GRECIA (gre'ci-a), (Hcb. yaw-vawn'), usu ally rendered JAVAN (WhiC1I see); the Latin form (Dan. viii:21; x:2o; xi:2) of GREECE (WhiCh see). GREECE (grees), (Heb. yaw-vawn' ; Gr.
'EXXds, he/4as.), properly that country in Europe inhabited by the Greeks (I Mace. i:1), but in Acts xx:2 apparently designating only that part of it included in the Roman province of NIACEDONIA (MIMI see). The relations of the Hebrews with the Greeks were always of a distant kind until the Macedonian conquest of the East; hence in the Old Testament the mention of the Greeks is natu rally rare.
(1) Occasional Mention. 'Tuba] and Javan,' in connection, are named four times, Dan and Javan once (Ezek. xxvii:19), and Javan, trans lated by us Greece and Greeks, five times, of which three are in the book of Daniel. Of these passages, that: which couples Dan and Javan is generally referred to a different tribe (see JAvAN) ; in the rest Javan is understood of Greece or its people. The Greek nation had a broad division into two races, Dorians and Ionians; of whom the former seem to have long lain hid in continental parts, or on the western side of the country, and had a temperament and institutions more ap proaching to the Italic. The Ionians, on the con trary, retained many Asiatic usages and ten dencies, witnessing that' they had never been so thoroughly cut off as the Dorians from Oriental connection.
(2) Dealings of Greeks with Hebrews. The few dealings of the Greeks with the Hebrews seem to have been rather unfriendly, to judge by the notice in Zech. ix :t3. In Joel iii :6, the Tyrians are reproached for selling the children of Judah and Jerusalem to the Grecians; but at what time, and in what circumstances, must depend on the date assigned to the book of Joel (See JoEL). With the Greeks of Cyprus or Chit
tim, the Hebrews were naturally better acquaint ed; and this name, it would seem, might easily have extended itself in their tongue to denote the whole Greek nation. Such at least is the most plausible explanation of its use in Macc.
and viii:t.
(3) Religious Ceremonies. Whatever the oth er varieties of Greek religious ceremonies, no vio lent or frenzied exhibitions arose out of the na tional mind; but all such orgies (as they were called) were imported from the East, and had much difficulty in establishing themselves on Greek soil. Quite at' a late period the managers of orgies were evidently regarded as mere jug glers of not a very reputable kind (see Demosth. De Corond, sec. 79, p. 313) ; nor do the Greek States, as such, appear to have patronized them. On the contrary, the solemn religious processions, the sacred games and dances, formed a serious item in the public expenditure; and to be perma nently exiled from such spectacles would have been a moral death to the Greeks. Wherever they settled they introduced their native institutions, and reared temples, gymnasia, baths, porticoes, sepulchers, of characteristic simple elegance. The morality and the religion of such a people natural ly were alike superficial ; nor did the two stand in any close union. Bloody and cruel rites could find no place in their creed, because faith was not earnest enough to endure much self-abandon ment. Religion Ivas with them a sentiment and a taste rather than a deep-seated conviction. (See