Acts 17:10-11

Paul and Silas at Berea

17:10 The brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea ¹  at once, during the night. When they arrived, ²  they went to the Jewish synagogue. ³  17:11 These Jews ⁴  were more open-minded ⁵  than those in Thessalonica, ⁶  for they eagerly ⁷  received ⁸  the message, examining ⁹  the scriptures carefully every day ¹⁰  to see if these things were so.

[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.

[17:10]  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.

[17:10]  ³ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[17:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “These”; the referent (the Jews in the synagogue at Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:11]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).

[17:11]  ⁷ tn Or “willingly,” “readily”; Grk “with all eagerness.”

[17:11]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn This verb (BDAG 66 s.v. ἀνακρίνω 1) refers to careful examination.

[17:11]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.