οὗτοι δὲ ἦσαν εὐγενέστεροι τῶν ἐν Θεσσαλονίκῃ, οἵτινες ἐδέξαντο τὸν λόγον μετὰ πάσης προθυμίας καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ἀνακρίνοντες τὰς γραφὰς εἰ ἔχοι ταῦτα οὕτως.
11These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.
The Greek in Acts 17:11 that is translated in English as “examined the scriptures” or similar is translated in Isthmus Mixe as “hunted in the written Word of God” and in Teutila Cuicatec as “looked at the paper on which was written down the Word of God.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
See also scripture and all scripture is inspired by God.
The Greek that is translated “scripture” or “scriptures” in English is translated as “God’s word which people wrote” in Guerrero Amuzgo (source: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125) and “paper writings” in Copainalá Zoque (source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.).
While the term “Bible,” often used as a synonym, does not appear in the Bible itself, there’s an interesting translation of that word in Dehu. Missionaries had translated “Bible” as “Container of the Word” until they realized that this was also used for “penis sheath.” (Source: Clifford 1992, p. 87)
For other translations of scripture see all scripture is inspired by God and examined the scriptures.
The Hebrew, Greek and Latin that is translated as “every day” in English is translated in Chichewa as “day and day.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 17:11:
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-kotoba (みことば) or “word (of God)” in the referenced verses.
(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )
Open-minded translates a word which originally referred to persons of noble birth (see Revised Standard Version “noble”), but which later came to be used of those qualities which were expected in a person of such birth. In the present context the reference is to the attitude of the Bereans toward the Christian message and is best understood in the sense of “receptive.” In a context such as this, open-minded may be rendered in some languages in a negative fashion—for example, “their minds were not closed” or “their ears were not stopped up.” On the other hand, expressions for open-minded may be positive: “their minds received what he said,” “their ears were opened to hear,” or “they were willing to listen.”
Listened to the message with great eagerness is rendered in some languages as “wanted very much to listen to the message” or “desired very much to hear what Paul said.” The term eagerness is essentially the quality with which the people desired to listen and it is therefore possible to transfer this element of the meaning to a verb such as “to desire” or “to want to.”
To see if what Paul said was really true literally translates “to see if these things were so.” But the meaning, of course, is that the people of Berea studied the Scriptures to see if what Paul taught them was true. The New English Bible at this point is ambiguous, since the final “they” in the expression “whether it was as they said” could be understood in two different ways.
In some languages a translation of true, in referring to some statement or declaration, must be rendered by a verb “to agree with.” Therefore, one may need to restructure this final sentence of verse 11 to read “every day they studied the Scriptures in order see if what Paul had said agreed with what the Scriptures said” or “… to see if what was written in the Scriptures agreed with what Paul had said.”
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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.
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