Acts 17:1

Paul and Silas at Thessalonica

17:1 After they traveled through ¹  Amphipolis ²  and Apollonia, ³  they came to Thessalonica, ⁴  where there was a Jewish synagogue. ⁵ 

Acts 17:10-11

Paul and Silas at Berea

17:10 The brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea ⁶  at once, during the night. When they arrived, ⁷  they went to the Jewish synagogue. ⁸  17:11 These Jews ⁹  were more open-minded ¹⁰  than those in Thessalonica, ¹¹  for they eagerly ¹²  received ¹³  the message, examining ¹⁴  the scriptures carefully every day ¹⁵  to see if these things were so.

Acts 17:15

17:15 Those who accompanied Paul escorted him as far as Athens, ¹⁶  and after receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. ¹⁷ 

[17:1]  ¹ tn BDAG 250 s.v. διοδεύω 1 has “go, travel through” for this verse.

[17:1]  ² sn Amphipolis. The capital city of the southeastern district of Macedonia (BDAG 55 s.v. ᾿Αμφίπολις). It was a military post. From Philippi this was about 33 mi (53 km).

[17:1]  ³ sn Apollonia was a city in Macedonia about 27 mi (43 km) west southwest of Amphipolis.

[17:1]  ⁴ sn Thessalonica (modern Salonica) was a city in Macedonia about 33 mi (53 km) west of Apollonia. It was the capital of Macedonia. The road they traveled over was called the Via Egnatia. It is likely they rode horses, given their condition in Philippi. The implication of v. 1 is that the two previously mentioned cities lacked a synagogue.

[17:1]  ⁵ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[17:10]  ⁶ 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.

[17:10]  ⁷ 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.

[17:10]  ⁸ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[17:11]  ⁹ tn Grk “These”; the referent (the Jews in the synagogue at Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:11]  ¹⁰ 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.

[17:11]  ¹¹ sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).

[17:11]  ¹² tn Or “willingly,” “readily”; Grk “with all eagerness.”

[17:11]  ¹³ 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.

[17:11]  ¹⁴ tn This verb (BDAG 66 s.v. ἀνακρίνω 1) refers to careful examination.

[17:11]  ¹⁵ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.

[17:15]  ¹⁶ map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[17:15]  ¹⁷ sn They left. See 1 Thess 3:1-2, which shows they went from here to Thessalonica.