SIL Translator’s Notes on Acts 17:11

17:11a

Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians: This clause in Greek is literally “But these were more noble-minded than the ones in Thessalonica.” For example:

Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
The people there were more open-minded than the people in Thessalonica. (Good News Translation)

But Paul and Silas were in a synagogue, so the clause here mainly refers to the Jews in Berea and the Jews in Thessalonica. In some languages this is clear from 17:10b. However, in some languages a translation like the Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, New American Standard Bible, or Good News Translation would refer to people of Berea in general. If that is true in your language, specifically refer to the Jews. For example:

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica (Revised Standard Version)

were more noble-minded: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as were more noble-minded refers to better attitudes and morals. The Jews in Berea were more willing to listen and were more honorable than the Jews in Thessalonica. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

had better customs/habits/attitudes
-or-
were better people
-or-
The Jews in Berea had good hearts, not like those in Thessalonica

17:11b

for they: The Greek word is literally “who.” It introduces a further description of the Berean Jews. For example:

and they (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
They (Good News Translation)

received the message: Here the verb received refers to hearing willingly. (17:12 indicates that many accepted the message.) Other ways to translate this phrase are:

welcomed the message (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
were happy to hear the message

message: This refers to the gospel about Jesus. In some languages a literal translation would not clearly imply the gospel about Jesus. If that is true in your language, explain it in your translation. For example:

message ⌊of/about Jesus
-or-
good news ⌊about Jesus

17:11c

examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true: The Jews in Berea wanted to verify what Paul taught about Jesus. They verified it by carefully checking the Scriptures that Paul referred to and perhaps other Scriptures. Other ways to translate this clause are:

examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
every day they studied the scriptures to check whether it was true (New Jerusalem Bible)

examined: This refers to a careful study of something. The Jews of Berea carefully read and probably discussed the meaning of those Scriptures to see if they agreed with what Paul said it meant.

Scriptures: This refers to the Hebrew Bible. Christians now call it the Old Testament. Christians then only referred to it as the Scriptures because the New Testament had not been collected yet. Other ways to translate this word are:

holy books
-or-
God’s word
-or-
the written words of God

See how you translated this word in 1:16 or 8:32.

© 2001, 2021 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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