Why Aspire to be a Berean?

[WillofGod72]

We only know about the Bereans from one very short passage from Scripture (Acts 17:10-15), yet the word "Berean" itself has grown to be quite an industry over the years. The name "Berean" has become somewhat of a badge of honor for Christians to place upon themselves, countless ministries, churches and you can bet many web sites as well have all esteemed themselves to be as noble as the Bereans.

How 'Noble' were the Bereans?
Luke obviously got the idea that Paul held the Bereans in high esteem as he records in verse 11 that they "were of more noble character than the Thessalonians." Obviously as a Christian, who wouldn't like to be held in the esteem that Paul held for the Bereans, right? BUT, as we "search the Scriptures" (John 5:39) as the Bereans did, we always have to keep in mind the context to what is being said, right?
To say one person is more noble than another isn't really saying anything if you don't know about the other party, right? I mean, if the other party were just a bunch of heathens, than to say that the Bereans were "of more noble character than the Thessalonians" wouldn't be saying a whole lot, right? So here's the context in a nutshell.

Thessalonica was a huge metropolitan city. The population consisted of the original Greco-Macedonian inhabitants, mixed with many Romans and some Jews. The same heathen deities were worshiped as in other Greco-Roman communities, and the worship of the Cabeiri had been introduced from Samothrace. (Acts 16:11)

At Thessalonica, Paul preached at the synagogue three times where he reasoned with the Jews. For his efforts he was able to bring some of the Jews to accept Jesus as the Christ. This isn't to say that Paul ONLY preached in the synagogues, as he also was able to bring many Greeks and prominent women to accept Jesus as well.


The cause of Paul's departure from Thessalonica was a persecution instigated by the Jews, who used tumultuous pagan mobs as their discourse. With the charge of treason against the Emperor, they attacked the house of Jason where Paul and Silas were staying. Paul was able to escape by night to the town of Berea.

This is where we pick up in Acts 17:11 which says "these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica". This, I'm sure was probably said with a hint of relief and less that he esteemed them to be more noble than the Christians. After all, as the verse continues "they received the word with all eagerness" we see that they were a captive and much less violent audience then those Jews who attacked him in Thessalonica, right?

Finally, at the end of this same verse, it says they were "examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so..

So, while we know that the Jews of Berea (the Bereans) were not nearly as brutal to Paul as those at Thessalonica, we see that they certainly were not following his teachings with any amount of 'faith', but actually with a whole lot of skepticism.

Acts 17:11
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Getting back to searching the Scriptures, Jesus seems to have prophesied about the Bereans roughly 20 years prior to Paul meeting them.
John 5:39-40
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

While it would be to any Christians delight to find an unbeliever who would search the Scriptures as the Bereans did to discover the truth of Jesus, why would a believing Christian aspire to search the scriptures the way an unbeliever would?


What part of 2 Timothy 2:15 says to study to show that God is approved?

[Manwë Súlimo]

Berens are awesome.

Oh, you said "Berean". My bad.

[RBerman]

The Bereans were praised because, although they received Paul with initial caution and wanted to check his claims against Scripture, they found his claims consistent with Scripture and thus eagerly believed what he said, rather than rioting like the unbelievers in Thessalonika. So they started as unbelievers, but they didn't finish that way. As for the other verse:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

It's not God that's approved. It's you (Timothy) that's approved. Paul is saying, "Show that you know how to handle the BIble."

[mostlyharmless]

As for the other verse:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

It's not God that's approved. It's you (Timothy) that's approved. Paul is saying, "Show that you know how to handle the BIble."

The phrase "word of truth" is unlikely to be referring to the scriptures in Timothy. Instead it is referring to the gospel in the greater sense. If you have a perspective that equates the gospel with the Bible you might paraphrase this verse how you have, but I don't think in context you can do so.

Those who rightly handle the "word of truth" are those who preach and teach correctly concerning Christ as opposed to heretical teaching. So this is not limited to scripture. Paul did not travel around handing out scripture to people, but rather a teaching concerning Christ that he implored to be committed to faithful men and passed on.

Blessings

[RBerman]

The phrase "word of truth" is unlikely to be referring to the scriptures in Timothy. Instead it is referring to the gospel in the greater sense. If you have a perspective that equates the gospel with the Bible you might paraphrase this verse how you have, but I don't think in context you can do so.

Those who rightly handle the "word of truth" are those who preach and teach correctly concerning Christ as opposed to heretical teaching. So this is not limited to scripture. Paul did not travel around handing out scripture to people, but rather a teaching concerning Christ that he implored to be committed to faithful men and passed on.
Well, the two topics are closely related. The gospel had probably not been written down at the time Paul wrote this. It was still being verbally transmitted, and at least some of Paul's epistles had not been composed. But it seems likely that "the word of truth" of which Paul spoke has essentially the same content as some subset of what we now call the "New Testament."

[mostlyharmless]

Well, the two topics are closely related. The gospel had probably not been written down at the time Paul wrote this. It was still being verbally transmitted, and at least some of Paul's epistles had not been composed. But it seems likely that "the word of truth" of which Paul spoke has essentially the same content as some subset of what we now call the "New Testament."

That may be true from our perspective now, but its still a bad paraphrase to say that Paul was talking about the scriptures when he was not. I am sure you see the implications that narrowing this "word of truth" down to the scriptures also has with respect to ecclesiology debates.

Blessings

[RBerman]

Yeah.