Beroia

Matthew 7:13 Enter in through the narrow gate, because wide is the gate and broad is the road which leads to destruction, and they are many who are entering in through it! 14 But because narrow is the gate and distressed the road which leads to life, then they are few who are finding it.

Of course, most of us would rather believe the comfortable lie than the uncomfortable truth. We would rather walk the easy road than the hard path. We would rather listen to those who have appointed themselves over us than take up the responsibility into our own hands and study the Word of God for ourselves. This is why Luke in Acts 17:11 said of the men of Beroia, that “These were of more noble a race than those in Thessalonika, who accepted the Word with all eagerness, each day examining the writings, if these things would hold thusly.” Those seeking to enter in through the straight gate, seek to do so through the Word of Yahweh. In the apocryphal 1 Esdras from the Septuagint, which is clearly a better copy of the Book of Ezra than what we have in the Masoretic Text, we see a striking example in chapter 7: