So, in the Cliurch, gravity is the opposite of disorder, of shamelessness of behaviour. It is the opposite of dirdvoLa (see Theophrastus, Char. xiii.). In 1 Ti 2'-, the Apostle inculcates gravity as a Christian attitude towards the State, and for this end prayer is to be made for kings and all in authority. Christians are not to imitate the Jews, who brought on themselves Roman hostility by their religious contempt of authority (Jos. BJ II. xvii. 2). Because God wills all men's salvation, and Christ gave Himself a ransom for all. Chris- tians are to respect sincerely all authority as such.
' Christian reverence . . . hallows to us evervthinjf in life. The Christian regards himself as a valued work of God. His body is a temple built through ages by the Almighty. His race is a divine offspring. He loves even in the unvvorchy the stamp of their Maker. Material nature, human history, daily industry, the common intercourse of life gleam for him with the \eiled light and movement of the Omnipresent' (G. G. Flndlay, Christian Doctrine and Morals, 1894, p. 19).
Thus in Ph 4^ the word is very wide in meaning — whatever demands and commands respect as well as the 'noble seriousness' (M. Arnold, God and the Bible, 1884, p. xvi) which such objects produce. Christian gravity is not, however, ' tiiat sham gravity which so often discredits the word ; not . . . the gravity of self-importance, or narrow- ness, or gloom ; but . . . a free and noble reverence for ourselves (since God has made us and dwells in us), and for all that is great and reverend around us— the grace of thought that guards us from mere stupid flippancy' (F. Paget, The Spirit of Discipline, 1891, p. 74).
There was a tendency in Greece to oppose the ffe/j.vds to the €'uwf)ocrriyopos, the 'afl'able' ; and tiius grave persons got the rei>utation of being proud and unapproachable (Thuc. i. 130\ of being in- diderent to the public weal (pq.evij.ia), of being incapable of action, of looking superciliously oii enjoyment, and of casting disdainful looks on tho.se who did not philosophize (cf. Hadley's note [1896] on Eur. Alcest. 713 f.). The virtue of gravity easily passes into the vice of pomposity. Aris- totle says of the iiigh-souled man that he is digni- fied towards persons of affluence but unassuming towards the middle class. A dignified demeanour towards tlie former is a mark of nobility, towards
the latter it is vulgarity (Eth. Nic. iv. iii. 26). In modern times gravity has been looked on as a flower that withers in the knowledge of natural law and in the change of social and political con- ditions (see W. E. H. Lecky, History of European Morals^'\ 1897, i. 141 f.). St. Paul, however, adds TrpocrcpiXrj to aefivd. ' By this the apostle seems to advert to that in which religious persons are too often deficient, who by an austere and ascetic demeanour not a little prejudice the cause of re- ligion' (S. T. Bloomheld, Gr. Test., 1832, nsss, on Ph 48).
He also adds a\-qdri. ' Truth is the basis, as it is the object of reverence, not less than of every other virtue' (H. P. Liddon, Bampton Lectures for 1S66\ 1878, p. 268).
For the difl'erence between the form and the reality of reverence see Augustine on Seneca in Westcott, The Epistles of St. John, 1883, p. 248.
Literature. — See the relevant Commentaries and Literature referred to in the article ; HDB, art. 'Grave' ; B. Whichcote has 13 sermons on Phil 4** (4 vols., Aberdeen, 1751) ; Isaac Barrow, Sermons, London, 1861, i. 46. For a discussion on Reverence, see J. Martineau, Types of EthicalTheory^, O.xford, 1898, vol. ii. ; E. Caird, The Evohition of Religion, Glasgow, 1893, Lectures vii. and viii. ; W. Paley, Moral Philosophy, London, 1817, pp. 296-304. For Kant's view, see The Meta- physic of Ethics, tr. Semple3, Edinburgh, 1871 ; J. Kidd, Moral- ity and Religion, do. 1895, Lecture iv. ; H. Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics"^, London, 1907 ; A. Bain, Mental and Moral Science, 1868, p. 249. DONALD MACKENZIE.
GRECIANS, GREEKS.— These two terms corre- spond respectively to the Greek words 'EWrjvtffral and "EWijves. The term "EXXTyyes is properly the name applied by the inhabitants of Greece to themselves, which the Romans rendered by the word Grceci (Eng. ' Greeks '). In the NT the term is correctly used of those who are of Greek descent (Ac 16' 18^ Ro 1"), although we also find it used as a general designation for all who do not belong to the Jewish race. Thus the foreigners who came desiring to see Jesus at the Passover are referred to as Greeks (Jn 12-'*) ; so the Apostle Paul divides mankind into two classes when he says (Ro 10^^): ' There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek' (cf. Ro 1"*, Gal 3-^). In these passages the term is practically equivalent to ' Gentile' (j.w.). See also art. Greece.
The term ' Grecians ' f EXXijvto-raO, on the other hand (Ac 6^ 9'-''), is applied to Greek-speaking Je\vs as opposed to the Jews of Palestine, who spoke Aramaic and are designated Hebrews. From the days of Alexander tiie Great onwards, large numbers of Jewish emigrants were to be found all over the known world. In Alexandria in particular a great number had settled, but in all the cities of the West, in all the centres of trade, Jews found a home. Many of these Jewish settlers acquired great wealtii, and adopted Greek speech, manners, and customs. They read the Greek poets, and many of them studied Greek pliilosoiihy, while at the same time they adhered to the Jewish hopes and regarded Jerusalem as the centre of their life and worship. They were free from the narrowness and provincialism of the native Jews of Palestine, and the message of the Christian missionaries found much more willing hearers among this class than among the prejudiced and exclusive Palestine Jews.