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BARBARIAN

(Bar·barʹi·an) (Gr., barʹba·ros).

The repetition of “bar bar” conveyed the idea of stammering, babble, or unintelligible speech; hence the term “barbarian” was originally applied by the Greeks to a foreigner, particularly one speaking a different tongue. At that time it did not indicate lack of civilization, refinement or good manners, nor convey any feeling of hostile contempt. “Barbarian” simply distinguished especially non-Greeks from Greeks, much the same as “Gentile” divides off non-Jews from Jews. These non-Greeks did not object or feel insulted because they were called barbarians. Some Jewish writers, including Josephus, recognized themselves as being designated by the term; Romans called themselves barbarians until they adopted Greek culture. It is in this not unfavorable light, then, that Paul in writing to the Romans used an all-inclusive expression: “Both to Greeks and to Barbarians.”—Rom. 1:14.

The principal factor separating Greeks from the “barbarian” world was their language; hence the term had special reference to those who did not speak Greek, as, for example, the inhabitants of Malta who spoke an unrelated tongue. In this instance the New World Translation gives meaning to barʹba·roi by rendering it “foreign-speaking people.” (Acts 28:1, 2, 4) Writing on the gift of tongues, Paul twice calls one speaking in an unintelligible tongue barʹba·ros (“foreigner”). (1 Cor. 14:11; see also Colossians 3:11.) Similarly the Septuagint uses barʹba·ros at Psalm 113:1 (114:1 in Hebrew and English versions) and Ezekiel 21:31.

Because the Greeks felt their language and culture superior to all others, and because of indignities suffered at the hand of their enemies, “barbarian” gradually assumed its common disparaging connotation.