King James Bible Dictionary

The term Grecian, or Hellenist, denotes a Jew by birth or religion who spoke Greek. It is used chiefly of foreign Jews and proselytes in contrast with the Hebrews speaking the vernacular Hebrew or Aram'an.

Bible Dictionary of Tract Society .

GRE'CIAN, adjective Pertaining to Greece.

GRE'CIAN, noun A native of Greece. Also, a Jew who understood Greek. Acts 6:1.

1. One well versed in the Greek language.

Hellenists, Greek-Jews; Jews born in a foreign country, and thus did not speak Hebrew (Acts 6:1; 9:29), nor join in the Hebrew services of the Jews in Palestine, but had synagogues of their own in Jerusalem. Joel 3:6 =Greeks.

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.

Inhabitants of:

Called Gentiles
Mark 7:26; John 7:35; Romans 2:10; Romans 3:9; 1 Corinthians 10:32; 1 Corinthians 12:13

Desire to see Jesus
John 12:20-23

Marry among the Jews
Acts 16:1

Accept the Messiah
Acts 17:2-4; Acts 17:12; Acts 17:34

Persecute the early Christians
Acts 6:9-14; Acts 9:29; Acts 18:17

Gentiles called Greeks
Romans 10:12; Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11

Schools of philosophy in Athens
Acts 19:9

Philosophy of
1 Corinthians 1:22-23

Poets of
Acts 17:28

Prophecies concerning
Daniel 10:20; Zech 9:13
Athens; Epicureans; Stoicism

GREECE, noun [Latin gressus. It ought to be written grese, but it is entirely obsolete.] A flight of steps.

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 Ezekiel 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]