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Bereans were the inhabitants of the ancient city of Berea, also known in the Bible as Beroea and now known as Veria.

Bereans: Biblical

According to the Book of Acts, Chapter 17 verse 11, Paul of Tarsus and Silas preached at Berea, and the inhabitants "eagerly examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so", and many of them believed.

Bereans: Historical

Many churches and ministries, predominantly evangelical Protestant in the USA, that have an emphasis on the primacy of scripture, have adopted the name Berean in allusion to this account. The Catholic Diocese of Lincoln describes one particular affiliation, the Berean Church, as comprising about 60 independent U.S. congregations of similar beliefs with features in common with Baptists, Methodists and Presybyterians. Their central emphasis on scriptural authority, sola scriptura, puts their beliefs in particular conflict with Roman Catholicism as well as Eastern Orthodoxy.

Historically, the Bereans (also called Beroeans, Barclayans or Barclayites) were a Protestant sect following former Scottish Presbyterian minister John Barclay (1734-1798). Founded in Edinburgh in 1773, the Berean Church followed a modified form of Calvinism. It had congregations in Scotland, London and Bristol, but mainly merged with the Congregationalists after Barclay's death.

Some groups among the Bible Student movement also adopted the name, such as the Berean Bible Students and the Berean Bible Institute.

Bereans: scriptural commentary

Perhaps of greater importance is WHICH scriptures are being referred to here: This is during the life of Paul, so we know that the Bereans were not studying the Masoretic or Rabinical Text, because those are later translations of the Hebrew bible revised and annotated by Jewish scholars between the 6th and 10th centuries AD/CE.

Also, the Masoretic text was heavily influenced by the Rabbinical writings the Mishnah (c. 200 AD/CE) and the Gemara (c. 500 AD/CE), with one purpose being to "correct" the "mis-interpretations" of The Hebrew Bible contained in The Septuagint (LXX).

Since the Septuagint was translated into Koine Greek by 70 (or 72) Hebrew scholars of The Twelve Tribes of Israel — starting in the 3rd Century BC/BCE and continuing into the 1st Century BC/BCE, and since those were the accepted scriptures of Christ and his contemporaries (even quoted by Christ), then if one wants to study the same scriptures that the Bereans did, one must study the Greek LXX (Septuagint).

The above arguement is nonesense. The Jews of that day had direct access to the original Hebrew scriptures. They did not need the LXX. However when the New Testament writers were quoting from the Old Testament in their Greek New Testament writings they quoted from the already accepted Greek version of the Old Testament instead of translating from the Hebrew as they wrote.

References

• Bereans / John Barclay: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. E. A. Livingstone. Oxford University Press, 2000

External links

• Berea, Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
• Bereans, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.
• Berean Church International

• Lincoln Berean Church, one of the Berean Fellowship of Churches
• The Berean Beacon Evangelistic ministry that "places particular emphasis on the evangelization and conversion of Catholics".
• Catholic Answers article : "Why the Bereans rejected sola scriptura"
• Diocese of Lincoln Q&A (Catholic POV).
• Berean Statement of Faith from Berean National Convention, September 25, 2002
• The Berean Call
• The Noble Berean
• Berean Baptist Church of Orange Park, FL
• The Bereans: Apologetics Research Ministry, Philippines

• Protestantism