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. 17:12 Therefore many of them believed, along with quite a few 11 prominent 12 Greek women and men. 17:13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica 13 heard that Paul had also proclaimed the word of God 14 in Berea, 15 they came there too, inciting 16 and disturbing 17 the crowds. 17:14 Then the brothers sent Paul away to the coast 18 at once, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. 19 17:15 Those who accompanied Paul escorted him as far as Athens, 20 and after receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. 21
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.
4 tn Grk “These”; the referent (the Jews in the synagogue at Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
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.
6 sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).
map For location see JP1-C1; JP2-C1; JP3-C1; JP4-C1.
7 tn Or “willingly,” “readily”; Grk “with all eagerness.”
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.
9 tn This verb (BDAG 66 s.v. ἀνακρίνω 1) refers to careful examination.
10 tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.
11 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).
12 tn Or “respected.”
13 sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).
14 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.
15 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.
16 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.
17 tn Or “stirring up” (BDAG 990-91 s.v. ταράσσω 2). The point is the agitation of the crowds.
18 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).
19 tn Grk “remained there”; the referent (Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
20 map For location see JP1-C2; JP2-C2; JP3-C2; JP4-C2.
21 sn They left. See 1 Thess 3:1-2, which shows they went from here to Thessalonica.