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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

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BARBARIAN*

Foreigner, especially a person from a culture regarded as primitive or uncivilized. The Greek word barbaros, translated “barbarian” (KJB), originated as a repeated nonsense syllable, “bar-bar,” in imitation of the strange sound of a foreign language. The Greeks, viewing themselves as the only truly cultured people in the world, tended to refer to everything non-Greek as barbarian. The Romans adopted Greek culture, considered themselves equals of the Greeks, and regarded other languages, customs, and people as barbarian.

The NT use of the word illustrates its several shades of meaning. The relationship to language is evident in a statement about speaking in tongues through the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 14:11). The apostle Paul said that if a Christian’s spiritual language were not understood, the person speaking would be a barbarian to Paul and vice versa. Luke’s account of Paul’s shipwreck on Malta refers to barbarous people and barbarians (KJB, Acts 28:2-4). Obviously, nothing derogatory was intended, since the kindness of the natives was being described. Elsewhere, Paul used the word in the usual Greek-Roman manner, saying he was indebted both to the Greeks and to the barbarians (Rom 1:14). In a profound statement that the gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone Paul said, “Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all” (Col 3:11, rsv).