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•GREECE orginally consisted of the four provinces of Macedonia, Epirus, Achaia, and Peleponnesus. In Acts 20:2 it designates only the Roman province of Macedonia. Greece was conquered by the Romans B.C. 146. After passing through various changes it was erected into an independent monarchy in 1831.
Moses makes mention of Greece under the name of Javan (Genesis 10:2-5); and this name does not again occur in the Old Testament till the time of Joel (3:6). Then the Greeks and Hebrews first came into contact in the Tyrian slave-market. Prophetic notice is taken of Greece in Daniel 8:21.
The cities of Greece were the special scenes of the labours of the apostle Paul.
•GREEK Found only in the New Testament, where a distinction is observed between “Greek” and “Grecian” (q.v.). The former is (1) a Greek by race (Acts 16:1-3; 18:17; Romans 1:14), or (2) a Gentile as opposed to a Jew (Romans 2:9, 10). The latter, meaning properly “one who speaks Greek,” is a foreign Jew opposed to a home Jew who dwelt in Palestine.
The word “Grecians” in Acts 11:20 should be “Greeks,” denoting the heathen Greeks of that city, as rendered in the Revised Version according to the reading of the best manuscripts (“Hellenes”).