Acts 17:10
As soon as night had fallen, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
As soon as night fell
This phrase indicates the urgency and immediacy of the actions taken by the believers. The Greek word for "night" (νύξ, nux) often symbolizes a time of danger or transition in Scripture. The believers acted swiftly under the cover of darkness to protect Paul and Silas, demonstrating their commitment to the mission and the safety of the apostles. Historically, travel at night was risky, yet it underscores the pressing need to continue spreading the Gospel despite opposition.

the brothers
This term refers to the early Christian community, emphasizing the familial bond among believers. The Greek word "ἀδελφοί" (adelphoi) is often used in the New Testament to denote both male and female members of the church, highlighting the unity and equality within the body of Christ. This community was characterized by mutual support and shared purpose, reflecting the teachings of Jesus about love and fellowship.

sent Paul and Silas
The act of sending Paul and Silas illustrates the strategic and protective measures taken by the early church. The Greek verb "ἐξαποστέλλω" (exapostellō) implies a commissioning or sending forth with authority. This reflects the church's role in mission work, recognizing the apostles' calling to spread the Gospel. It also shows the church's discernment in knowing when to protect its leaders for the greater good of the mission.

away to Berea
Berea was a city in Macedonia, known for its open-minded and noble character, as later described in Acts 17:11. The decision to send Paul and Silas to Berea was likely influenced by the city's reputation for being more receptive to new teachings. This move highlights the strategic planning of the early church in choosing locations where the Gospel could take root and flourish.

On arriving
This phrase marks the beginning of a new chapter in Paul and Silas's missionary journey. The Greek word "παραγίνομαι" (paraginomai) suggests a purposeful arrival, indicating that their mission was divinely guided. Each arrival in a new city was an opportunity to witness and spread the message of Christ, showing the apostles' dedication and resilience.

they went into the Jewish synagogue
The synagogue was a central place for teaching and discussion of the Scriptures. Paul and Silas's choice to begin their ministry in the synagogue reflects their strategy of reaching out first to the Jewish community, who were familiar with the Scriptures and the prophecies concerning the Messiah. This approach was consistent with Paul's pattern of ministry, as he sought to connect the message of Jesus with the Jewish faith, fulfilling the promise of the Messiah.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Paul
A key apostle in the early Christian church, known for his missionary journeys and epistles. In this passage, he is continuing his mission to spread the Gospel.

2. Silas
A leader in the early church and companion of Paul on his missionary journeys. He is known for his role in spreading Christianity and supporting Paul.

3. Berea
A city in Macedonia where Paul and Silas traveled after leaving Thessalonica. Berea is noted for its noble-minded Jews who eagerly received the message.

4. The Brothers
Fellow believers who supported Paul and Silas, ensuring their safe departure from Thessalonica to Berea.

5. Jewish Synagogue
The place where Paul and Silas began their ministry in Berea, as was their custom, to preach to the Jews first.
Teaching Points
The Importance of Discernment
Like the Bereans, Christians are encouraged to examine teachings against Scripture to ensure they align with God's truth.

The Role of Community in Ministry
The support of the brothers in Thessalonica demonstrates the importance of community in advancing the Gospel and protecting its messengers.

Courage in the Face of Opposition
Paul and Silas's journey to Berea, despite previous opposition, exemplifies the courage needed to continue God's work.

Prioritizing Scripture in Daily Life
The Bereans' daily examination of the Scriptures serves as a model for Christians to prioritize God's Word in their daily routines.

Strategic Evangelism
Paul and Silas's approach of starting their ministry in the synagogue shows the importance of strategic planning in evangelism efforts.
Bible Study Questions
1. How can we emulate the Bereans' noble character in our own study of Scripture?

2. In what ways can our church community support those who are actively involved in ministry, similar to the brothers in Thessalonica?

3. What are some practical steps we can take to ensure we are discerning and verifying teachings against the Bible?

4. How does the courage of Paul and Silas inspire us to face opposition in our own lives when sharing the Gospel?

5. How can we incorporate a daily examination of Scripture into our routine, and what impact might this have on our spiritual growth?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Acts 17:11
Highlights the noble character of the Bereans, who examined the Scriptures daily to verify Paul's teachings. This connects to the importance of discernment and scriptural validation.

1 Thessalonians 2:13
Paul commends the Thessalonians for receiving the word of God, which parallels the Bereans' reception and examination of the Scriptures.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
Emphasizes the importance of Scripture for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, which aligns with the Bereans' diligent study.
The Duty of Individual ResearchW. Clarkson Acts 17:10-14
BeraeaR.A. Redford Acts 17:10-15
Berean NobilityW. Arnot, D. D.Acts 17:10-15
Berean NobilityG. Collinson.Acts 17:10-15
Delight in the ScripturesHon. R. Boyle.Acts 17:10-15
Delving for the Treasures of the WordActs 17:10-15
Docility of Temper in Relation to the TruthJohn Burton.Acts 17:10-15
From Thessalonica to BereaJ. Parker, D. D.Acts 17:10-15
Ignorance of the Scriptures the Cause of InfidelityA. Barnes, D. D.Acts 17:10-15
Nobility of Soul At BeraeaE. Johnson Acts 17:10-15
Practice in the Study of the ScripturesChristian AgeActs 17:10-15
Searching Bible ReadingA. T. Pierson, D. D.Acts 17:10-15
Searching She Scriptures, Love the Motive ForT. De Witt Talmage, D. D.Acts 17:10-15
Searching the ScripturesW. Mudge, B. A.Acts 17:10-15
Searching the ScripturesS. S. TimesActs 17:10-15
Searching the ScripturesStewart's Collections.Acts 17:10-15
Searching the Scriptures as a ChartJ. H. Wilson.Acts 17:10-15
Spiritual NobilityD. Thomas, D. D.Acts 17:10-15
Stages of a True Use of ScriptureK. Gerok.Acts 17:10-15
Stored Up Gold in the ScripturesJ. Scott.Acts 17:10-15
The BereansR. A. Bertram.Acts 17:10-15
The Bible InvaluableT. De Witt Talmage, D. D.Acts 17:10-15
The Bible Lit UpW. L. Watkinson.Acts 17:10-15
The Nobility of the BereansR. Eden, M. A.Acts 17:10-15
The Noble BereansEvangelical PreacherActs 17:10-15
The Reception of the Gospel At BereaT. Galland, M. A.Acts 17:10-15
The Right of Private Judgment in ReligionN. Emmons, D. D.Acts 17:10-15
The Thessalonians and the BereansDean Vaughan.Acts 17:10-15
People
Athenians, Damaris, Dionysius, Jason, Paul, Silas, Thessalonians, Timotheus, Timothy
Places
Amphipolis, Apollonia, Areopagus, Athens, Berea, Thessalonica
Topics
Arrival, Arrived, Arriving, Berea, Beroea, Beroe'a, Brethren, Brothers, Forth, Immediately, Jewish, Jews, Paul, Silas, Straight, Synagogue, Thither
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Acts 17:10

     1651   numbers, 1-2
     5108   Paul, life of
     7456   synagogue
     8427   evangelism, kinds of

Acts 17:5-13

     5279   crowds

Acts 17:10-12

     8497   witnessing, approaches

Library
April 24 Evening
The eyes of all wait upon thee.--PSA. 145:15. He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.--The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.--Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.--Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters,
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

February 17 Evening
God created man in his own image.--GEN. 1:27. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.--For whom he did foreknow, he also
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

April 7. "In Him we Live and Move" (Acts xvii. 28).
"In Him we live and move" (Acts xvii. 28). The hand of Gehazi, and even the staff of Elisha could not heal the lifeless boy. It needed the living touch of the prophet's own divinely quickened flesh to infuse vitality into the cold clay. Lip to lip, hand to hand, heart to heart, he must touch the child ere life could thrill his pulseless veins. We must come into personal contact with the risen Saviour, and have His very life quicken our mortal flesh before we can know the fulness and reality of His
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Man who is Judge
...He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.'--ACTS xvii. 31. I. The Resurrection of Jesus gives assurance of judgment. (a) Christ's Resurrection is the pledge of ours. The belief in a future life, as entertained by Paul's hearers on Mars Hill, was shadowy and dashed with much unbelief. Disembodied spirits wandered ghostlike and spectral in a shadowy underworld. The belief
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

Thessalonica and Berea
'Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: 2. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath- days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, 3. Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. 4. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

Paul at Athens
'Then Paul stood In the midst of Mars-hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 24. God, that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25. Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The General Resurrection
Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. A n object, great in itself, and which we know to be so, will appear small to us, if we view it from a distance. The stars, for example, in our view, are but as little specks
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

The World Turned Upside Down
We believe that what these Jews said of the Apostles, was just a downright wilful lie. They knew better. The Apostles were not the disturbers of states. It is true, they preached that which would disturb the sinful constitution of a kingdom and which would disturb the evil practices of false priests, but they never meant to set men in an uproar. They did come to set men at arms with sin; they did draw the sword against iniquity; but against men as men, against kings as kings, they had no battle;
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

Colossians 4:14 "Luke, the Beloved Physician. "
[2] THERE are two things in the title of this paper which I shall take for granted, and not dwell on them. One is, that Luke here mentioned is the same Luke who wrote the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, and was the friend and companion of St. Paul. The other is, that Luke really was a physician of the body. On both these points the consent of learned men, who have a right to command our attention, is almost universal. I shall rigidly confine myself to two remarks which appear to grow out
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times

Acts 17:16-17. Athens.
[9] "Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him." --Acts 17:16-17. PERHAPS the reader of this paper lives in a town or city, and sees more of bricks and mortar than of green fields. Perhaps you have some relative or friend living in a town, about whom you naturally feel a deep interest.
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times

He is Lovely in his Offices
Secondly, He is altogether lovely in his offices: let us consider for a moment the suitability, fullness, and comforting nature of them. First, The suitability of the offices of Christ to the miseries of men. We cannot but adore the infinite wisdom of his receiving them. We are, by nature, blind and ignorant, at best but groping in the dim light of nature after God, Acts 17:27. Jesus Christ is a light to lighten the Gentiles, Isa. 49:6. When this great prophet came into the world, then did the day-spring
John Flavel—Christ Altogether Lovely

Immortality of the Soul, and a Future State.
--Inter silvas academi quærere verum. Hor. lib. II. epist. 2. v. 45. To search out truth in academic groves. THE course of my last speculation [3] led me insensibly into a subject upon which I always meditate with great delight, I mean the immortali
Joseph Addison—The Evidences of the Christian Religion, with Additional Discourses

Repentance and Restitution.
"God commandeth all men everywhere to repent."--Acts xvii. 30. Repentance is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. Yet I believe it is one of those truths that many people little understand at the present day. There are more people to-day in the mist and darkness about Repentance, Regeneration, the Atonement, and such-like fundamental truths, than perhaps on any other doctrines. Yet from our earliest years we have heard about them. If I were to ask for a definition of Repentance, a great
Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It

Original Righteousness.
"For in Him we live and move, and have our being: as certain also of your own poets have said. For we are also His offspring." --Acts xvii. 28. It is the peculiar characteristic of the Reformed Confession that more than any other it humbles the sinner and exalts the sinless man. To disparage man is unscriptural. Being a sinner, fallen and no longer a real man, he must be humbled, rebuked, and inwardly broken. But the divinely created man, realizing the divine purpose or restored by omnipotent grace
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Period iii. The Dissolution of the Imperial State Church and the Transition to the Middle Ages: from the Beginning of the Sixth Century to the Latter Part of the Eighth
The third period of the ancient Church under the Christian Empire begins with the accession of Justin I (518-527), and the end of the first schism between Rome and Constantinople (519). The termination of the period is not so clearly marked. By the middle and latter part of the eighth century, however, the imperial Church has ceased to exist in its original conception. The Church in the East has become, in great part, a group of national schismatic churches under Moslem rulers, and only the largest
Joseph Cullen Ayer Jr., Ph.D.—A Source Book for Ancient Church History

St. Justin Martyr (Ad 166)
Although Trajan was no friend to the Gospel, and put St. Ignatius to death, he made a law which must have been a great relief to the Christians. Until then they were liable to be sought out, and any one might inform against them; but Trajan ordered that they should not be sought out, although, if they were discovered, and refused to give up their faith, they were to be punished. The next emperor, too, whose name was Hadrian (AD 117-138) did something to make their condition better; but it was still
J. C. Roberston—Sketches of Church History, from AD 33 to the Reformation

Whether Idolatry is Rightly Reckoned a Species of Superstition?
Objection 1: It would seem that idolatry is not rightly reckoned a species of superstition. Just as heretics are unbelievers, so are idolaters. But heresy is a species of unbelief, as stated above ([3101]Q[11], A[1]). Therefore idolatry is also a species of unbelief and not of superstition. Objection 2: Further, latria pertains to the virtue of religion to which superstition is opposed. But latria, apparently, is univocally applied to idolatry and to that which belongs to the true religion. For just
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Sufficient Reason Can be Assigned for the Ceremonies Pertaining to Holy Things?
Objection 1: It would seem that no sufficient reason can be assigned for the ceremonies of the Old Law that pertain to holy things. For Paul said (Acts 17:24): "God Who made the world and all things therein; He being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made by hands." It was therefore unfitting that in the Old Law a tabernacle or temple should be set up for the worship of God. Objection 2: Further, the state of the Old Law was not changed except by Christ. But the tabernacle denoted
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Woman Should have Been Made from Man?
Objection 1: It would seem that woman should not have been made from man. For sex belongs both to man and animals. But in the other animals the female was not made from the male. Therefore neither should it have been so with man. Objection 2: Further, things of the same species are of the same matter. But male and female are of the same species. Therefore, as man was made of the slime of the earth, so woman should have been made of the same, and not from man. Objection 3: Further, woman was made
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether all Things are Life in God?
Objection 1: It seems that not all things are life in God. For it is said (Acts 17:28), "In Him we live, and move, and be." But not all things in God are movement. Therefore not all things are life in Him. Objection 2: Further, all things are in God as their first model. But things modelled ought to conform to the model. Since, then, not all things have life in themselves, it seems that not all things are life in God. Objection 3: Further, as Augustine says (De Vera Relig. 29), a living substance
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Souls are Conveyed to Heaven or Hell Immediately after Death?
Objection 1: It would seem that no souls are conveyed to heaven or hell immediately after death. For a gloss on Ps. 36:10, "Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be," says that "the saints are delivered at the end of life; yet after this life they will not yet be where the saints will be when it is said to them: Come ye blessed of My Father." Now those saints will be in heaven. Therefore after this life the saints do not go immediately up to heaven. Objection 2: Further, Augustine says (Enchiridion
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

The World, Created by God, Still Cherished and Protected by Him. Each and all of Its Parts Governed by his Providence.
1. Even the wicked, under the guidance of carnal sense, acknowledge that God is the Creator. The godly acknowledge not this only, but that he is a most wise and powerful governor and preserver of all created objects. In so doing, they lean on the Word of God, some passages from which are produced. 2. Refutation of the Epicureans, who oppose fortune and fortuitous causes to Divine Providence, as taught in Scripture. The sun, a bright manifestation of Divine Providence. 3. Figment of the Sophists as
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

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