Burnishing Bigotry - 3rd edition

Daniel #067: Next you state that, ―After it was lit Paul went over to the fire to stir it
with a piece of wood, and a viper came out from the fire and coiled itself around his hand and bit
it. Paul then shook the serpent back into the fire where it came from. And here is the amazing
part: Luke was so amazed and said that it was as if the bite had no effect on him at all.‖
Dan, folks survive poisonous snake bites by the 1000’s every year (and quite a few of
those survivors are not Christians). As such, this tale – even if it is an accurate one – is not nearly
as remarkable as you make it sound. Indeed, if the event in question happened on the island of
Malta (as more than a few scholars contend), then the snake that bit Paul would have most probably
been a Leopard Snake (zamenis situla) – a species that happens to be non-poisonous (which
would explain why it was seen ―hanging from his hand‖ in Acts 28:4 – a behavior uncommon to
venomous retiles, who prefer to strike, inject their venom, and then retreat). Indeed, there is not a
single recorded species of Maltese snake that would have caused Paul to ―swell up, fall down
and die‖ (Acts 28:6) …
Of course, it is possible that Paul was not on the island of Malta at all, but had rather
landed on the island of Melita in the Adriatic Sea (see Acts 27:27). This island is indeed still
home to this day to the dreaded Nose-Horned Viper (vipera ammodytes), the bite of which does
indeed cause symptoms reminiscent of those mentioned in Acts 28. And yet even if this was the
case it is not necessarily miraculous for one to survive such an attack. Indeed, over 30,000
people are bitten by snakes every year in Europe alone, and on average less than 30 of those
victims die from those bites.
As far as the report that Paul suffered no symptoms whatsoever from this supposedly
venomous encounter (again, see Acts 28:6), Dr. Steve Johnson (associate professor at University of
Florida‘s Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation) notes that this could be easily explained by
the fact that 20-25% of all pit-viper bites are ―dry bites‖ – a venomless attack where the snake in
question chooses to conserve its venom and defend itself only via teeth & terror.
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