Acts 28:8
What does Acts 28:8 mean?
A plain-English look at Acts 28:8 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Acts 28:8 means
Publius’s father lies sick with fever and dysentery. Paul enters, prays, lays hands on him, and he is healed. The sequence is instructive: prayer first, acknowledging God as the healer, then the laying on of hands as a means of ministry. This act echoes the compassion and power seen in Jesus’ and the apostles’ earlier works, signaling that the risen Lord continues His work through His servant. The healing is concrete, local, and personal, meeting a household’s need. Yet it also serves a wider purpose: God’s mercy to one becomes a testimony to many, opening hearts across the island to seek help from the God whom Paul proclaims.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000And it was so, that the father of Publius lay sick of fever and dysentery: unto whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laying his hands on him healed him.
KJV
King James Version · 1611And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901And it was so, that the father of Publius lay sick of fever and dysentery: unto whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laying his hands on him healed him.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949And the father of Publius was ill, with a disease of the stomach; to whom Paul went, and put his hands on him, with prayer, and made him well.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862and it came to pass, the father of Publius with feverish heats and dysentery pressed, was laid, unto whom Paul having entered, and having prayed, having laid <FI>his<Fi> hands on him, healed him;
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752And it happened that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux. To whom Paul entered in. And when he had prayed and laid his hands on him, he healed him.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890And it happened that the father of Publius lay ill of fever and dysentery; to whom Paul entered in, and having prayed and laid his hands on him cured him.
Context
Having been received by Publius (v. 7), Paul is now brought into contact with a pressing need in his host’s family. Verse 8 records the healing of Publius’s father, which provides a clear sign of God’s presence and favor. This event naturally leads to verse 9, where others hear and come for healing, multiplying the impact of God’s mercy and strengthening the survivors’ bond with the islanders ahead of their eventual departure (v. 10).
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Matthew 10:1
And he called unto him his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of disease and all manner of sickness.
- Matthew 10:8
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely ye received, freely give.
- Luke 4:40
And when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
- Mark 1:30
Now Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever; and straightway they tell him of her:
- 1 Corinthians 12:9
to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit;
- 1 Kings 17:20
And he cried unto Jehovah, and said, O Jehovah my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
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