| <p> or GREECE, both names occurring in the English Scriptures. The boundaries of the country which received this name differed under the different governments which ruled over it. [[Thus]] the [[Greece]] of the Old [[Testament]] is not exactly the same as that of the New: the former including Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus, [[Hellas]] or Greece Proper, and the [[Peloponnesus]] or Morea; while the latter excludes Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epirus. But the Romans, in the time of the Apostles, had, in fact, made two divisions of these countries. The first, which was that of Macedonia, included also [[Thessaly]] and Epirus; and the other, that of Achaia, all the rest of Greece, which is, properly speaking, the Greece of the New Testament. But the term <em> [[Greek]] </em> admits of a larger interpretation, and applies not only to the inhabitants of Greece Proper, but to those of [[Asia]] Minor, Syria, and Egypt, over nearly the whole of the former of which countries, and great part of the two latter, [[Grecian]] colonies and the Grecian language had extended themselves. In fact, in the two books of the Maccabees, and in those of the New Testament, the word <em> Greek </em> commonly implies a Gentile. </p> <p> <strong> 2. </strong> The [[Scripture]] has but little reference to Greece till the time of Alexander, whose conquests extended into Asia, where Greece had hitherto been of no importance. [[Yet]] that some intercourse was maintained with these countries from Jerusalem, may be inferred from the desire of [[Baasha]] to shut up all passage between [[Jerusalem]] and Joppa, which was its port, by the building of Ramah; and the anxiety of [[Asa]] to counteract his scheme, 1 Kings 15:2; 1 Kings 15:17 . Greece was certainly intended by the [[Prophet]] Daniel under the symbol of the single-horned goat; and it is probable that when he calls Greece Chittim, he spoke the language of the [[Hebrew]] nation, rather than that of the [[Persian]] court. After the establishment of the Grecian dynasties in Asia, [[Judea]] could not but be considerably affected by them; and the books of the [[Maccabees]] afford proofs of this. The [[Roman]] power, superseding the Grecian establishments, yet left traces of Greek language, customs, &c, to the days of the Herods, when the [[Gospel]] history commences. By the activity of the Apostles, and especially by that of St. Paul, the Gospel was propagated in those countries which used the Grecian dialects: hence, we are interested in the study of this language. [[Moreover]] as Greece, like all other countries, had its peculiar manners, we are not able to estimate properly an epistle written to those who dwell where they prevailed, without a competent acquaintance with the manners themselves, with the sentiments and reasonings of those who practised them, and with the arguments employed in their defence by those who adhered to them. </p> | | == References == |
