Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
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 Ezek 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]
Greyhound
the translation in the text of the Authorized Version, (Proverbs 30:31) of the Hebrew word
zarzir mothnayin ; i.e. “one girt about the loins.” Various are the opinions as to what animal “comely
in going” is here intended Some think “a leopard,” others “an eagle,” or “a man girt with armor,”
or “a zebra,” or “a war-horse girt with trappings.” But perhaps the word means “a wrestler,” when
girt about the loins for a contest.
Grinding
[Mill]
Grove
•A
word used in the Authorized Version, with two exceptions, to translate the mysterious Hebrew
term Asherah, which is not a grove, but probably an idol or image of some kind. [Asherah] It is
also probable that there was a connection between this symbol or image, whatever it was, and the
sacred symbolic tree, the representation of which occurs so frequently on Assyrian sculptures.
•The two exceptions noticed above are (Genesis 21:33) and 1Sam 22:6 (margin). In the religions
of the ancient heathen world groves play a prominent part. In the old times altars only were erected
to the gods. It was thought wrong to shut up the gods within walls, and hence trees were the first
temples; and from the earliest times groves are mentioned in connection with religious worship.
(Genesis 12:6,7; 11:30) Authorized Version “plain.” the groves were generally found connected
with temples, and often had the right of affording an asylum.
Gudgodah
(10:7) [See Horhagidgad]
Guest
[Hospitality]
Guni
(painted).
•A son of Naphtali, (Genesis 46:24; 1 Chronicles 7:13) the founder of the family of the Gunites.
(Numbers 26:48)
•A descendant of Gad. (1 Chronicles 5:15)
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William Smith