Ἕλλην (Hellēn): Greeks, Gentiles OR Hellenist Jews?

Saturday, January 9, 2010, 3:18 PM

ΑΛΛΟΓΕΝΗΣ (allogenēs) NO CLOSER!

Let's examine the Greek adjective Ἕλλην (Hellēn - G1672). As can be seen, it is used in 27 verses in the NT.

The Blue Letter Bible (following the Thayer's Lexicon) gives these two main meanings:

1) a Greek either by nationality, whether a native of the main land or of the Greek islands or colonies

2) in a wider sense the name embraces all nations not Jews that made the language, customs, and learning of the Greeks their own; the primary reference is to a difference of religion and worship

As a partial correction to 2), Thayer's Lexicon says that ...

"The Hellēnes spoken of in John 12:20 and Acts 17:4 are Jewish proselytes from the Gentiles"

... that is Gentiles who have converted to Judaism.

But do the above 1) and 2) really represent the uses of  Hellēn in the NT?

Let's examine more closely the first instance, John 7:35, at NETBible, which provides also the Greek text. A (clumsy) word by word translation of the Greek text gives:

ειπον  ουν οι ιουδαιοι προς εαυτους που ουτος μελλει πορευεσθαι οτι ημεις ουχ ευρησομεν αυτον μη εις την διασποραν των ελληνων μελλει πορευεσθαι και διδασκειν τους ελληνας

said then the Jews/Judeans to one-other [:] where this [man] is going to go that we not will find him [?] not to the diaspora of the [1] Hellēnes [he] is going to go and to teach the [2] Hellēnes [?]

Most translations, misleadingly and deceptively render "diaspora of the [1] Hellēnes" as "Jewish people dispersed among the Greeks", but [2] Hellēnes simply as "Greeks", as though, the Jews/Judeans of Jerusalem were wondering if Jesus was about to leave Jerusalem and its Jews to go to the "Jews dispersed among the Greeks", but then, for some peculiar reason, Jesus would not make of the "Jews dispersed among the Greeks" his new pupils, but the Greeks.

This is simply absurd.

In fact Ελλενης ( Hellēnes) at John 7:35 are NOT "Greeks" or (as the NLT translation rather freely proposes) "maybe even ... the Gentiles", BUT,  in both instances ([1] and [2]) the are ALWAYS the Hellenist Jews, Jews who had assimilated into the Roman-Greek culture and language.

If ever John 7:35 wanted to refer to the "Greeks", "maybe even ... the Gentiles" there was available the proper word, ἀλλογενής (allogenēs - G241), which corresponds perfectly to the Hebrew גּוֺי (gowy  -  H1471)

In fact ΑΛΛΟΓΕΝΗΣ (allogenēs —"another genus") is exactly the word used on an inscription on one of the surviving stones from the Soreg, "a giant stone structure separating the public area from the area [of the Temple] where only Jews could enter". (See Wikipedia > Herod's Temple > The Court of the Gentiles) as a warning to the Gentile visitors NOT to trespass: in fact, to stay away. (see photograph)

It is an easy extrapolation (I leave it for readers as an exercise) that, also at John 12:20 ("Now some Greeks [Hellēnes] were among those who had gone up to worship at the feast."), Hellēnes, contrary to what the NET © Note ¹ sn says, does NOT mean "Greeks", BUT Hellenist Jews.

Likewise, it is easy to see how misleading it is to translate Hellēnes as "Greeks", rather than Hellenist Jews, in all the 10 instances in Acts.

So, how did the ambiguity, the confusion arise? Simple: it was Paul who made a point of blurring NOT ONLY the ethnic difference between Jews and Greeks, BUT ALSO the religious one, as can be seen from his use of Hellēn: Rom(6), 1Cr(5), Gal(2), Col(1).

But God found some use also for Paul and for his "push" ...

It is interesting to look at Acts 18, where Paul's real "turning point" occurs:

Paul in Corinth

So they all [KJV: the Greeks] seized Sosthenes, the president of the synagogue, and began to beat him in front of the judgment seat. Yet none of these things were of any concern to Gallio. (Acts 18:17)

Take good note of this as a spectacular example of how the KJV "translators" tried, even by crassly and clumsily manipulating the text, to contrast the "stubborn" Jews with the "open" Greeks, to give more "oomph" to what is, actually, Paul's real "turning point":

When they opposed him and reviled him, he protested by shaking out his clothes and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am guiltless! From now on I will go to the Gentiles!”

And when they [the Jews in Corinth] opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles [ta ethnē, lit. "the nations"].” (Acts 18:6 - emphasis and underlining added)

Take good note: "From now on" ... NOT before