Berea
Acts 17:10-15 KJV 10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and
Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue
of the Jews. 11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that
they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the
scriptures daily, whether those things were so. 12 Therefore many of them
believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not
a few. 13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word
of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred
up the people. 14 And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go
as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. 15 And
they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a
commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all
speed, they departed.
Introduction
Beroea (or Berea) was an ancient city of the Hellenistic period and Roman Empire now known as Veria (or Veroia) in Macedonia, Northern Greece. It is a small city on the eastern side of the Vermio Mountains north of Mount Olympus. The town is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as a place in which the apostles Paul, Silas and Timothy preached the Christian Gospel.
Berea was in southwestern Macedonia. The city's foundation stood where Veria, or Kar-Verria, in Greece is today. It’s a unique position that has had a variety of terrain surrounding the city since then.
Berea sat at the base of Mount Bermius, which is part of the Vermio Mountains and provides an ample supply of water for the city and the region. The main sources of water were the Haliacmon and Axios Rivers, which supported apple, peach and pear orchards. The area is prosperous 123
with a hydroelectric dam on the Haliacmon powering the area's industrial sector.
Paul, Silas, and Timothy traveled to Beroea by night after fleeing from Thessalonica, as recorded in Acts 17:10. They 'immediately' went to the synagogue to preach, and the Beroeans were accepting; the writer of the Acts of the Apostles noted the difference between the Thessalonians'
response to the gospel and the Beroeans' response: the Beroeans were 'open-minded' or 'fair-minded' and willing to 'examine the scriptures to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth'.[7] Many of the Beroeans believed, both men and women, but when the Jewish Thessalonian non-believers heard about that, they came to Beroea; stirred up crowds; started riots and ensured that Paul, Silas, and Timothy could not preach. Then, the believers sent Paul to the coast while Timothy and Silas stayed behind. Paul was taken to Athens, and word was given to Timothy and Silas to join him as soon as possible. (Acts 17:10–15)
Paul and Silas ministered to the Jewish community of Beroea around 54 and 55 A.D. The two men had been driven out of the city of Thessalonica by an angry mob for spreading the gospel there. Paul and Silas made their journey from Thessalonica to Beroea by night (Acts 17:10). It is also said that Timothy, a student of Paul, joined him during the journey to Beroea. The people of Beroea were more accepting than the people of Thessalonica of the message from the Apostle and his companions. The community was said to consider carefully what they learned from Paul before truly believing it (Acts 17:11–12).
After Paul, Silas and the other members of their group had spent several days in Beroea, some Jews from Thessalonica got word that Paul and Silas were preaching in Beroea and stirred up trouble, and Paul was again forced to leave. Some members of the congregation helped Paul to get to Athens, but Silas and Timothy stayed in Beroea, then later caught up with Paul in the city of Corinth (Acts 18:5). Later, Sopater of Berea joined Paul on his journey (Acts 20:4). It is said that Sopater was ordered by a delegation from 124
Beroea to go to Judea with funds that would help the needy of that region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beroea
Berea
Because of the very hostile Jews in Thessalonica, Paul and Silas were unable to remain in Thessalonica any longer. Different Bible Scholars have different opinions but they may have stayed from three weeks to three months in Thessalonica. They are set on their way to Berea. It would have been rash and useless to continue there because of the circumstances. That the church there remained and grew is a testimony to the strength of the church. Paul would later write two letters to the church. He also had a strong desire to return to them, as he expressed in 1 Thessalonians 2:17.
Paul and Silas left Thessalonica during the night. Berea is approximately fifty miles southwest of Thessalonica. It does appear that Timothy rejoined them on their way to Berea. Berea is located on the same road that leads to Athens, which would be the next city to which they would travel. It is located some fifty miles southwest of Thessalonica. This would necessitate approximately two and a half days journey to Berea.
Again, Paul and Silas, and now Timothy, went to the local synagogue, as was their custom. It was probably in the early afternoon that they arrived at the synagogue. The Bereans did not necessarily believe the preaching and teaching of the team. Verse eleven states that they were more noble than the Thessalonians in that they searched the scriptures to if the things they were being told by Paul and company were true. This is a great commendation to the Bereans. God’s people should use them as an example for doing the same. Just because a preacher or teacher uses the Bible and gives the sense of it, it is the responsibility of the individual to determine whether or not what is presented to them is the truth according to the scriptures. They were very efficient in researching the law, prophets, and Psalms. They were honest inquirers of the truth. It was not done just out of curiosity.
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Verse twelve reveals to us that there were many who believed. One sector of the members of the synagogue were honorable Greek women. There were many men that also believed.
As at Thessalonica, here in Berea the work and witness of the apostles extended beyond the synagogues. Sopater is the only Berean, however, specially named as a witnessing believer there, Acts 20:4.1
It was not long that it happened in Berea as in so many other places and times, the rabid Thessalonian apostate Jews heard of the preaching and teaching of Paul and his companions and the success of the Gospel. Once again, they stirred up the population of the city. The new brethren of the new church in Berea sent Paul away, not because they wanted to, but for Paul’s own safety. While other brethren spirited Paul away to Athens, Silas and Timothy remained in Berea to minister to the church there. There is no way of determining just how long Paul was able to minister in Berea but regardless of the length of time, the results of the Gospel were very evident.
Paul would later commend the Bereans for their faithfulness to the Word of God and how they searched to prove their preachers and teachers were truthful.
1 Albert Garner, Power Bible CD, his comments on Acts 17:12
Acts 17:15-21 KJV 15 And they that conducted Paul brought him unto
Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to
come to him with all speed, they departed. 16 Now while Paul waited for
them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly
given to idolatry. 17 Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the
Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that
met with him. 18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the
Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say?
other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he
preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. 19 And they took him,
and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new
doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? 20 For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. 21
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(For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in
nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
Athens
Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years.
Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city
of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations
of Western civilization.
There is evidence that the site on which the Acropolis ('high city') stands was first inhabited in the Neolithic period, perhaps as a defensible settlement, around the end of the fourth millennium BC or a little later. The site is a natural defensive position which commands the surrounding plains.
It is located about 20 km (12 mi) inland from the Saronic Gulf, in the centre of the Cephisian Plain, a fertile valley surrounded by rivers. To the east lies Mount Hymettus, to the north Mount Pentelicus. Ancient Athens, in the first millennium BC, occupied a very small area compared to the
sprawling metropolis of modern Greece. The ancient walled
city encompassed an area measuring about 2 km (1.25 mi)
from east to west and slightly less than that from north to south, although at its peak the ancient city had suburbs extending well beyond these walls. The Acropolis was
situated just south of the centre of this walled area.
The Agora, the commercial and social centre of the city, lay
about 400 m (1,300 ft) north of the Acropolis, in what is now the Monastiraki district. The hill of the Pnyx, where the Athenian Assembly met, lay at the western end of the city.
The Eridanus (Ηριδανός) river flowed through the city.
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One of the most important religious sites in ancient Athens
was the Temple of Athena, known today as the Parthenon,
which stood on top of the Acropolis, where its evocative ruins still stand. Two other major religious sites, the Temple of Hephaestus (which is still largely intact) and the Temple
of Olympian Zeus or Olympeion (once the largest temple in
mainland Greece but now in ruins) also lay within the city
walls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Athens
Paul at Athens
While Paul waited in Athens, he became disturbed at the sheer number of idols that were present in just the streets of the city. That did not include the Parthenon which was filled with idols. Supposedly there was an individual from Nero’s court that reported that it was “easier to find a god in Athens than a man.”2 Of course, the nature of Paul was to not just sit and observe this situation, but he began to act. He was not one to just sit around when there was something that he could do to take action against the prolific number of idols that were in the city. Therefore, he went to the synagogue to begin his efforts.
He would dispute with the devout people, meaning those that were faithful to Judaism but did not know Jesus, concerning the Scriptures. He would do this daily in the synagogue, and the marketplace (which was called the agora) with any who would listen and talk with him.
The agora (…meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Greek city-states. It is the best representation of a city-state's response to accommodate the social and political order of the polis.
The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly".
The agora was the center of the athletic, artistic, business, social, spiritual and political life in the city. The Ancient Agora of Athens is the best-known example.
Early in Greek history (13th–4th centuries BC), free-born citizens would gather in the agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king 128
or council. Later, the agora also served as a marketplace, where merchants kept stalls or shops to sell their goods amid colonnades. This attracted artisans who built workshops nearby.
From these twin functions of the agora as a political and a commercial spot came the two Greek verbs ἀγοράζω, agorázō, "I shop", and ἀγορεύω, agoreúō, "I speak in public".
The Ancient Agora of Athens was situated beneath the northern slope of the Acropolis. The Ancient Agora was the primary meeting ground for Athenians, where members of democracy congregated affairs of the state, where business was conducted, a place to hang out, and watch performers and listen to famous philosophers. The importance of the Athenian agora revolved around religion. The agora was a very sacred place, in which holiness is laid out in the architecture of the ground in which it lay upon.
The layout of the agora was centered around the Panathenaic Way, a road that ran through the middle of Athens and to the main gate of the city, Dipylon. This road was considered tremendously sacred, serving as a travel route for the Panathenaic festival, which was held in the honor of the goddess Athena every four years. The agora was also famously known for housing the Temple of Hephaestus, the Greek god of metalworking and craftsmen. This temple is still in great condition to this day. Other temples priorly standing in the agora include honor for Zeus, Athena, Apollo, and Ares.3
Conclusion
We will continue in the next part Paul’s encounter with the Epicureans and the Stoicks. We will also examine his message concerning the unknown god at Mars Hill.
2 Albert Garner, Power Bible CD, his comments on Acts 17:16
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agora
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