"Examined the Scriptures"? the Meaning of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in Acts 17:11 (Critical Essay‪)‬

Discussions about Paul's use of Scripture have focused significant attention on the question of literacy rates and access to scrolls and other manuscripts in ancient synagogues and the early church. (1) If most of the people in Paul's churches could not read and those who could had little if any access to biblical texts, they could not be expected to have an accurate knowledge of the biblical passages cited or alluded to in his letters and would not have been able to look them up to check on the accuracy of his interpretations. Based on the standard translations of Acts 17:11, modern readers may be tempted to imagine a setting in which most or many members of a community (or at least several people) had access to a copy of a Bible that they could use to consult the relevant texts. As traditionally translated, the text suggests that members of an ancient synagogue would indeed be able to examine the Scriptures to see if Paul's interpretations were credible. Given the realities of ancient employment of biblical texts, such a scenario seems extremely unlikely. Still, Acts 17:11 would seem to be an important datum for understanding how Scripture was engaged in the ancient synagogue since, issues of historical accuracy aside, the depiction of events in Beroea presumably reflects a realistic scenario. One would think that further evidence of ancient approaches to the study of Scripture might be found by looking for other places where the verb [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is used for the examination of ancient texts. But there do not seem to be any other such instances, and it turns out, as shall be argued below, that although this text would seem (based on its traditional translation) to provide positive evidence regarding the direct handling and study of the Scriptures in ancient synagogues, it does not actually provide such evidence.