Acts 28:5

Howbeit he shook off the creature into the fire, and took no harm. But they expected that he would have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly; but when they were long in expectation and beheld nothing amiss come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.

The intelligence and understanding of such native peoples as those of Malta make it impossible to believe that they were mistaken regarding the deadly nature of the snake that bit Paul. It is preposterous to suppose that Paul's being snakebit was the only case of such a thing that the people had ever seen! The critics who delight in rationalizing all of the New Testament miracles will have to come up with something better than a denial that this snake was poisonous.

Shook ... into the fire ... People who are impressed with efforts to impose humane methods of killing rattlesnakes in Texas should take note of this. Burning the viper alive appeared to Paul as a suitable form of extermination; and none of the people who had to contend with such reptiles complained of it.

Changed their minds ... said he was a god ... This is a strange reversal of what had happened at Lystra (Acts 14:12ff), where Paul was first hailed as a god, and later stoned. The carnal man loves extremes, either worshiping himself in the person of his heroes, or by killing those who do not conform to his prejudices.

Before leaving this, we cannot resist including the homely comment of McGarvey:

Paul was not a preacher after the style of a modern clergyman, who is particular not to soil his hands with menial labor, expects everybody to be ready to serve him, while he preserves his dignity and looks on.[8]