- βάρβαρος
- βάρβαρος, ον (onomatopoetic formation; Aeschyl., Hdt.+; loanw. in rabb. [Dalman, Gram.2 183, 185]) gener. pert. to what is foreign (esp. from the perspective of one who knows Greek and is familiar w. Hellenic culture; the components ‘foreign in language’ and ‘foreign in culture’ are ordinarily linked) ‘non-Hellenic’① w. focus on strangeness of language: pert. to using a language that is unintelligible to outsiders, foreign-speaking, of foreign tongue adj. or noun 1 Cor 14:11 (cp. Hdt. 2, 158; Aristoph., Av. 199 and its scholia [Ltzm. on 1 Cor 14:11]; Ovid, Tristia 5, 10, 37 barbarus hic ego sum, quia non intellegor ulli ‘I’m a barbarus here, because no one understands me’; Ps 113:1).② w. focus on non-Hellenic association: pert. to not speaking Greek or participating in Gk. cultureⓐ adj. not Hellenic πόλεις Ἑλληνίδας κ. βαρβάρους Dg 5:4.ⓑ subst. a non-Hellene, foreigner (the Engl. loanw. ‘barbarian’ is freq. used in a derogatory sense and is therefore inappropriate for rendering [as NRSV, REB et al.] the Gk. term when it appears without the negative contexts of some texts composed after the Persian wars, e.g. Demosth. 26, 17) contrasted w. Hellenes (the Neo-Platonist Amelius [III A.D.] calls the writer of John’s gospel a β.: Eus., PE 11, 19, 1) Ἕλληνες κ. βάρβαροι Ro 1:14 (cp. Ps.-Eur., Rhes. 404; Pla., Theaet. 175a; Chariton 6, 3, 7; SIG 360, 12 and 27; 867, 32; OGI 765, 16ff; IAndrosIsis p. 124, 31 ἐγὼ διαλέκτους Ἕλλησι καὶ βαρβάροις ἔταξα=125, 27 [but διετάξάμην]; Philo, Abr. 267; Jos., Ant. 4, 12; 8, 284 al.—The Romans refused to be classified as β.: Jüthner [s. Ἕλλην 1] p. 62; MPohlenz, Stoa II ’49, 139); cp. Col 3:11 (44th Ep. of Apollonius of Tyana [Philostrat. I 354, 25]: there is no difference betw. people εἴτε βάρβαρος εἴτε καὶ Ἕλλην.—THermann, ThBl 9, 1930, 106f). Of the inhabitants of Malta, who apparently spoke in their native language Ac 28:2, 4 (here β. certainly without derogatory tone; indeed, Luke transforms the ‘foreigners’ into ‘Hellenes’ by noting their extraordinary hospitality παρεῖχον οὐ τὴν τυχοῦσαν φιλανθρωπίαν; cp. Warnecke, Romfahrt 111–18).—AEichhorn, βάρβαρος quid significaverit, diss. Leipz. 1904; HWerner, Barbarus: NJklA 41, 1918, 389–408; RAC I 1173–76; JAC 10, ’67, 251–96. S. Ἕλλην 1.—DELG. M-M. TW. Sv.
Ελληνικά-Αγγλικά παλαιοχριστιανική Λογοτεχνία. 2015.