the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Greece
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
or Only occasionally does the Bible mention Greece by that name, though it frequently mentions parts of Greece. The ancient land of Javan, for instance, was possibly part of Greece (Genesis 10:4; Isaiah 66:19; Ezekiel 27:13). In local language, Greece was Hellas, and Greeks were Hellenes.
Greece’s influence on the world of the New Testament came through events resulting from the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC. Yet, though there was a Greek Empire, there was no ‘official’ Greek nation. The country known today as Greece consisted in those times of various separate states. The most important of these was the northern state of Macedonia, which was the centre of the Greek Empire (Acts 16:12; 2 Corinthians 8:1; see MACEDONIA). In New Testament times the region referred to as Greece was the southern part of the Greek peninsular known as Achaia (Acts 19:21; Acts 20:1-2; see ACHAIA).
The Greek Empire
The rise of Greek power in the pre-Christian era was rapid and spectacular. Alexander the Great, having come to power in Macedonia in 336 BC, rapidly overran what remained of the Persian Empire, and within a few years ruled a region that stretched from Greece to India (Daniel 8:5-7; Daniel 8:20-21; Daniel 11:2-3).
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