Acts 17:13

But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) They came thither also, and stirred up the people.—To the unbelieving Jews of Thessalonica the conversions at Berœa were simply a cause of offence. It is apparently with reference to this that St. Paul says of them that “they please not God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles” (1Thessalonians 2:15).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:10-15 The Jews in Berea applied seriously to the study of the word preached unto them. They not only heard Paul preach on the sabbath, but daily searched the Scriptures, and compared what they read with the facts related to them. The doctrine of Christ does not fear inquiry; advocates for his cause desire no more than that people will fully and fairly examine whether things are so or not. Those are truly noble, and likely to be more and more so, who make the Scriptures their rule, and consult them accordingly. May all the hearers of the gospel become like those of Berea, receiving the word with readiness of mind, and searching the Scriptures daily, whether the things preached to them are so.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Stirred up the people - The word used here σαλεύειν saleuein denotes properly "to agitate" or "excite," as the waves of the sea are agitated by the wind. It is with great beauty used to denote the "agitation and excitement of a popular tumult," from its resemblance to the troubled waves of the ocean. The figure is often employed by the Classic writers, and also occurs in the Scriptures. See Psalm 65:7; Isaiah 17:12-13; Jeremiah 46:7-8.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. the Jews of Thessalonica … came thither also—"like hunters upon their prey, as they had done before from Iconium to Lystra" [Howson].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

As the waves are stirred with the wind; a fit metaphor to represent the fickle multitude by, that, as the sea, now rolls one way, then another; or as tottering buildings, that shake with every wind.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But when the Jews of Thessalonica,.... The unbelieving Jews there,

had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea; which they came at, either by persons that came from thence to Thessalonica, or by letters sent them:

they came thither also; as the Jews from Antioch and Iconium came to Lystra on a like account, Acts 14:19

and stirred up the people; the common people, the natives of the place, against the apostles; suggesting that they were wicked men, and enemies to all laws, human or divine, civil or religious.

Geneva Study Bible

{6} But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.

(6) Satan has his who are zealous for him, and those who one would least suspect.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Acts 17:13-15. Κἀκεῖ] is to be connected, not with ἦλθον (so that then the usual attraction would take place; see on Matthew 2:22), but with σαλεύοντες for not the coming, but the σαλεύειν, had formerly taken place elsewhere.

Acts 17:14. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away (from the city), that he might journey ὡς ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν. Neither here nor elsewhere is ὡς redundant, but it indicates the definitely conceived purpose of the direction, which he had to take toward the sea (the Thermaic gulf). See Winer, p. 573 f. [E. T. 771]; Hermann, ad Philoct. 56; Ellendt, lex Soph. II. p. 1004. Others (Beza, Piscator, Grotius, Er. Schmid, Bengel, Olshausen, Neander, Lange) render it: as if toward the sea; so that, in order to escape the snares, they took the road toward the sea only apparently, and then turned to the land-route. But in that case Luke, if he wished to be understood, would not have failed to add a remark counter to the mere semblance of the πορ. ἐπὶ τ. θάλ., especially as in what follows nothing necessarily points to a Journey by land to Athens.[61]

ὁ Τιμόθ.] Where Timothy, supposing him to have remained behind at Philippi (see on Acts 16:40), again fell in with Paul and Silas, is uncertain.

ἐκεί] in Beroea.

Acts 17:15. καθιστάναι to bring to the spot; then, to transport, to escort one.[62] Horn. Od. xiii. 274: τούς μʼ ἐκέλευσα Πύλονσε (thus also by ship) καταστῆσαι. Thuc. iv:78, vi:103. 3; Xen. Anal. iv. 8. 8.

ἵνα ὡς τάχιστα κ.τ.λ.] See Acts 18:5, according to which, however, they only joined Paul at Corinth. But this, as regards Timothy, is an incorrect statement, as is clearly evident from 1 Thessalonians 3:1,—a point which is to be acknowledged, and not to be smoothed over by harmonistic combinations (such as Otto, Pastoralbr. p. 61 f., makes) which do not tally with any of the two statements. See Lüinemann on 1 Thessalonians 3:1. According to Baumgarten, Luke has only mentioned the presence of the two companions again with Paul (Acts 18:5) when their co-operation could again take an effective part in the diffusion of the Gospel But it is not their being together, but their coming together, that is narrated in Acts 18:5.

[61] Erasmus correctly observes: “probabilius est eum navigavisse … quia nulla fit mentio eorum, quae P. in itinere gesserit, cui fuerint tot civitates peragrandae.”

[62] Not: who brought him in safety (Beza and others).

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 17:13. οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Θ. Ἰ.: as before in the first journey, the bitter and enduring malice of the Jews followed Paul from one place to another, and the use of his name alone shows that he was their chief aim.—κἀκεῖ: the word is often taken with σαλεύοντες, for it was not their advent which had happened previously, but their incitement to risk against Paul, so Page, Weiss, Wendt, Rendall, etc.; on the word see above on Acts 14:7.—σαλεύοντες, cf. also for its figurative use 2 Thessalonians 2:2, very frequent in LXX, and sometimes in figurative sense, as often in the Psalms, cf. 1Ma 6:8, see above on Acts 2:25, and critical note on .

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. the word of God] The Thessalonian Jews would not have termed it so, to such an extent had prejudice and long training in the later Jewish teaching blinded their eyes. When Moses was read there was a vail over their hearts, and they saw not the glory.

and stirred up the people] In the oldest texts there are two verbs here, “stirring up and troubling the multitudes.” The first contains the figure of a storm at sea, where all is disturbed down to the very depths, a figure apt enough for the confusion which these men desired to create; the second verb is the same that occurs in Acts 17:8, and it is probable from this that the way in which the trouble was produced here was the same as there, by the statement that the Apostles were traitors to the Roman power. (For the figurative language cp. Isaiah 57:20.)

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 17:13. Κἀκεῖ σαλεύοντες, there also disturbing [stirring up]) Conduct exceedingly outrageous (intemperate).[97]

[97] The fuller reading, σαλεύοντες καὶ ταράσσοντες, although it was declared by the margin of both Greek Editions to be the less established reading, is however exhibited in the Vers. Germ.—E. B.

The fuller reading is supported by ABDd Vulg. But Ee omit καὶ ταράσσοντες.—E. and T.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - Proclaimed for preached, A.V.; Beraea also for Berea, A.V.; likewise for also, A.V.; stirring up and troubling the multitudes for and stirred up the people, A.V. and T.R. Acts 17:13