GREECE, GREEKS, GRECIANS [smith]
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]
