Original Word: βάρβαρος, ου, ὁ
Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: barbaros
Phonetic Spelling: (bar'-bar-os)
Short Definition: a foreigner who speaks neither Greek nor Latin
Definition: a foreigner, one who speaks neither Greek nor Latin; as adj: foreign.

915 bárbaros – properly, a barbarian; generically, anyone "lacking culture" (an "uncivilized" person, cf. Ro 1:14). 915 (bárbaros) is specifically used for all non-Greeks (non-Hellenists), i.e. anyone not adopting the Greek language (culture); a non-Hellēn.

STRONGS NT 915: βάρβαρος

βάρβαρος, βαρβαρον;

1. properly, one whose speech is rude, rough, harsh, as if repeating the syllables βαρβαρ (cf. Strabo 14, 2, 28, p. 662; ὠνοματοπεποίηται ἡ λέξις, Etym. Magn. (188, 11 (but Gaisf. reads βραγχός for βάρβαρος); cf. Curtius, § 394; Vanicek, p. 561)); hence,

2. one who speaks a foreign or strange language which is not understood by another (Herodotus 2, 158 βαρβάρους πάντας οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι καλεουσι τούς μή σφισι ὁμογλωσσους, Ovid. trist. 5, 10, 37barbarushicegosum,quianonintelligorulli); so 1 Corinthians 14:11.

3. The Greeks used βάρβαρος of any foreigner ignorant of the Greek language and the Greek culture, whether mental or moral, with the added notion, after the Persian war, of rudeness and brutality. Hence, the word is applied in the N. T., but not reproachfully, in Acts 28:2, 4, to the inhabitants of Malta (i. e. Μελίτη, which see), who were of Phoenician or Punic origin; and to those nations that had, indeed, some refinement of manners, but not the opportunity of becoming Christians, as the Scythians, Colossians 3:11 (but cf. Lightfoot at the passage). But the phrase Ἕλληνες τέ καί βάρβαροι forms also a periphrasis for all peoples, or indicates their diversity yet without reproach to foreigners (Plato, Theact., p. 175{a}; Isocrates, Euag c. 17, p. 192b.; Josephus, Antiquities 4, 2, 1 and in other writings); so in Romans 1:14. (In Philo de Abr. § 45 under the end of all nations not Jews. Josephus, b. j. prooem. I reckons the Jews among barbarians.) Cf. Grimm on 2 Macc. 2:21, p. 61; (Lightfoot on Col. as above; B. D. under the word ).

barbarian.

Of uncertain derivation; a foreigner (i.e. Non-Greek) -- barbarian(-rous).

βαρβαροι βάρβαροι βαρβαροις βαρβάροις βαρβαρος βάρβαρος βαρβάρου βαρβάρων barbaroi bárbaroi barbarois barbárois barbaros bárbarosInterlinear Greek • Interlinear Hebrew • Strong's Numbers • Englishman's Greek Concordance • Englishman's Hebrew Concordance • Parallel Texts