Lexicon :: Strong's G915 - barbaros

βάρβαρος, -ον;
1. properly, one whose speech is rude, rough, harsh, as if repeating the syllables βαρβάρ (cf. Strabo 14, 2, 28, p. 662; ὠνοματοπεποίηται ἡ λέξις, Etym. Magn. [188, 11 (but Gaisf. reads βράγχος for βάρβαρος); cf. Curtius, § 394; Vanicek, p. 561]); hence,
2. one who speaks a foreign or strange language which is not understood by another (Herodotus 2, 158 βαρβάρους πάντας οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι καλέουσι τοὺς μὴ σφίσι ὁμογλώσσους, Ovid. trist. 5, 10, 37 barbarus hic ego sum, quia non intelligor ulli); so 1 Corinthians 14:11.
3. The Greeks used βάρβαρος of any foreigner ignorant of the Greek language and the Greek culture, whether mental or moral, with the added notion, after the Persian war, of rudeness and brutality. Hence, the word is applied in the N. T., but not reproachfully, in Acts 28:2, 4, to the inhabitants of Malta [i. e. Μελίτη, which see], who were of Phœnician or Punic origin; and to those nations that had, indeed, some refinement of manners, but not the opportunity of becoming Christians, as the Scythians, Colossians 3:11 [but cf. Bp. Lightfoot at the passage]. But the phrase Ἕλληνές τε καὶ βάρβαροι forms also a periphrasis for all peoples, or indicates their diversity yet without reproach to foreigners (Plato, Theaet., p. 175 a.; Isocrates, Euag c. 17, p. 192 b.; Josephus, Antiquities 4, 2, 1 and in other writings); so in Romans 1:14. (In Philo de Abr. § 45 under the end of all nations not Jews. Josephus, b. j. prooem. 1 reckons the Jews among barbarians.) Cf. Grimm on 2 Macc. 2:21, p. 61; [Bp. Lightfoot on Col. as above; B. D. under the word Barbarian].

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