#36 - The Berean Test: How Socini Read Acts 17:11

Acts 17:11 describes the Bereans as "noble" because they examined Paul's teaching against the Scriptures. Socinian writers seized that single sentence as a hermeneutical key: scripture must be examined by reason, not accepted on ecclesiastical authority. This episode begins a close reading of Acts 17:11 as Socinians read it—its biblical context, its reception in early and Reformation traditions, and why the Polish Brethren and the Racovian Academy made the Berean model central to their method of scriptural inquiry.