“Success” in Berea

Acts 17:10-14 success in Berea followed by opposition

Verse 10: The believing brethren in Thessalonica dispatched the preaching disciples by night, for their safety. They made their way to Berea (the modern town of Veria), a distance of about 45-50 miles. G. Campbell Morgan wrote of the Bereans, “…they lived on the byway, and not on the highway.”[1] In 55 BC Cicero described Berea as “in oppidum devium Beroeam.”[2] This is variously translated into English as it being a town “out of your road” (C. D. Yonge), “off your road” (N. H. Watts), “off the beaten track/path” (E. M. Blaiklock), or “out of the way” (Morgan). The Lord sends his servants into the highways, the byways, and the hedges.

Undeterred by his experience in Thessalonica, Paul set about, as was his custom, preaching in the synagogue of the Jews at Berea. The Berean Jews “were more noble than those in Thessalonica.” Unlike the Jews in Thessalonica, rather than move with envy and stir trouble, they set about to compare the reasoning of Paul with the scriptures. The result was that, unlike the Jews in Thessalonica, many of them believed.[3]

Acts 17, verses 10-11 is a text often colored by reading through the lens of modern glasses. Some picture diligent Berean church members in the privacy of their homes poring over their bound printed editions of the Holy Bible. Only these were not church members; and they weren’t necessarily in their homes; and they didn’t have personal print editions of the Bible.[4] This is a synagogue scenario.

Verse 11: “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica” The Bereans were not more noble than the Thessalonian believers.[5] This is not a comparison of Berean believers to Thessalonian believers. Neither is it a comparison of Berean believers to Thessalonian Jews. It is a comparison of the Jews in the synagogue of Berea to the Jews in the synagogue at Thessalonica. Their nobility accepted the authority of the word of God, and sought in it the confirmation or contradiction of the things taught by Paul and Silas.

The Jews in Berea were more noble than those in Thessalonica.[6]

• Because the Jews in Berea received the word with all readiness of mind
• The Bereans received the word with an eager inclination to know what was true, rather than be skeptical fault-finders.
• Because the Jews in Berea searched the scriptures daily, whether the alleged things were so
• The Bereans investigated the apostle’s message, examining the very scriptures from which Paul opened and alleged Jesus is Christ, comparing scripture with scripture daily (not haphazardly or nonchalantly), to ascertain whether the words of the apostle matched the words of God.   

As a result, the Jews in Berea – many of them – believed. “Therefore” in verse 12 looks back to their nobility, their readiness, their inquiry – preferring that disposition and its results above that of the Thessalonians. One believer in Berea was Sopater (cf. Acts 20:4).[7]

The truth of God does not ask that people suspend their disbelief to receive robotically a word that they have never heard. It dares them to “search the scriptures” which they have, and in which they may or may not think they have eternal life, in which they can find that Jesus is truly God’s Messiah.

Verse 12: Compare “many” Bereans versus “some” Thessalonians (v. 4). In both towns they had similar success among the Gentiles, but the inroads among the Jews in Thessalonica and Berea was markedly different.

Verse 13: News reached the Jews of Thessalonica that the message of Jesus Christ was preached in Berea. Undeterred by the distance of about 50 miles, they trekked to Berea to bring resistance there. They went a long way to stir up trouble!

Verse 14: The stir created by the Thessalonian Jews aroused the believers in Berea to devise a plan to send Paul by ship to Athens, while Silas and Timothy remained in Macedonia. It is perhaps at this time that Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica, and Silas perhaps stayed at Berea. Compare Paul’s statement about Timothy in I Thessalonians 3:1-2.

---

[1] Morgan, The Acts of the Apostles, New York, NY: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1924, p. 404.
[2] Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 –43 BC), Roman lawyer, philosopher, and politician, in his speech In Pisonem (Against Piso), chapter 36. See https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/piso.shtml. According to Cicero, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus (a Roman senator and the father-in-law of Julius Caesar) refuged in Berea from restless complaints against his political service because it was located off the main road. Since it was an invective speech, it may contain numerous exaggerations. The primary distinction regarding Berea may have been that it was not on the main east-west road Via Egnatia (Egnatian Way), not that it was insignificant.
[3] “…also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.” v. 12.
[4] While avoiding anachronistic reading, we must also avoid the other extreme, in which no one of the time had or owned reading material, or ever read privately. Individuals did have copies of scripture, and they did read scripture outside the synagogue. See how Acts 8:27-28 illustrates that fact. Also, non-Christians owned and used reading material. For this, compare Acts 19:19.
[5] For the church at Thessalonica beginning in “much affliction,” see I Thessalonians 1:6-8.
[6] eugenesteroi/ευγενεστεροι/well born/of a noble family/noble minded – distinguished, here not by rank or title, but distinguished by good character or superior qualities.
[7] Possibly the same person as Sosipater mentioned in Romans 16:21.