Kisah Para Rasul 17:10-21

Paul and Silas at Berea

17:10 The brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea ¹  at once, during the night. When they arrived, ²  they went to the Jewish synagogue. ³  17:11 These Jews ⁴  were more open-minded ⁵  than those in Thessalonica, ⁶  for they eagerly ⁷  received ⁸  the message, examining ⁹  the scriptures carefully every day ¹⁰  to see if these things were so. 17:12 Therefore many of them believed, along with quite a few ¹¹  prominent ¹²  Greek women and men. 17:13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica ¹³  heard that Paul had also proclaimed the word of God ¹⁴  in Berea, ¹⁵  they came there too, inciting ¹⁶  and disturbing ¹⁷  the crowds. 17:14 Then the brothers sent Paul away to the coast ¹⁸  at once, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. ¹⁹  17:15 Those who accompanied Paul escorted him as far as Athens, ²⁰  and after receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. ²¹ 

Paul at Athens

17:16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, ²²  his spirit was greatly upset ²³  because he saw ²⁴  the city was full of idols. 17:17 So he was addressing ²⁵  the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles ²⁶  in the synagogue, ²⁷  and in the marketplace every day ²⁸  those who happened to be there. 17:18 Also some of the Epicurean ²⁹  and Stoic ³⁰  philosophers were conversing ³¹  with him, and some were asking, ³²  “What does this foolish babbler ³³  want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.” ³⁴  (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) ³⁵  17:19 So they took Paul and ³⁶  brought him to the Areopagus, ³⁷  saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are proclaiming? 17:20 For you are bringing some surprising things ³⁸  to our ears, so we want to know what they ³⁹  mean.” 17:21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there used to spend their time ⁴⁰  in nothing else than telling ⁴¹  or listening to something new.) ⁴² 

[17:10]  ¹ sn Berea (alternate spelling in NRSV Beroea; Greek Beroia) was a very old city in Macedonia on the river Astraeus about 45 mi (75 km) west of Thessalonica.

[17:10]  map For location see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

[17:10]  ² tn Grk “who arriving there, went to.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative pronoun (οἵτινες, Joitine") has been left untranslated and a new English sentence begun. The participle παραγενόμενοι (paragenomenoi) has been taken temporally.

[17:10]  ³ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[17:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “These”; the referent (the Jews in the synagogue at Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:11]  ⁵ tn Or “more willing to learn.” L&N 27.48 and BDAG 404 s.v. εὐγενής 2 both use the term “open-minded” here. The point is that they were more receptive to Paul’s message.

[17:11]  ⁶ sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).

[17:11]  map For location see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

[17:11]  ⁷ tn Or “willingly,” “readily”; Grk “with all eagerness.”

[17:11]  ⁸ tn Grk “who received.” Here the relative pronoun (“who”) has been translated as a pronoun (“they”) preceded by a semicolon, which is less awkward in contemporary English than a relative clause at this point.

[17:11]  ⁹ tn This verb (BDAG 66 s.v. ἀνακρίνω 1) refers to careful examination.

[17:11]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.

[17:12]  ¹¹ tn Grk “not a few”; this use of negation could be misleading to the modern English reader, however, and so has been translated as “quite a few” (which is the actual meaning of the expression).

[17:12]  ¹² tn Or “respected.”

[17:13]  ¹³ sn Thessalonica was a city in Macedonia (modern Salonica).

[17:13]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “that the word of God had also been proclaimed by Paul.” This passive construction has been converted to an active one in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:13]  ¹⁵ sn Berea (alternate spelling in NRSV Beroea; Greek Beroia) was a very old city in Macedonia on the river Astraeus about 45 mi (75 km) from Thessalonica.

[17:13]  ¹⁶ tn BDAG 911 s.v. σαλεύω 2 has “incite” for σαλεύοντες (saleuonte") in Acts 17:13.

[17:13]  sn Inciting. Ironically, it was the Jews who were disturbing the peace, not the Christians.

[17:13]  ¹⁷ tn Or “stirring up” (BDAG 990-91 s.v. ταράσσω 2). The point is the agitation of the crowds.

[17:14]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “to the sea.” Here ἕως ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν ({ew" epi thn qalassan) must mean “to the edge of the sea,” that is, “to the coast.” Since there is no mention of Paul taking a ship to Athens, he presumably traveled overland. The journey would have been about 340 mi (550 km).

[17:14]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “remained there”; the referent (Berea) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:15]  ²⁰ map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[17:15]  ²¹ sn They left. See 1 Thess 3:1-2, which shows they went from here to Thessalonica.

[17:16]  ²² map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[17:16]  ²³ tn Grk “greatly upset within him,” but the words “within him” were not included in the translation because they are redundant in English. See L&N 88.189. The term could also be rendered “infuriated.”

[17:16]  sn His spirit was greatly upset. See Rom 1:18-32 for Paul’s feelings about idolatry. Yet he addressed both Jews and Gentiles with tact and reserve.

[17:16]  ²⁴ tn Or “when he saw.” The participle θεωροῦντος (qewrounto") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle; it could also be translated as temporal.

[17:17]  ²⁵ tn Although the word διελέξατο (dielexato; from διαλέγομαι, dialegomai) is frequently translated “reasoned,” “disputed,” or “argued,” this sense comes from its classical meaning where it was used of philosophical disputation, including the Socratic method of questions and answers. However, there does not seem to be contextual evidence for this kind of debate in Acts 17:17. As G. Schrenk (TDNT 2:94-95) points out, “What is at issue is the address which any qualified member of a synagogue might give.” Other examples of this may be found in the NT in Matt 4:23 and Mark 1:21.

[17:17]  ²⁶ tn Or “and the devout,” but this is practically a technical term for the category called God-fearers, Gentiles who worshiped the God of Israel and in many cases kept the Mosaic law, but did not take the final step of circumcision necessary to become a proselyte to Judaism. See further K. G. Kuhn, TDNT 6:732-34, 743-44, and the note on the phrase “God-fearing Greeks” in 17:4.

[17:17]  ²⁷ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[17:17]  ²⁸ tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase in this verse.

[17:18]  ²⁹ sn An Epicurean was a follower of the philosophy of Epicurus, who founded a school in Athens about 300 b.c. Although the Epicureans saw the aim of life as pleasure, they were not strictly hedonists, because they defined pleasure as the absence of pain. Along with this, they desired the avoidance of trouble and freedom from annoyances. They saw organized religion as evil, especially the belief that the gods punished evildoers in an afterlife. In keeping with this, they were unable to accept Paul’s teaching about the resurrection.

[17:18]  ³⁰ sn A Stoic was a follower of the philosophy founded by Zeno (342-270 b.c.), a Phoenician who came to Athens and modified the philosophical system of the Cynics he found there. The Stoics rejected the Epicurean ideal of pleasure, stressing virtue instead. The Stoics emphasized responsibility for voluntary actions and believed risks were worth taking, but thought the actual attainment of virtue was difficult. They also believed in providence.

[17:18]  ³¹ tn BDAG 956 s.v. συμβάλλω 1 has “converse, confer” here.

[17:18]  ³² tn Grk “saying.”

[17:18]  ³³ tn Or “ignorant show-off.” The traditional English translation of σπερμολόγος (spermologo") is given in L&N 33.381 as “foolish babbler.” However, an alternate view is presented in L&N 27.19, “(a figurative extension of meaning of a term based on the practice of birds in picking up seeds) one who acquires bits and pieces of relatively extraneous information and proceeds to pass them off with pretense and show – ‘ignorant show-off, charlatan.’” A similar view is given in BDAG 937 s.v. σπερμολόγος: “in pejorative imagery of persons whose communication lacks sophistication and seems to pick up scraps of information here and there scrapmonger, scavenger…Engl. synonyms include ‘gossip’, ‘babbler’, chatterer’; but these terms miss the imagery of unsystematic gathering.”

[17:18]  ³⁴ tn The meaning of this phrase is not clear. Literally it reads “strange deities” (see BDAG 210 s.v. δαιμόνιον 1). The note of not being customary is important. In the ancient world what was new was suspicious. The plural δαιμονίων (daimoniwn, “deities”) shows the audience grappling with Paul’s teaching that God was working through Jesus.

[17:18]  ³⁵ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[17:19]  ³⁶ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:19]  ³⁷ tn Or “to the council of the Areopagus.” See also the term in v. 22.

[17:19]  sn The Areopagus has been traditionally understood as reference to a rocky hill near the Acropolis in Athens, although this place may well have been located in the marketplace at the foot of the hill (L&N 93.412; BDAG 129 s.v. ῎Αρειος πάγος). This term does not refer so much to the place, however, as to the advisory council of Athens known as the Areopagus, which dealt with ethical, cultural, and religious matters, including the supervision of education and controlling the many visiting lecturers. Thus it could be translated the council of the Areopagus. See also the term in v. 22.

[17:20]  ³⁸ tn BDAG 684 s.v. ξενίζω 2 translates the substantival participle ξενίζοντα (xenizonta) as “astonishing things Ac 17:20.”

[17:20]  ³⁹ tn Grk “these things”; but since the referent (“surprising things”) is so close, the repetition of “these things” sounds redundant in English, so the pronoun “they” was substituted in the translation.

[17:21]  ⁴⁰ tn The imperfect verb ηὐκαίρουν (hukairoun) has been translated as a customary or habitual imperfect.

[17:21]  ⁴¹ tn BDAG 406-7 s.v. εὐκαιρέω has “used to spend their time in nothing else than telling Ac 17:21.”

[17:21]  ⁴² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. The reference to newness may be pejorative.