Acts 17:10,11

Berea— Was another city of Macedonia, not far from Pella, the birth-place of Alexander the Great. There is a peculiar spirit and propriety in the expression, These were more noble, &c. As the Jews boasted that they were free and noble by virtue of their descent from Abraham and the other patriarchs, these Bereans, imitating the rationalfaith of their great progenitor, were ευγενεστεροι, his more genuine offspring. The word literally signifies more nobly born; and in a secondary sense implies candour, impartiality, good disposition, and elevated ideas, or noble conceptions, when applied to the mind. The word προθυμιας, tendered readiness, signifies avidity or alacrity; and the original of the next clause implies, "a careful, anxious, and minute examination or research into the scriptures." They did not this from any suspicion of the veracity of Paul and Silas, but that, by comparing their assertions with the scriptures, they might build their faith on rational grounds, and, at the same time that they convinced themselves under the blessing and grace of God, might be enabled also to convince others.