Beroea
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [1]
BERÅ’A . 1 . A town in the district of Macedonia called Emathia. The earliest certain reference to it occurs in an inscription of the end of the 4th cent. b.c. After the battle of Pydna (b.c. 168) it was the first city which surrendered to the Romans. In winter b.c. 49 48 it was the headquarters of Pompey’s infantry. In St. Paul’s time there was a Jewish community there to which he preached the gospel with success ( Acts 17:10; Acts 17:13 [Sopater, a native] Acts 20:4 ). It was a populous city, and is in modern times called Verria by Greeks, Karaferia by Turks, and Ber by Slavs.
2 . The place where Antiochus Eupator caused Menelaus, the ex-high priest, to be put to death ( 2Ma 13:4 ). It is now the well-known Haleb or Aleppo , with about 100,000 inhabitants.
3 . Mentioned 1Ma 9:4 , perhaps the same as Beeroth ( Joshua 9:17 ) or Beroth ( 1Es 5:19 ); modern Bireh , about 10 miles N. of Jerusalem.
A. Souter.
Holman Bible Dictionary [2]
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
Beroe'a ( Βέροια , also written Βέῤῥοια according to Vossius, Thucyd. 1, 61, the Macedonian for Φέροια ), the name of two cities mentioned in Scripture.
1. A city in the north of Palestine, mentioned in 2 Maccabees 13:4, in connection with the invasion of Judaea by Antiochus Eupator, as the scene of the miserable death of Menelaus. This seems to be the city in which Jerome says that certain persons lived who possessed and used Matthew's Hebrew Gospel ( De Vir. Illust. c. 3). This city (the name of which is written also Βερόη ; comp. Beroansis, Pliny 5, 23) was situated in Syria (Strabo, 16:751), about midway between Antioch and Hieropolis (Ptol. 5, 15), being about two days' journey from each (Julian, Epist. 27; Theodoret, 2 22). Chosroes, in his inroad upon Syria, A.D. 540, demanded a tribute from Beroea, which he remitted afterward, as the inhabitants were unable to pay it (Procop. Bell. Pers. 2, 7; Le Beau, Bas Empire, 9, 13).; but in A.D. 611 he occupied this city (Gibbon, 8:225). It owed its Macedonian name Beroea to Seleucus Nicator (Niceph. Hist. Eccl. 14, 39), and continued to be called so till the conquest of the Arabs under Abu Obeidah, A.D. 638, when it resumed its ancient name, Chaleb or Chalybon (Schultens, Index Geogr. s.v. Haleb). It afterward became the capital of the sultans of the race of Hamadan, but in the latter part of the tenth century was united to the Greek empire by the conquests of Zimisces, emperor of Constantinople, with which city it at length fell into the hands of the Saracens. It is now called by Europeans Aleppo (Hardouin, ad Pliny 2, 267), but by the natives still Halab, a famous city of the modern Orient (Mannert, VI, 1, 514 sq.; Busching, Erdbeschr. V, 1, 285). The excavations a little way eastward of the town are the only vestiges of ancient remains in the neighborhood; they are very extensive, and consist of suites of large apartments, which are separated by portions of solid rock, with massive pilasters left at intervals to support the mass above (Chesney, Euphrat. Exped. 1, 435). Its present population is somewhat more than 100,000 souls (see Penny Cyclopaedia, s.v. Haleb; M'Culloch, Geogr. Dict. s.v. Aleppo; Russel's Nat. Hist. of Aleppo, passim). (See Helbon).
2. A city of Macedonia, to which the apostle Paul retired with Silas and Timotheus, in the course of his first visit to Europe, on being persecuted in Thessalonica ( Acts 17:10), and from which, on being again persecuted by emissaries from Thessalonica, he withdrew to the sea for the purpose of proceeding to Athens ( Ib. 14, 15). The community of Jews must have been considerable in Beroea, and their character is described in very favorable terms ( Ib. 11; see Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, 1, 339). Sopater, one of Paul's missionary companions, was from this place ( Βεροιαῖος , Acts 20:4; comp. Beroeus, Liv. 23, 39). Beroea was situated in the northern part of the province of Macedon (Pliny 4, 10), in the district called Emathia (Ptolem. 3, 13, 39), on a river which flows into the Haliacmon, and upon one of the lower ridges of Mount Bermius (Strabo, vii, p. 390). It lay 30 Roman miles from Pella (Peut. Tab.), and 51 from Thessalonica (Itin. Antonin.), and is mentioned as one of the cities of the thema of Macedonia, (Constant. De Them. 2, 2). Coins of it are rare (Rasche, 1, 1492; Eckhel, 2, 69). Beroea was attacked, but unsuccessfully, by the Athenian forces under Callias, B C. 432 (Thucyd. 1, 61). It surrendered to the Roman consul after the battle of Pydna (Liv. 44, 45), and was assigned, with its territory, to the third region of Macedonia (Liv. 45, 29). B.C. 168. It was a large and populous town (Lucian, Asinus, 34), being afterward called Irenopolis (Cellarii Notit. 1, 1038), and is now known as Verria or Kara-Verria, which has been fully described by Leake (Northern Greece, 3, 290 sq.) and by Cousinery (Voyage dans la Macedoine, 1, 69 sq.). Situated on the eastern slope of the Olympian mountain range, with an abundant. supply of water, and commanding an extensive view of the plain of the Axius and Haliacmon, it is regarded as one of the most agreeable towns in Rumili, and has now 15,000 or 20,000 inhabitants. A few ancient remains, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine, still exist here. Two roads are laid down in the itineraries between Thessalonica and Beroea, one passing by Pella. Paul and his companions may have traveled by either of them. Two roads also connect Beroea with Dium, one passing by Pydna. It was probably from Dium that Paul sailed to Athens, leaving Silas and Timotheus behind; and possibly 1 Thessalonians 3:2 refers to a journey of Timotheus from Beroea, not from Athens. (See Timothy).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
be - rē´a ( Βέροια or Βέρροια , Beroia ):
(1) A town of southwestern Macedonia, in the district of Emathia. It lay at the foot of Mt. Bermius, on a tributary of the Haliacmon, and seems to have been an ancient town, though the date of its foundation is uncertain. A passage in Thucydides (i.61) relating to the year 432 bc probably refers to another place of the same name, but an inscription ( Inscr Graec , II, 5, 296i) proves its existence at the end of the 4th century bc, and it is twice mentioned by Polybius (xxvii.8; xxviii.8). After the battle of Pydba in 168 bc Berea was the first city to surrender to Rome and fell in the third of the four regions into which Macedonia was divided (Livy xliv.45; xlv.29). Paul and Silas came to Berea from Thessalonica which they had been forced by an uproar to leave, and preached in the synagogue to the Jews, many of whom believed after a candid examination of the apostolic message in the light of their Scriptures ( Acts 17:10 , Acts 17:11 ). A number of "Gr women of honorable estate and of men" also believed, but the advent of a body of hostile Jews from Thessalonica created a disturbance in consequence of which Paul had to leave the city, though Silas and Timothy stayed there for a few days longer ( Acts 17:12-15 ). Perhaps the Sopater of Berea who accompanied Paul to Asia on his last journey to Jerusalem was one of his converts on this visit ( Acts 20:4 ). Berea, which was one of the most populous cities of Macedonia early became a bishopric under the metropolitan of Thessalonica and was itself made a metropolis by Andronicus Ii (1283-1328): there is a tradition that the first bishop of the church was Onesimus. It played a prominent part in the struggles between the Greeks and the Bulgarians and Serbs, and was finally conquered by the Turks in 1373-74. The town, which still bears among the Greeks its ancient name (pronounced Verria ) though called by the Turks Karaferia , possesses but few remains of antiquity with the exception of numerous inscriptions (Leake, Travels in Northern Greece , III, 290 if; Cousinéry, Voyage dans la Macédoine , I, 57ff; Dimitsas, Makedonia in Greek, 57ff).
(2) The place where Menelaus the ex-high priest was executed by order of Antiochus Eupator, the victim, according to local custom, being cast from a tower 50 cubits high into a bed of ashes (2 Macc 13:3ff). It was the ancient city of Ḥalab , lying about midway between Antioch and Hierapolis. Seleucus Nicator gave it the name Berea. It was a city of importance under the Moslems in the Middle Ages, when the old name again asserted itself, and remains to the present time.
The name "Aleppo" came to us through the Venetian traders in the days before the great overland route to India via Aleppo lost its importance through the discovery of the passage round the Cape. Aleppo is now a city of nearly 130,000 inhabitants. The governor exercises authority over a wide district extending from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean.
(3) (Βερέα , Beréa ); A place mentioned in 1 Macc 9:4. It may be identical with Beeroth (which see) in Benjamin, a Hivite town, 8 miles North of Jerusalem, or with the modern Bı̄rez - Zait , 1 1/2 miles Northwest of Jifneh .
