Where was Berea, whose Jews searched the scriptures daily?

Question

Accepted Answer

Berea, ancient Beroea, is the town of Veria in Greek Macedonia, on the eastern slope of Mount Vermio above the plain west of Thessalonica; the map point stands on it. It lay about 64 km west-south-west of Thessalonica in a straight line, off the main road, the Via Egnatia, and about 312 km north-north-west of Athens. Under Rome it was one of the leading towns of Macedonia and later the seat of the league of the Macedonian cities. Paul and Silas came here about AD 50, when after the riot in Thessalonica “the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea”. Acts praises their hearers: “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.” Many believed, with Greek women of standing and not a few men. When Jews from Thessalonica came to stir up the people, the brethren “sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea”, and he went on to Athens, while Silas and Timothy stayed. Later Sopater of Berea went with Paul to Asia. Whether Paul then sailed to Athens from a port on the coast, such as Pydna or Dium, or went by land is disputed: many manuscripts read “as far as the sea”, while the reading behind the King James and the Synodal texts, “as it were to the sea”, has been taken for a feint to put off pursuers. Paved Roman streets and stretches of a late Roman wall rebuilt with reused inscribed stones lie under modern Veria, and a modern monument in the town, the Bema of the Apostle Paul, marks the place where tradition says he preached.