Greek

Greek History

The folks we call the Greeks got that name from the Romans. The Greeks called themselves Hellenes (Έλληνες). From this we get the notion of Hellenistic, a word that we use to describe the folks around the world who adopted something like the Greek culture. Greek, or more correctly Hellenistic, culture is important to Bible study because that culture dominated New Testament times and the early days of the church. As Horace, a Roman lyric poet, says "Greece the captive, made her savage victor captive and brought the arts into rustic Latium." So we see the Greeks had a major effect on the Romans. We also know that they had cultural impact on the Jews, although the extent of this is debated. I observe, from personal experience, that it is hard to live with or even within another culture without it having some impact on your thinking and language. There are also some who would claim that the Jews had an impact on the Greeks, even before Alexander the Great turned up in Jerusalem. Philio, who lived prior to and during New Testament times, thought that Moses had been the instructor of Pythagoras (b. ca 570 B.C.) and the rest of the founding Greek philosophers and lawgivers including Hesiod, Heraclitus, Lycurgus.

Quite apart from the society of New Testament times, our society is impacted by the Greeks because of their advances in science, literature, writing, philosophy and political science. The Greek classics formed the basis of the education of Europe from the time of the middle ages until recently. Many of these advances are reflected here and on what started out to be a philosophers page, but as with much of this site, has morphed into something else.

The Hebrew Bible does not mention the Greek empire directly, apart from Daniel's prophecies in chapters 2, 8, and 11. The Hebrew Bible does not actually use the word for Greece. The word generally translated Greek is yawan which is derived from Javan who we find in the table of nations of Genesis 10.2. Javan is one of the sons of Japheth and therefore a grandson of Noah. Josephus identifies Javan as the father of those who became known as the Greek race. These folks inhabited not only Greece but the islands related to it and hence some say it should properly be translated by Grecian. The notion of nations and ethnic groups run together in the Bible so yawan is often translated Greece. (cp. Isaiah 66.19; Ezekiel 27.13; Daniel 8.21; 10.20; 11.2; Joel 3.6; Zechariah 9.13).

Jerusalem acquiesces to Alexander the Great in 332 BC. But the cultural impact of the Greeks on the world was more major than their political control, which was fleeting. As we have seen many of the Romans were enamored with Greek culture. What we now call Hellenism survived long after the Greek and Roman Empire faded demonstrating that ideas are often more important than political power. As Alexander the Great was sauntering across the world he instituted schools to teach Greek philosophy and the Koine Greek language, this caused Greek the lingua franca of his Empire and this continued through early Roman times. Hellenism precipitated a major cultural change and had enormous impact on world history. The New Testament was written in Koine Greek. The widespread use of the Greek language aided the sharing of the gospel from India to Spain. Greek philosophy gave us the concept of the logos, which John used as a way to communicate the nature of Christ (John 1:1). It is important to note that logos could be translated as reason. Equating reason with God as John did is a departure from the Greek Mythological stories.

The history of the place that is now known as Greece can be traced back to Stone Age hunters. Later came early farmers and the civilizations of the Minoan (c. 27-15 century BC) and Mycenaean (c. 1400 BC – 1100 BC) kings. Both of these civilizations figure in Greek Mythology but their physical remains have been found so they were more than myths. The Mycenaeans established trade routes throughout the Mediterranean, to Egypt and the ancient near east. Their routes went as far as Britain in the west and Georgia on the eastern Black Sea coast. They had kings, city-states, and literature.

In about 1100 BC, a people the Greeks called the Dorians and the Egyptians called the Sea People invaded from the north and spread down the west coast. They destroyed many civilizations on their way until they were finally stopped by the Pharaoh Ramesses III. This was followed by a period of wars and invasions, known as the Dark Ages below.

In the Classical Period - from 500-336 BC, Greece was divided into small city states, each of which consisted of a city and its surrounding countryside. Greece became the third world kingdom to succeed that of the Medes and the Persians. It was created by Alexander the Great, who first united the Greek city states and whose armies went on to be victorious over the Persians in 331 BC. Only occasional reference to this empire is found by name in the Bible. It does not seem to have attracted the attention of the great prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, and it does not coincide with Biblical history in that it fits mostly into the period between Malachi and Matthew.

After the death of Alexander the Great his empire was divided among his generals. Out of the civil war came the Hellenistic kingdoms that are mentioned at the bottom of this time line. While there was much fighting and the timeline list 4 Hellenistic kingdoms, for the purposes of the Bible story Alexander's empire was but split into two. The northern part was ruled by Seleucus and is called the Seleucid Dynasty below. He was headquartered in the city that is today Damascus. The southern empire was ruled by Ptolemy and was headquartered in the city of Alexandria, Egypt which was founded by Alexander in the vicinity of an Egyptian settlement named Rhacotis, which he renamed Alexandra.

The two generals agreed upon virtually everything — except the line that divided the northern empire from the southern. That put the Land of Israel smack in the middle of their disagreement. The Jews were caught in this tremendous power struggle. The story of the next 130 years would be the balancing act of the Jewish people between the two giants. Sometimes the Jews teetered to the south and sometimes to the north. The south attempted to win the Jewish people by persuasion and culture. The north attempted to do so by force. Both would fail.

This is also the backdrop to the story of Chanukah, because eventually the northern kingdom got tired of the game and sent their army in. The Jews resisted and thus the stage was set for the dramatic events of Chanukah.

The Seleucid Empire ended up with control over Israel and Jerusalem. The Seleucid Empire is where this page ends. One of the Seleucid kings was Antiochus IV, who called himself "Antiochus Epiphanes" ("Epiphanes" means "god manifest"). In 167 B.C., Antiochus committed an "abomination of desolation"; specifically, he set up an altar to the Greek god Zeus inside the Jewish temple and sacrificed a pig on the alter. The Jews were not impressed and that led to the revolt of the Maccabees and the Hasmonean Dynasty.

The time line below is divided into sections

The Greeks over run the Persians in 300 according to this time line and so this is where the story of the Greeks Empire begins to intersect with the Bible story. Alexander died of typhoid fever in 323 which left the world in chaos. The man who had controlled it was suddenly not there.

When the Romans conquer the Greeks much of Greek culture remains so much so that the history of the Greeks is important to our understanding of the Bible. Additionally the Greeks provide a foundation for much of what we call Western Civilization. Although it is not so popular to say these days, the other major building block is Christianity.

Date	Event
1200 ?	Trojan war begins. (Traditional Greek dating. Until 1870 when Troy was excavated many scholars thought that the story was a myth.)
1100 - 750 BC - The Dark Ages
850	Development of Greek Alphabet.
776	First recorded Olympic games held; they are open only to pure Greeks with no police record.
750 - 500 BC - Archaic Period (The Golden age of Greece)
700	Homer writes Iliad and Odyssey. Hesiod's Theogony. The earliest of the Greek epic poets and the oldest of Greek mythilogical literature.
750	Rise of Greek Tyrants
621	Draco, Athenian lawgiver, issues a code making nearly every offense a capital crime ("draconian").
600	End of Assyrian Empire. The kingdom of Lydia was the major power in western Asia Minor. Alcman one of the lyric poets.
585	Battle between Medes and Lydians interrupted by solar eclipse, allegedly foretold by Thales
583	Overthrow of Corinthian tyranny
582	First regular celebration of Pythian games at Delphi
581	First Isthmian games. (Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece that were named after the isthmus of Corinth, where they were held.)
573	First Nemean games. One of the four Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece, and were held at Nemea every two years.
565	General Peisistratus organizes political party of farmers, shepherds, artisans, and the poor; later he will confiscate his enemies' wealth and give it to the poor.
561	Peisistratus' first attempt at tyranny at Athens
560 ?	Spartan defeat in Arcadia
550 ?	Sparta dominant in Peloponnese. Treaty with Tegea
550	Rise of Persian Empire.
505	Cleisthenes introduces democracy in Athens.
500-336 BC - Classical Period
468	Sophocles writes his first tragedy
458	Oresteian trilogy by Aeschylus - The principal themes of the trilogy include the contrast between revenge and justice, as well as the transition from personal vendetta to organized litigation.
449	Herodotus's first History
449	Construction of the Parthenon and the Acropolis in Athens (449 -432)
441	Euripides writes his first tragedy
430	Outbreak of Bubonic Plague in Athens
427	Aristophanes' first play
411	Democracy overthrown by oligarchic extremists Antiphon, Peisander and Phrynichus; Alcibiades recalled and reelected general
399	Socrates condemned and executed for flouting conventional ideas and corrupting youth
384	Birth of Aristotle
350	Plato.
347	Plato's Academy founded and will continue for 876 years; Plato formulates The Republic. Death of Plato. Aristotle leaves Athens
342	Aristotle, pupil of Plato, arrives in Macedon where his father is physician to King Philip
336-146 BC - Hellenistic Period
335	Aristotle returns to Athens, opens a Lycaeum; develops a deductive system and scientific method.
335	The Battle of Thebes - Sometime capital and major city of Egypt
334	Alexander invades Asia - Battle of Granicus - Alexander's first encounter with Persian forces.
333	Alexander is victorious over Persia - The battle of Issus was the first direct encounter between Alexander and Darius.
332	Siege of Tyre -
332	Jerusalem capitulates to Alexander who is on his way to Egypt.
332	Alexander is victorious over Egypt
331	Alexander is master of the Persian empire - The Battle of Gaugamela - Alexander tried to capture or kill the Persian king, Darius. Darius escaped so Persia officially still stood but, he had no means to raise another army, and Gaugamela essentially decided the war in Alexander's favor.
330	Alexander takes Persepolis atomic theory of Democritus is developed
329	Alexander enters Samarkand
327	Alexander takes southern India -
325	The Persae by Tinotheus of Miletus is the earliest papyrus written in Greek that will survive
323	Alexander dies of typhoid fever; wars of Diadochi (successors) begin for control of his empire. Alexander died in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, in Babylon, he was 32.
300	End of the Persian Empire.

301	Kingdoms of the Diadochi - rival generals, families, and friends of Alexander the Great fought for control over his empire after his death.

312 - 30 BC - Hellenistic kingdoms - From the death of Alexander the Great until the rise of the Roman Empire
312 - 63 BC	Seleucid dynasty - Seleucus (c. 358 – 281 BC) served as an officer of Alexander the Great, commanding the elite infantry corps in the Macedonian army.
302 - 294 BC	Antipatrid dynasty - Cassander, the son of Antipater, declared himself King of Macedon in 302 BC. This dynasty did not last long; in 294 BC it was swiftly overthrown by the Antigonid dynasty.
306 - 168 BC	Antigonid dynasty - Alexander the Great's general Antigonus I Monophthalmus ("the One-Eyed") that ruled mainly in Macedonia. The last ruler in the dynasty, Perseus of Macedon, reigned between 179 and 168 BC, was unable to stop the advancing Roman legions and Macedon's defeat at the Battle of Pydna signaled the end of the dynasty.
305 - 30 BC	Ptolemaic dynasty - The Ptolemaic Kingdom was centered in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 to 30 BC. The Ptolemaic was the last dynasty of ancient Egypt. The last queen, Cleopatra VII, is known for her role in the Roman political battles between Julius Caesar and Pompey, and later between Octavian and Mark Antony.
	Jerusalem being caught in the territorial disputes between the Seleucid and the Ptolemaic kingdoms was in the thick of much of the battle for domination. This gave an opening to the Hasmoneans until they too sucumbed to Rome