“The City of Berea” from the lesson series Grab Your Passport, April 2021
our Scripture
As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea.
| Acts 17:10-15 ESV | |||
| NIV
Acts 17:10-15 NIV |
NASB
Acts 17:10-15 NASB |
NLT
Acts 17:10-15 NLT |
MESSAGE
Acts 17:10-15 MESSAGE |
Other Scripture references:
2 Timothy 2:15
Hebrews 4:12
Joshua 1:8
Revelation 1:3
Romans 15:4
Psalm 119:15-16
Psalm 119:47-48
2 Timothy 3:16-17
our Lessons
The turmoil in Thessalonica causes our travelers to leave the main east-west thoroughfare and travel southwest some 50 miles to Berea. Because of its close proximity to the major political strongholds of Thessalonica and Philippi, road ways to Berea were strong and travel was safe. The brothers in Thessalonica escorted Paul and his friends to Berea, perhaps thinking that leaving the main highway would throw off the scent from the Jewish bloodhounds who were dogging Paul every step of the way.
When Paul first set out with his companions to travel from east to west along the Egnatian Way, it is quite probable that he had his sights set on Rome as the final destination. We know from his letter to the Roman Christians, written about seven years from this point in the journey, that he had often intended to visit them but had been prevented from doing so (Romans 1:13; 15:22). If this is one of those occasions, the brothers from Thessalonica may have given Paul little choice, though Paul seems difficult to dissuade once his mind is set. It is possible that he did not want to head to Rome with the stigma of subversion hanging over his head so he chose to wait until the charges from Thessalonica began to fade. It was about this time, however, that an edict from Claudius expelled the Jewish community from the city of Rome (c AD49 ). This would have deprived him of his “custom” of presenting the gospel first to the Jewish population. It also would have created a personal spotlight, because although a Roman citizen, his Jewish heritage would have caused him to constantly be proving his citizenship, much the way a twenty-one year old has to show proof of age today. God’s hand can be seen even in this edict, as only a month or two later, when Paul comes to Corinth he will find there two of those recently expelled from Rome who will become his faithful, lifelong friends.
In Berea Paul found a little different flavor of people receiving his message. Probably because it was closer to the intellectual center of the Greek world, Athens, the Bereans were eager to be challenged mentally with new, more complete understandings of the Scripture. Luke describes them as more “fair-minded” than those farther north in Thessalonica. They eagerly drank in all that Paul was presenting. They searched daily through the Scriptures just to make sure what Paul was saying was true. Had anything that Paul offered been found to lack biblical basis, Paul wouldn’t have been run out of town, but he would have lost access to their minds.
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