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Smith's Bible Dictionary - Greece
Greece, Greeks, Gre’cians
The histories of Greece and Palestine are little connected with each other. In
(Genesis 10:2-5) Moses mentions the descendants of Javan as peopling the isles
of the Gentiles; and when the Hebrews came into contact with the Ionians of
Asia Minor, and recognized them as the long-lost islanders of the western
migration, it was natural that they should mark the similarity of sound between Javan
and Iones. Accordingly the Old Testament word which is Grecia , in Authorized
Versions Greece, Greeks , etc., is in Javan (Daniel 8:21; Joel 3:6) the Hebrew,
however, is sometimes regained. (Isaiah 66:19; Ezekiel 27;13) The Greeks and
Hebrews met for the first time in the slave-market. The medium of communication
seems to have been the Tyrian slave-merchants. About B.C. 800 Joel speaks of the
Tyrians as, selling the children of Judah tot he Grecians, (Joel 3:6) and in
Ezek 27:13 The Greeks are mentioned as bartering their brazen vessels for
slaves. Prophetical notice of Greece occurs in (Daniel 8:21) etc., where the history
of Alexander and his successors is rapidly sketched. Zechariah, (Zechariah
9:13) foretells the triumphs of the Maccabees against the Greco-Syrian empire,
while Isaiah looks forward to the conversion of the Greeks, amongst other Gentiles,
through the instrumentality of Jewish missionaries. (Isaiah 66:19) The name of
the country, Greece occurs once in the New Testament, (Acts 20:2) as opposed
to Macedonia. [GENTILES]
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Bibliography Information
Smith, William, Dr. "Entry for 'Greece, Greeks, Gre’cians'". "Smith's Bible Dictionary". 1901.