work goes on, and that they are part of what comes next.
Adults
Read the closing chapter as the end of the whole book. Trace how God’s promise in 23:11 has been kept through storms, officials and ordinary kindness. Give careful time to 28:23-28 and to Paul’s respect for his people, reading Romans 9 to 11 alongside. Discuss the open ending and what it says to the church now. Ask what unhindered witness might look like in your own setting.
One to one
Ask whether the person feels limited by their circumstances: illness, work, family or age. Read 28:16 and 28:30-31 together and notice how much Paul did from one rented house. If they are discouraged, read 28:15 and ask who could come to meet them, or whom they could go to meet. Pray for an open door in whatever house they live in.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Acts 28
The passage in brief
After the shipwreck everyone lands on the island of Malta, where the people welcome them kindly. A viper bites Paul but he is unharmed, and he heals many sick people on the island. After three months they sail on to Rome, where believers come out to meet Paul and encourage him. In Rome Paul lives under guard, and he explains to the Jewish leaders that he is in chains for the hope of Israel. For two years he welcomes everyone and boldly teaches about Jesus, and no one stops him.
A verse to keep
And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.
Acts 28:30-31 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What did the islanders think about Paul in 28:4 and 28:6?
What did Paul do when the believers came to meet him in 28:15?
How does the Book of Acts end in 28:30-31?
This week
Open your home or your table to someone this week and tell them something about Jesus.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
