BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
GREEK · G915
barbaros — barbarian
βάρβαρος, -ον (prob. onomatop., descriptive of unintelligible sounds), [in LXX: Ps 113 (114):1 (לעז), Eze.21:31 (36) (בּער), 2Ma.2:21 4:25 10:4, 3Ma.3:24 * ;] barbarous, barbarian, strange to Greek language and culture (and also, after the Persian war, with the added sense of brutal, rude): Act.28:2, 4 Rom.1:14, 1Co.14:11, Col.3:11 (see Lft., in l., and Notes, 249).† (AS)
5 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →GREEK · G3625
oikoumenē — world
οἰκουμένη, -ης, ἡ (fern. Pres. pass. ptcp. of οἰκέω; sc. γῆ) [in LXX chiefly for תֵּבֵל, אֶרֶץ ;] the inhabited earth; (a) in cl., the countries occupied by Greeks, as disting. from barbarian lands (Hdt., Dem., al.); (b) in later writers, the Roman world: Luk.2:1, Act.11:28 24:5; by meton., of its inhabitants : Act.17:6 19:27; (with) in LXX (Psa.23:1 71:8, al.) and NT, also of the whole inhabited world: Mat.24:14, Luk.4:5 21:26, Rom.10:18, Heb.1:6, Rev.3:10 16:14; by meton. (ut supr.), Act.17:31, Rev.12:9; (d) of the Messianic age, ἡ οἰ. ἡ μέλλουσα = ὁ αἰὼ ὁ μέλλων: Heb.2:5.† (AS)
15 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →GREEK · G4658
Skuthēs — Scythian
Σκύθης, -ου, ὁ Scythian, an inhabitant of Scythia, i.e. Russia and Siberia, a synonym with the Greeks for the wildest of barbarians: Col.3:11.† (AS)
1 tagged verse occurrence · see every occurrence →A Greek word used in the New Testament (Rom. 1:14) to denote one of another nation. In Col. 3:11, the word more definitely designates those nations of the Roman empire that did not speak Greek. In 1 Cor. 14:11, it simply refers to one speaking a different language. The inhabitants of Malta are so called (Acts 28:1, 2, 4). They were originally a Carthaginian colony. This word nowhere in Scripture bears the meaning it does in modern times.
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.
