Berea (Greece) Monument to St. Paul
Acts 17:10-12 “The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.”
I can’t tell you how many times I have looked at these verses. I have used them in confirmation classes to emphasize the power, the importance and the eagerness we should have in our lives for God’s Word. In our preparations for the trip to Greece I knew we would see Berea.
Berea has a mosaic monument to St Paul and his time spent in Berea after having to hastily leave Thessaloniki when the Jews there were determined to do him harm. Acts 18:10 records that Paul went to the Jewish synagogue in Berea and reasoned with them showing from scripture how Jesus is the Messiah. It says that many believed including not a few Greek women and men of high standing.
The steps of the mosaic monument are “said to be steps from the original synagogue” on which Paul stood and taught - I don’t seem to find any reliable archaeological evidence of that, so we don’t really know that for sure.
Berea or Veroia still has a small synagogue with ties to the early Jewish community. Sadly in 1943, the community had 850 members, of whom 680 were killed in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
We also went to a Byzantine Museum in Berea specializing in Greek Orthodox iconography - worth a stop if you’re in the area.
Near Berea is Vergina - the site of the tomb of King Philip II of Macedonia (father of Alexander the Great ). This tomb site was discovered in 1977. 336 BC is when Philip II was assassinated at Aigai (first capital of Macedonia which turns out to be here in little Vergina). The tombs were intact and the finds are incredible. The golden crowns are beautiful. The museum was built around the tombs - so you enter into the side of the tumulus (burial mound) and walk down into the tomb.
