Steven Carr

Acts 17:11

'"But the people of Beroea were more open minded than those in Thessalonica, and gladly listened to the message. They searched the Scriptures day by day to check up on Paul and Silas' statements, to see if they were really so."

Why would open-minded people search the scriptures to see if what the evangelists said about Jesus was true?

Because that is where information about Jesus came from?

Toto

Yes. Also in Luke 24, the risen Jesus is portrayed as explaining the Scriptures. But it wasn't just a matter of reading them - one's mind had to be opened, and the scriptures read in a particular way.

Luke 24:45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

andrewcriddle

Presumably what Luke means is that Paul said that the scriptures foretold things such as a suffering messiah and that the Beroeans checked up on this.

Andrew Criddle

Steven Carr

Very likely. But why would the Beroeans be impressed by that, as the Jewish scriptures had no authority for them?

Let's try a modern day analogy.

If somebody came to me and told me that Andrew Criddle had been raised from the dead last week, would I only be open-minded if I only accepted that as having really happened if it had been foretold in Old Moore's Almanack?

I would be open-minded if I accepted the resurrection on Andrew on the basis of evidence not prophecy.

Surely the passage implies that early Christians were very closed-minded and only believed what fitted in with their view of scripture.

If it wasn't in the Bible. then it wasn't true - no matter how many witnesses there were.

911

Are you ignoring the words "more" open minded?

If Jesus was addressing a bunch of scientists; he might have used a different approach?

Steven Carr

I am going to be very open minded. If you can find that in the Bible, I will believe it.

Steven Avery

Hi Steven... Without superimposing your own views.. from where do you get this idea that the Tanach had no authority to the Bereans ?

Acts 17:10-12
And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.

Shalom,
Steven Avery
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messianic_Apologetic

Steven Carr

True, possibly the eyewitness testimony of a God who could raise people from the dead was only convincing to 'open-minded' people ie those who already regarded the scriptures as authoritative and tested events by seeing if they conformed with the Old Testament.

Were there people who believed that Jesus had risen from the dead, but did not 'search the scriptures' to see if that had fulfilled prophecy?


Presumably there must have been and they did not become Christians , despite being convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead.

CJD

Indeed, most early Christians were indeed either Jewish, proselytes, or God-fearers. And as praxeus points out, the pericope has Paul and Silas going into the synagogue in Beroea.

I'm sure a great many strangely found that they believed the promises set forth in Jesus through someone's missionary preaching, without having a knowledge whatsoever of the TNK. Some believe without seeing, some believe after poking their fingers in Jesus' side, yet all are called by grace. Let's not stretch the Berean episode to mean anything more than what it simply is — a commendation on Luke's part to the εá½?γενέστεÏ?οι Bereans (was this comparative judgment grounded in local knowledge? So Witherington, The Acts of the Apostles, 509).

If we can presume this, then we can presume that Jesus actually was resurrected. But I doubt anyone like this did exist, since "being convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead" is part and parcel of what it means to be a Christian.

CJD

Steven Carr

So the way to be open-minded about what evangelists like Paul were preaching was to check if Jesus was resurrected from the dead, by reading the Old Testament?

According to Acts 17:11, they checked that Paul was preaching was true by reading the Old Testament.

This is not how we evalaute claims that Jesus really was resurrected.

And Acts 17:11 means they did not check by evaluating any eyewitness testimony.