Text -- Acts 17:10-15 (NET)

Paul and Silas at Berea

17:10 The brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea at once, during the night. When they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 17:11 These Jews were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they eagerly received the message, examining the scriptures carefully every day to see if these things were so. 17:12 Therefore many of them believed, along with quite a few prominent Greek women and men. 17:13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica heard that Paul had also proclaimed the word of God in Berea, they came there too, inciting and disturbing the crowds. 17:14 Then the brothers sent Paul away to the coast at once, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. 17:15 Those who accompanied Paul escorted him as far as Athens, and after receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Act 17:10

¹ sn Berea (alternate spelling in NRSV Beroea; Greek Beroia) was a very old city in Macedonia on the river Astraeus about 45 mi (75 km) west of Thessalonica.

map For location see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

² tn Grk “who arriving there, went to.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative pronoun (οἵτινες, Joitine") has been left untranslated and a new English sentence begun. The participle παραγενόμενοι (paragenomenoi) has been taken temporally.

³ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

NET Notes: Act 17:11

¹ tn Grk “These”; the referent (the Jews in the synagogue at Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Or “more willing to learn.” L&N 27.48 and BDAG 404 s.v. εὐγενής 2 both use the term “open-minded” here. The point is that they were more receptive to Paul’s message.

³ sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).

map For location see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

⁴ tn Or “willingly,” “readily”; Grk “with all eagerness.”

⁵ tn Grk “who received.” Here the relative pronoun (“who”) has been translated as a pronoun (“they”) preceded by a semicolon, which is less awkward in contemporary English than a relative clause at this point.

⁶ tn This verb (BDAG 66 s.v. ἀνακρίνω 1) refers to careful examination.

⁷ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.

NET Notes: Act 17:12

¹ tn Grk “not a few”; this use of negation could be misleading to the modern English reader, however, and so has been translated as “quite a few” (which is the actual meaning of the expression).

² tn Or “respected.”

NET Notes: Act 17:13

¹ sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).

² tn Grk “that the word of God had also been proclaimed by Paul.” This passive construction has been converted to an active one in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ sn Berea (alternate spelling in NRSV Beroea; Greek Beroia) was a very old city in Macedonia on the river Astraeus about 45 mi (75 km) from Thessalonica.

⁴ tn BDAG 911 s.v. σαλεύω 2 has “incite” for σαλεύοντες (saleuonte") in Acts 17:13.

sn Inciting. Ironically, it was the Jews who were disturbing the peace, not the Christians.

⁵ tn Or “stirring up” (BDAG 990-91 s.v. ταράσσω 2). The point is the agitation of the crowds.

NET Notes: Act 17:14

¹ tn Grk “to the sea.” Here ἕως ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν ({ew" epi thn qalassan) must mean “to the edge of the sea,” that is, “to the coast.” Since there is no mention of Paul taking a ship to Athens, he presumably traveled overland. The journey would have been about 340 mi (550 km).

² tn Grk “remained there”; the referent (Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Act 17:15

¹ map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

² sn They left. See 1 Thess 3:1-2, which shows they went from here to Thessalonica.