Acts 28:6

“Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, etc.] With the venomous bite of the viper; swelling is one of the symptoms following the bite of this creature; and if the bite does not issue in death, yet the swelling continues inflamed for some time. The symptoms following the bite of a viper are said to be f1335 an acute pain in the place wounded; swelling, first red, afterwards livid, spreading by degrees; great faintness; a quick, low, and sometimes interrupted pulse; sickness at the stomach; bilious convulsions: vomiting; cold sweats; sometimes pains about the navel; and death itself, if the strength of the patient, or the slightness of the bite, do not overcome it: if he does overcome…”

“they looked--"continued looking." when he should have swollen or fallen down dead--familiar with the effects of such bites. and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said . . . he was a god--from "a murderer" to "a god," as the Lycaonian greeting of Paul and Silas from "sacrificing to them" to "stoning them" (Act 14:13, Act 14:19). What has not the Gospel done for the uncultivated portion of the human family, while its effects on the educated and refined, though very different, are not less marvellous! Verily it is God's chosen restorative for the human spirit, in all the multitudinous forms and gradations of its lapsed state.”

“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 -…”

“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. Acts 28:7”

“said: Act 12:22, Act 14:11-13; Mat 21:9, Mat 27:22 Acts 28:7”