IN BEROEA
IN BEROEA
ACTS 17:10-15
You couldn’t have had a more attentive congregation that are a great example.
We have Paul’s later comment on the turn of events which made him rather suddenly have to quit Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:18). Possibly he would not have accepted the dismissal so tamely, but Jason had given his word to the magistrates (17:9) and he would abide by that.
So he came to Beroea, sixty miles away. Here the previous pattern of his ministry was repeated. His preaching was evidently conducted in no “take-it-or-leave-it” manner, for it encouraged people to investigate the Scriptures for themselves. Not surprisingly, when this happens, “many of them … believed” (17:12). Truth, personally sought out and discovered by us, is always more vital and dear than thoughts which are handed to us “on a plate.”
Meanwhile, the infant church at Thessalonica was facing much hardship (see 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2:14; 3:3) and yet it did not cease its witness to the gospel (1 Thessalonians 1:8). A later reference in that letter implies that persecution had caused the premature death of some believers (1 Thessalonians 4:13) and the Jewish leaders, determined to crush every outcropping of the church, moved on to Beroea (17:13).
Paul had to face fresh opposition from the Thessalonian Jews, and felt it wise to travel on to Athens, using Silas and Timothy as his delegates to encourage the believers in the place he had been forced to flee (17:15). So much is clear, but it is very likely (from 1 Thessalonians) that Paul had to meet another kind of insinuation. Perhaps he had been accused of cowardice and running away from danger, or of double-dealing, by staying at Thessalonica only long enough to get a money-gift from Philippi, and then quickly moving on, hoping to collect more subscriptions from rich ladies en route. So he seeks to vindicate his character and to account for his actions in the Thessalonian letters. And, to make matters worse, he couldn’t come in person to Thessalonica while the promise and pledge given by Jason was still in force. So he sent two men as his personal representatives.
Notes 17:11: “noble”—in their attitude to the message? Yet Paul never hints at a defect in Thessalonica. The Greek can mean “more generous”: can it refer to their support of the missionaries by gifts? Hence the defense (in 1 Thessalonians 2:5,9-10) of being disinterested and above-board. 17:14: cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:1ff.