Barbarian (jSao/Saoof), a term used in the New Testament, as in classical writers, to denote other na- tions of the earth in distinction from the Greeks (Serv. ai Virg. .7:'n. ii, 504). "I am debtor both to the Greeks and Barbarians" (Rom. i, 14). (Comp. Plato, Polit. p. -JGO; Erai. p. 383; Theat. p. 175; Pliny, xxix, 7 ; Aristot. De Cado, i, 3; Polyb. v, 33, 5.) In Coloss. iii, 11, "Greek nor Jew — Barbarian, Scythian" — Bap- fiapoi; seems to refer to those nations of the Roman empire who did not speak Greek, and SkuSjjc. to nations not under the Roman dominion. In 1 Cor. xiv, 11, the t arm i- applied to a difference of language: ''If I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." Thus Ovid, "Barba- ras hie ego sum, quia non intelligor ulli" (Tiist. v, 10, 37). In Acts xxviii, the inhabitants of Malta are called fiapfiapoi, because they were originally a Car- thaginian colony, and chiefly spoke the Punic lan- guage. In the Sept. fiapjictpoc; is used for the Hebrew *;•". ///:', "a people of strange language" (Psa. cxiv, 1) ; Chaldee ",N"212. In the rabbinical writers the same lleli. word is applied to foreigners in distinction from the Jews; and in the Jerusalem Talmud it is ex- plained as meaning the Greek language; Rabbi Solo- mon remarks that whatever is not in the holy tongue is called by this term (Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. s. v.). Ac- cording to Herodotus, the Egyptians called all men barbarians who did not speak the same language as themselves (ii, 158). Clement of Alexandria uses it respecting the Egyptians and other nations, even when speaking of their progress in civilization, as in his Strom, i, ch. xvi, § 74: "Barbarians have been in- ventors not only of philosophy, but likewise of almost every art. The Egyptians, and, in like manner, the Chaldseans, first introduced among men the knowledge of astrology." In a singular passage of Justin Mar- tyr's lirst Apology the t srm is applied to Abraham and other distinguished Hebrews : " We have learned and have before explained thai Christ is ih- first-begotten of God, being the Word (or reason, \6yov ovra) of which the whole human race partake. And they who live agreeably to the Word (or reason, ol fitra \6you (iuii- a 'i - ■ I are I 'hristians, even though esteemed atheists: such among the n i So :ra1 is, Heraclitus, and Hi ■ I i : and an ong the barba- t'.n . n itionp,' Chev- ron?.), ti'/3«p/3rt|Ooie,Abra- h im, Ananias, Azarias, Misael, and I I many othci -." l/< ./. i, 16.
Stral o i -.;•:. 2) suggests that the word /- ir-bar-t g was originally an im- itative sound, designed to express a harsh, di sonant language, or some- times the indistinct articulation of
Hi" < ir.v-k by foreigners, and m-
: inces ili • I larians, who, on 1 1 1 - - lat- t r account, he conjectures, were t nrmedl yHo ovot 1 11-
.'. ', ii, E67), although ii is doubtful
whether in the same sense (Thucyd. i, 3). The word appears to have acquired a reproachful sense during the wars with the Persians ; their country was called ») [Hapfiapoc (yi)) (Demosth. Pkilipp. iii). In 1 Cor. v, 13, 1 Tim. iii, 7, we have "those outside" (oi i£w)f and Matt, vi, 3:', "the nations" (rii 'iOvij), used He- braistically for "the Gentiles" (Q^IJ, C'N, in very
: much the same sort of sense as that of fiapj3apot), to distinguish all other nations from the Jews; and in
! the Talmudists we find Palestine opposed to " the lands" (r.ijnN), just as Greece was to Barbaria or i) liapjiapoc. (con p. Cic. Fin. ii, 15 ; Lightfoot, Centuria Chorogr. ad ink.). And yet so completely was the term (SapjSapoG accepted, that even Josephus (Ant. xi, 7, 1; xiv, 10, 1; xxvi, 6, 8; War, introd. ; Apion, i, 11 and 22) and Philo (('pp. i, 29) scruple as little to reckon the Jews among them as the early Romans did to ap* ply the term to themselves (" Deniophilus scripsit, Marcus vertit barbare," Plant. Asm. prol. 10). Very naturally, the word, after a time, began to involve no- tions of cruelty and contempt (Brjpbg liapfiapov, 2 Mace, iv, 25 ; xv, 2, etc.), and then the Komans ex- cepted themselves from the scope of its meaning (Cic. J'e Rep. i, 37, § G8). Afterward only the savage na- tions were called barbarians, though the Greek Con- stantinopolitans called the Romans "barbarians" to the very last (Gibbon, li ; Ai, 351, cd. Smith). See I ken, De Scylhis et Barbaris, in the Biblioih. Brem. I, v, 767 sq. ; Kvpe, Observ. ii, 152 ; Schleusncr, TJies. Phil, i, 50; Dougtiei Analect. ii, 100 sq. ; Rauth, Utfi, Sinn v. Gibrauch des Wortes Barbar (Nurnb. 1814). — Kitto, s. v. ; Winer, i, 137. See Hellenist.'
Barbelo, one of the chief female a>ons of the Gnos- tics, especially of the'Nicolaites and the Borborians, the mother of every thing living. She lived with the father of the universe and with Christ in the eighth heaven. Hence the surname Barhelkcs, which was given to the Gnostics. Sec Gnosticism.