Were the Greeks and Romans the same
people in the bible?
In Rom 1:14 was Paul referring to the
Greeks as Romans. I heard a pastor indicate that the Greeks in the books of
Romans were Romans. However, there is a dispute between me and several family
members concerning this topic. Could you please give me a biblical
understanding on the topic thank you?
No,
the Romans and the Greeks were not the same people in the bible. They were two
different Gentile powers that God allowed to rule over and have dominion over
the people of Israel because of Israel’s sin of rejecting God’s Law. God
prophesied to Israel that if they did not obey Him, that He would allow the
heathen Gentile nations to overcome them and subject them.
Leviticus 26: 14, 17, 25, 32
But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these
commandments…And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before
your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when
none pursueth you….And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the
quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I
will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of
the enemy…And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which
dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
Deuteronomy
28:33, 47-52
The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which
thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed always…Because
thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart,
for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which
the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness,
and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until
he have destroyed thee. The Lord shall
bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as
the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; A nation of fierce countenance, which shall
not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young: And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and
the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee
either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep,
until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until
thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy
land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which
the Lord thy God hath given thee.
God
would allow, what our Lord Jesus Christ called “the times of the Gentiles” as
punishment.
Luke 21:24
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away
captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles,
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Among
those Gentile nations that would dominate, Israel would be the succession of
nations mentioned by Daniel in the book of Daniel. Those nations in history
turn out to be: Babylon, Medes and Persians, Greece and Rome (Later in the
future, the Anti-Christ’s kingdom Assyria). So the Greeks and Romans were two
separate Gentile powers.
Now
what about Romans 1:14? Well, although Greece and Rome were two different
Gentile power, the influence of the
Grecian empire with respect to academia, culture, wisdom, philosophy never left
Rom, but was rather instituted into Rome’s culture. The Greeks were well known
for their “intellect,” philosophies (lovers of wisdom). You have Plato,
Socrates, Euripides, etc…whose philosophies even come down to our day, today. (Think about Greek
fraternities and sororities on college and university campuses).
Even
our Apostle Paul dealt with their vain human wisdom in Acts 17 on Mar’s Hill. So
the “Greco-Roman” world was one where Rome ruled, but Grecian thought and
academia prevailed. That is why Paul uses the term “Greeks” in Romans 1:14, yet
in v. 15, he says “to you who are in Rome”.
Notice
also in v. 14…he qualifies the Greeks as the “wise”, and the “Barbarians” as
“unwise”, that is, uncivilized like the “cultured, civilized” Greeks.
Romans 1:14-15
I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both
to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach
the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
1 Corinthians
14:11
Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto
him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto
me.
Colossians 3:11
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor
uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in
all.
Hopefully this helps!
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