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town or village
Berea
- Today Veria
History
Berea, ancient Beroea and today's Veria, lies on the eastern slope of Mount Bermion in Macedonia, above the plain west of Thessalonica, where a road over the mountain to upper Macedonia meets the road along the edge of the plain. The oldest graves found in the town date from the Early Iron Age. Thucydides tells of an Athenian army going to Beroea in 432 BC, though whether he meant this town is disputed. In 288 BC Pyrrhus of Epirus took Beroea, and the Macedonians of King Demetrius deserted to him there.
Beroea was one of the chief towns of the Macedonian kingdom. After Rome defeated King Perseus at Pydna in 168 BC, it was the first city to surrender, and when the Romans divided Macedonia into four districts it was placed in the third. Under the emperors it became the seat of the Koinon, the league of the Macedonian cities that kept the cult of the emperors; third-century inscriptions call it a metropolis and temple-warden, neokoros, of the imperial cult.
Paul and Silas were sent here by night from Thessalonica and went into the synagogue. Acts says the Jews of Berea "were more noble than those in Thessalonica", because they received the word readily and "searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so". Many of them believed, with Greek women of standing and not a few men. When Jews from Thessalonica came to stir up the people, the brethren sent Paul away toward the sea and on to Athens, while Silas and Timothy stayed behind. Later Sopater of Berea went with Paul to Asia.
In the third century AD part of the town wall was rebuilt in haste with reused altars, statues and inscribed stones, probably against the Goths or Heruli who were raiding the Balkans. Paved Roman streets of the age of the Tetrarchy, about AD 300, have been found under the modern town, whose main roads still follow the ancient lines. Through the whole history of Macedonia, Beroea ranked second only to its leading city, which was in turn Aegae, Pella and Thessalonica.
Scripture: Acts 17:10–15; Acts 20:4
Sources
- Thucydides, History 1.61.4
- Plutarch, Pyrrhus 11
- Livy 44.45.5 (the surrender after Pydna); 45.29.8 (the third district)
- Ph. M. Petsas, 'Beroia', in R. Stillwell (ed.), The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (1976)
- L. Gounaropoulou and M. B. Hatzopoulos, Epigraphes Katō Makedonias I: Epigraphes Beroias (1998)
- M. Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs and the Ancient City (1984) (Aegae at Vergina; older works, Petsas among them, put it at Edessa)
- F. Papazoglou, Les villes de Macédoine à l'époque romaine (BCH Suppl. 16, 1988)
Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.
Verses (6)
- Acts 17:10
- And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
- Acts 17:11
- These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
- 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.
- Acts 17:14
- And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still.
- Acts 17:15
- And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed.
- Acts 20:4
- And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
King James Version