Macedonians, Greeks and the New Testament

[Bill77]

Here are some of the quotes they presented:
""The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so. Many of them therefore believed; also of the Greek women of honorable estate, and not a few men."Since Beroea (Veria) is a city in Aegean Macedonia,and by mentioning Greek women they consider it a distortion of true quote.Another one:"Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia,they came to Thessalonica,where there was a synagogue of the Jews.Paul,as was his custom,went to them,and for 3 Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer,and to rise again from the dead,and saying "This Jesus,whom I proclaim to you,is the Christ".Some of them were persuaded,and joined Paul and Silas,of the devout Greeks a great multitude,and not a few of the chief women."Once again they connect Solun with Greeks.""The Apostles Paul and Silas met Greek men and women in Thessaloniki and Beroea"
(Act Apost. XVII 4, 12).I don't own a Bible,so I can't verify if this is a case of distorting quotes by them,or just Greek propaganda embedded in their version of the Bible,but any info would be useful.

First of all, the original scriptures would not have used this modern term "Greeks" which is to describe the current inhabitants of the land. instead it would have been written "Hellenes".

Next, you have to understand what a Hellene meant in ancient times. I can assure you it wasn't used to describe a person eating souvlakis drinking Turkish coffee, or someone sleeping all day.

As SOM suggested, read the start of the thread. Its only 4 pages long. You will be amazed how many answers you will find.

[George S.]

look at the evidence in solun & aegean area was a dominance of macedonians ,even till 1913.The greeks have been a minority something like 10% of the population.Also bear in mind if the bible was written in greek it would be greek biased.What would you expect.
The distinctionof greek & macedonian is there unless you want to say that greek & macedonian are the same.Of course that could be preconceived ideas.One also would need to go back to the original translation to get some quotes.

[DraganOfStip]

A Greek guy quoted these as a comment to a video on YouTube made by one of our fellow countrymen,I didn't know if they were genuine and didn't want to go uphill through Google for quotes because I knew my folks will provide,as they always did.I didn't have enough time to review every thread (there are a lot of them),so I thought I'd give this malaka some of his own medicine faster.

[Carlin]

The term "Hellene/Greek" does not even denote a specific ethnicity or nationality in the New Testament: "Hellenes/Greeks" are at best a religious community (this community was composed of various nationalities). It also had other meanings.

Here are only a few proofs (keep in mind that these texts were written roughly 1600-2000 years ago):

1. Mark 7:26 - "Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race..."

The woman was a Greek by religion.

2. Romans 2:9-10, 2:14, 2:29, 3:9.

I will not bother providing the exact quotes but it can summarized by 3:9: "...For we have before charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin..."

It seems that all humanity is divided into either 'ethnic Jews' and 'ethnic Greeks'. However, the distinction is purely religious in nature: Jews and non-Jews/Gentiles.

I will also use Saint Chrysostom's writings to further prove a point. This is his explanation of verse 2:29:

"...For whenever the Greek is saved without the law and circumcision, but the Jew with these is punished, Judaism stands by doing nothing. And by 'Greek' again he means not the idol worshipper, but the God fearing and virtuous, and free from legal observances." [Hom. 6, P.G. 60:477 (cols. 436, 437)]

3. A few years after 300 A.D. Athanasius the Great (Athanasius of Alexandria) wrote a homily titled "Against the Hellenes" (or "Against the Heathen").

4. John 7:35: "...He is not about to go to the dispersion of the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is He?

Saint Chrysostom: "`He is not about to go to the dispersion of the Greeks?' What is `the dispersion of the Greeks'? Thus were the Jews calling the nations, because they were scattered everywhere, and mingled with one another insatiably." [Hom. 50, P.G. 59:257 (cols. 281, 282).]

Meanings for the term 'Greek' are as follows:

1. Idol worshipper (Gentile, pagan).
2. God fearing and virtuous person.
3. "Thus were the Jews calling the nations."

[Momce Makedonce]

Pretty sure this was a mistake at 19:30, but just confirming Philippi in the Bible was in Macedonia (modern day Aegean Macedonia) not Plovdiv right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfBt2HXIBBo

[Amphipolis]

Pretty sure this was a mistake at 19:30, but just confirming Philippi in the Bible was in Macedonia (modern day Aegean Macedonia) not Plovdiv right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfBt2HXIBBo

Yes,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippi

[Carlin]

Located on the Via Egnatia, Philippi was “a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony”, Acts 16:12.