Acts 17:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

So that the apostles would not think they accomplished everything by themselves, God permitted them to be persecuted. Two goods came from this.

They did not become high-minded, as though overcoming everything by themselves. At the same time, they did not fear as though they were guilty of anything.

Thus it also happened by divine ordering that they were summoned from place to place.

See how persecutions everywhere serve the spread of the preaching. "And many of them," it says, "believed, and not a few of the honorable Greek women and men" (Acts 17:12).

But the Jews opposed them.

Why then did the one who said, "We should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised" (Gal 2:9), converse with the Jews?

He did this from an abundance of zeal.

On the very night that followed the day of the disturbance, Paul and Silas left the city after a stay of three or four weeks. Because Paul, under these circumstances, had to leave earlier than the condition of the church permitted, he was very concerned. He especially foresaw that the new Christians would later suffer much from the Gentiles, who were being stirred up by the Jews. Therefore he intended, as soon as the turmoil subsided, to go there again (1 Thess 2:18). But this intention remained unfulfilled.

After passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, the apostles came to Thessalonica. There were many Jews there, and to them, according to his custom, the Apostle Paul first turned with preaching about Christ, visiting their synagogue for three Sabbaths.

The apostles' preaching had great success. Many were converted to faith in Christ, especially among the proselytes.

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up a disturbance against the preachers of Christ. A certain Jason suffered especially from it, because he had given the apostles shelter in his house.

Because of this, the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea (vv. 1-10).

Sin: neglect, in dangerous circumstances, of the ordinary or available means for protecting one's Orthodox faith from violence, and in general for saving the soul.

Thus, one may fail to make use of flight in order not to be called a fugitive or a coward.

One may refuse to flee from a place where there is an obvious danger of betraying the Orthodox faith, for example, among freethinkers or in the hands of some fanatic.

Or one may refuse to ransom oneself with money, out of pity for the money, when the aim is to attain a high spiritual purpose.

Such a purpose might be to go with the preaching of the Gospel to the unbaptized, or to venerate a holy place.

Yet the agitation in the city was so great that the apostles did not find it possible to continue their preaching. Under cover of night they left Thessalonica and went to the nearest city, Berea. Only Timothy was left temporarily in Thessalonica to strengthen the newly converted in the faith.

They sent them away immediately by night, probably not because the authorities required it as security or guarantee. The writer of Acts would have said this plainly. Rather, it was from fear of another disturbance by the violent crowd, ready to commit violence at every incitement from the enemies of the new teaching. To Berea: a city southwest of Thessalonica, in the third part of Macedonia, whose chief city was Pella. Berea lay at the very southern border of Macedonia. They went into the synagogue, as everywhere, according to Paul's custom (v. 2).

The apostles' secret departure from Salonika shows that even after their failure, the Jews did not abandon their persecution of the apostles.

Therefore the Christians considered it better to escort them by night to Berea, in southwest Macedonia, where even the Jews received them kindly.

Many turned to Christ, but only after carefully examining all the proofs from the Scriptures to which the holy apostles appealed in their gospel proclamation.

It is noteworthy that here too the writer of Acts especially notes the conversion of noble Greek women, and also of the Greeks themselves in no small number.

At the same time many Jews were converted. Therefore the writer calls them more noble than the Thessalonian Jews had shown themselves to be.