BEREA. - Ancient name of three cities.
1) B. of MACEDONIA (Lat. Beroea). An important city on the slopes of Mount Bermius (present-day Verria), 68 km northwest of Salonica. Subject to Rome from 146, it was made capital of the third district of Macedonia. At the rise of Christianity there was an important Jewish colony there, where St. Paul, fleeing from Thessalonica, preached successfully (Act. 17, 10-14). One of the Apostle’s companions, Sopater, was from B. (Act. 20, 4).
2) B. of PALESTINE, probably to be identified with el-Bireh, north of Jerusalem, is called Bě'ěrah, Vulg. Bera (Iud. 9, 21; cf. I Par. 7, 37), and Bě'ěrath, Vulg. Beroth, “wells” (Ios. 9, 17). Here Bacchides and Alcimus, generals of Demetrius Soter, encamped shortly before the battle in which Judas Maccabaeus met his death (I Mach. 9, 4; Vulg. Berea).
3) B. of SYRIA. The Greek name Běpòtz was given by Seleucus Nicator (311-280) to the very ancient city of Aleppo (Halab) in northern Syria. Aleppo (v.), together with nearby Carchemish on the Euphrates, was profoundly influenced by the Assyro-Hittite civilizations. The impious and ambitious Menelaus was put to death there (163 B.C.) by Antiochus V Eupator (II Mach. 13, 4 [Greek text]; Fl. Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XII, 9, 7).