This article on reading the Bible like Bereans was originally a lecture given at a men’s conference at Grace Road Church in Rochester, NY on January 25, 2025.
If you grew up in church like me, at some point you probably heard the call to “be a Berean!” If you didn’t, or if you have no idea what I’m talking about, it comes from the book of Acts. After planting the Philippian and Thessalonian churches, Paul and Silas travelled to the nearby city of Berea. There, as was Paul’s custom, he went first to the local Jewish synagogue to proclaim the gospel of Jesus from the OT Scriptures. And in Acts 17:11 we read that the Bereans “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
To “be a Berean” then is to be someone who follows this example. The term has come to refer to a person who loves the Bible and the study of God’s Word. As we’ll see, this response is one that should characterize every disciple of Jesus. The call to be a Berean is a really good one! However, the picture that often comes to mind of a person pouring over the pages of their personal Bible, having private devotions, listening to a theology podcast on 1.5x speed in their earbuds isn’t exactly what it means to be a Berean. It’s not a bad image, just not a Berean one. For one thing, we must understand that people back then didn’t even have Bibles. But more importantly, it’s because the Berean Jews did more than just “take up and read” the Scriptures. They carefully studied the Scriptures together, and they did so to behold Christ.
Today we have the immense blessing of printed Bibles in our own language and in a variety of translations; with convenient chapters, verses, and headers; with all kinds of cross-references, notes, and maps inside. Moreover, we have all of this and much much more in digital formats. But just having our Bibles and reading them does not mean that we are being good readers. So how can we answer the call to “be a Berean” today? We must learn from them (as well as Paul and our Lord himself) to take up and read carefully, communally, and Christologically
Reading Carefully
It says in Acts 17:11 that the Berean Jews “were more noble than those in Thessalonica.” Those Jews became jealous and started a mob riot in response to Paul’s gospel, but not these Jews. These Jews were ready to listen, to hear what he had to say. They “received the word with all eagerness.” Not only did they give Paul a fair hearing, but they wanted to know if what he was saying about the Christ was true. So, the Bereans were “examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” To “examine” means to carefully study, research, or evaluate something. They were essentially going to the Scriptures of the OT in order to question them as though they were witnesses to the truth of Paul’s claims.1C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, International Critical Commentary. And they didn’t just do this on Sabbath days but every day. Why? Because if Israel’s Messiah had really come, and the power of sin had really been undone, and the restoration of all things had really begun, it would indeed be good news. So, they took up and read carefully.
Reading carefully doesn’t just mean taking the time to parse every verb, do tons of word studies, and pay attention to all of the grammatical-historical details of the text. Far too often what we call “Bible study” becomes a mere intellectual exercise, a pursuit of knowledge as an end in itself. The goal becomes to be a Bible black-belt, to be a “sword-drill” champion who has mastered the text. But the goal should be to be mastered by the text. Reading carefully requires prayer, asking God to open his Word to us by his Spirit. It involves meditating on it day and night, literally muttering it out loud over and over until it saturates us and shapes us. It demands a lifetime of reading and re-reading, of hearing and re-hearing.
As for Bible study, reading carefully means not just examining the grammatical-historical details but also the redemptive-historical details of every text. We need to look not only at a passage’s immediate context but also its canonical context—how it fits in God’s big picture. We can say it like this: We must aim to read rightly and fully. We need to bring the rest of Scripture to every passage we read. The Bible makes more sense the more you see how interconnected it all is. Don’t just see what’s going on in the one “episode” you’re watching, but watch it with the rest of “the show” in mind as well. To do this, we need to learn the “language” of the Bible. By this I don’t just mean learn Hebrew or Greek. I mean entering the text and the world it creates with all its images, figures, and themes, and getting to know our way around.2Peter Leithart, On Earth as in Heaven: Theopolis Fundamentals (Bellingham, WA; Lexham Press, 2022), 145. We need to stop and smell the poetry.
Peter Leithart writes: “God wrote Scripture in a mode closer to poetry than to scientific or philosophical prose.”3Peter Leithart, On Earth as in Heaven: Theopolis Fundamentals (Bellingham, WA; Lexham Press, 2022), 145. In other words, even when reading narratives or genealogies, we must remember that God has given us these words in this way for a purpose (more on this later). For example, in 1 Samuel, Saul is repeatedly described as holding a spear in his hand. But who is the only other person in the book who holds a spear? Goliath! And like Goliath, Saul is opposed to David and out to devour him. He’s a beast, a dragon; he’s an anti-Christ. In 2 Samuel, when David is finally anointed king, we read five times in chap. 2 that he is to “go up” to Hebron. Yes, Hebron was literally the highest city in the land. But it also shows Yahweh exalting his suffering servant to begin his reign as Israel’s true and faithful king.
Reading Communally
Luke tells us in Acts 17:11 that the Bereans were “examining the Scriptures daily.” When we read this, it’s tempting to picture them reading their Bibles every day, comparing their notes from Paul’s three-point sermon over the weekend with what the Scriptures had to say for themselves. But, as I mentioned, there’s a problem with this picture, since the Bereans didn’t have printed, personal Bibles. So, the question is, how would they have been able to do this? How would they have carefully studied the Scriptures? The answer is by going to the local synagogue.
The Jewish synagogue was the place where the scrolls with the Scriptures were kept. Here they were read aloud, taught, discussed, and debated. It was a place of study, “where members of the Jewish community as well as visiting Jewish teachers could consult the texts.”4Eckhard J. Schnabel, Acts, Expanded Digital Edition., Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 710 Therefore, rather than cracking open their ESV hardbacks at home, the Bereans would have been assembling together for a communal discussion of the Scriptures. Most likely a scribe would have been consulting and reading aloud specific passages as they were mentioned.
Now why does this matter? Why bring this point out? Am I saying that to be like the Bereans we’re not supposed to study our Bibles at home? Of course not. But there is definitely something to be said about how we must not only take up and read carefully; we must also do so communally. Consider for a moment how the reading and hearing of Scripture happens in the story of the Bible. In both the Old and New Testaments, we find the people of God engaged in communal reading. The times when God’s Word is being read aloud, it’s in Israel’s corporate gatherings. Moses, Joshua, Josiah, and Ezra all read the Law before the whole assembly of Israel. Every seven years, all the people were to gather together to hear the Law read (Deut. 31:11-12). Paul commanded his letters be read out loud to the churches (Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:27). He tells Timothy to be devoted to “the public reading of Scripture” (1 Tim. 4:13). And John says “the one who reads aloud the words of [the Revelation]” will be blessed (Rev. 1:3).
This kind of communal reading was the primary way the people of God encountered his Word. However, one of the effects of our ever-increasing secular, individualistic, and digital age is that when we consider the spiritual discipline of Bible intake, we think only of our quiet times! Alastair Roberts makes a profound point here, worth quoting at length:
“Our primary encounter with the text has moved from the context of the communal Bible reading in the assembly of the church to the private Bible reading of the individual Christian. . . . With such shifts, there has often been a privatization of our understanding of the sense of the text: we can forget that the Scriptures were largely addressed not to detached individuals but to communities of reading—communities where interpretation was a collective activity overseen by skilled readers and guided by traditions of scriptural reflection.”5Alastair Roberts, “Reading Scripture ‘Like a Berean’ May Look Different Than You Think,” The Gospel Coalition (July 30, 2020), https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/berean-different/
In other words, if we fail to take up and read communally, we can fall into the deadly trap of individualism—believing the lie that exegesis, the art of hermeneutics, theology, and eventually the Christian life can be done on our own, apart from the context of the church. If we are to read the Bible well, then we must learn to take up and read together. If we are to interpret the Bible rightly and understand it clearly, then we must read both carefully and communally. “We need one another to discern the teaching of Scripture.”6Griffin Gulledge, “The Bereans Had No Bibles: Re-envisioning Acts 17,” The Gospel Coalition (July 31, 2021), https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-bereans-had-no-bibles-2/ Yes, we are all Spirit-filled interpreters, but we are a community of Spirit-filled interpreters! We need the rest of the royal priesthood to read rightly and fully. We need other saints with different gifts, backgrounds, and experiences to help us see what we might otherwise miss. Yes, every new covenant member fully knows the Lord and has access to him, but the risen Christ has also given the gift of teachers to his church that we might learn to read better! Some readers are still on the milk; others have moved on to solid food. We need to learn from them.
So, keep reading your Bible at home. Keep listening to good sermons and biblical podcasts. Keep reading books and studying theology. But do so, like Bereans, in the context of a local church, under the guidance of pastor-teachers, recognizing your need for the rest of the body of Christ.
Reading Christologically
Remember what Paul was doing in all these Jewish synagogues. Acts 17:2-3 tells us: He “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.’” The Bereans who received his word with eagerness gave themselves to examining the Scriptures. Why? “To see if these things were so” (v. 11). What “things”? This very gospel! Their careful, communal study of the Scriptures was in order to see if they really were about Jesus. It wasn’t just to see if Paul was in line with the rule of faith set forth in the Scriptures of the OT, but if the Scriptures themselves really said what Paul was saying that they said.
And what those who search out these things will find is that this is exactly what the Scriptures are saying. The Lord Jesus himself said that the Scriptures of the OT were all written “in this way, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead” (Luke 24:46-47). Every sermon in the book of Acts makes this very point. The Apostles all interpreted the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings in this way. Peter said that Moses and “all the prophets who have spoken” proclaimed the good news of Jesus (Acts 3:23). Because it is the Spirit of Christ who inspired the Scriptures, they all speak of his sufferings and glory (1 Pet. 1:10-11). Irenaeus writes, “If one carefully reads the Scriptures, he will find there the word on the subject of Christ. . . . He is indeed the hidden treasure in the field—the field in fact is the world— but in truth, the hidden treasure in the Scriptures is Christ.”7Irenaeus in Christopher A. Hall, Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 192. The Bible is one unified story about God’s redemption in Jesus Christ. If our careful and communal study of the Bible is not bring you to see the glories of Christ, we’ve missed the point. We must learn from the Bereans and read not just carefully and communally but Christologically.
While it’s true that the whole Bible is about Christ, it’s also true that the whole Bible is about what Augustine called the totus Christus, the “whole Christ,” head and body. Since the whole Bible is about Christ, the head, it’s about the church, the body.8 Peter Leithart, On Earth as in Heaven: Theopolis Fundamentals (Bellingham, WA; Lexham Press, 2022), 122. And there’s a really wonderful method we can use to interpret the Scriptures in this way. It’s called the Quadriga, and it’s a historic method that looks at the fourfold sense of each passage: the literal sense, the Christological sense, the moral sense, and the eschatological sense. The literal sense tells us what happened. It asks, “What does this text say?” The Christological sense tells us what to believe. It asks, “What does this text say about Jesus?” The moral sense tells us what to do. It asks, “What does this text say about us in Jesus?” And the eschatological sense tells us what to hope for. It asks, “What does this text say about our future in Jesus?”9 Peter Leithart, On Earth as in Heaven: Theopolis Fundamentals (Bellingham, WA; Lexham Press, 2022), 226-227.
As an example, let’s look at the familiar story of David and Goliath.
- First: What does this text say? God’s faithful king (David) defeats the Philistine champion (Goliath) and wins the victory for a fearful people (Israel). The battle belongs to Lord! We learn the lessons of God’s power to save, the bold faith of David, and the unbelief of Israel.
- Second: What does this text say about Jesus? Jesus is the Christ, the faithful king who has crushed the head of the serpent for his fearful people. He defeated the power of sin and death by his atoning death and victorious resurrection. The battle belongs to the Lord!
- Third: What does this text say about us in Jesus? Well, what happened after David killed Goliath? The once fearful army rose with a shout, pursued the enemy, struck them down, and plundered their camp! Brothers, yes we were once the fearful, the faithless. But now, in Christ, we are more than conquerors! God will crush Satan under our feet (Rom. 16:20)!
- Fourth: What does this text say about our future in Jesus? The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Christ has crushed the devil’s head, but his second coming will be his decapitation. One day, the battle will be over, and we will rule with Christ.
By reading the Scriptures in this way, you get the original context; you get the gospel of Christ; you get an example for Christians to believe; and you even get the hope of the consummation to which we must look forward in eager anticipation. You get faith, hope, and love.
Be Bereans
I hope it’s clear that the noble example of the Bereans is one we would do well to follow today. Why? Because they received the word of God eagerly and examined the Scriptures daily. Because they were good readers; they took up and read carefully, communally, and Christologically. But there’s actually a further reason we should follow their example. It’s because of what we read in Acts 17:12: “Therefore [as a result of this] many of them believed.” The Bereans were good readers because they believed the gospel faithfully. They heard and obeyed the gospel.
This is the goal. As it turns out, the call to be a Berean is simply the call to be a Christian. It’s to believe that Jesus is the Christ, to let his words abide in us, to follow him in the obedience of faith, to live as though Jesus truly is Israel’s king and the world’s Lord. So, in all of our careful and prayerful study; as we devote ourselves to the Word of God along with our brothers and sisters in our local churches; and as we aim to see the Lord Jesus Christ on every page of our Bibles; may we not fail to join in with those who hear the gospel in faith.
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers (1 Thess. 2:13)
Matt Bedzyk is the lead pastor of Emmanuel Community Church where he has faithfully served in many capacities for most of his life. He received his Master of Divinity from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and currently oversees preaching and liturgy. Matt and his wife Brianna have four children: Lorien, Owen, Vivian, and Simon. In his spare time, you can find him brewing coffee, enjoying music, quoting Frasier with his wife, and dancing with his kids.
