The Greek Culture has contributed to the Church in a myriad of ways. Firstly it gave the Gospel and the New Testament a language. The Greek Language was the French of Victorian Era, and how English is today, international language. However, unlike French and English, Greek was the most detail language on Earth, with four words for love, "Agape: devout love to God and man," Eros (carnal sexual love), Philoa (brotherly love), and Storge (love, affection, particularly towards parents). In Greek minute details of expression, body language, and subtities can be expressed in eloquent detail. Let me give na example od a passage in Revelation, "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--they will be consigned (their fate) to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death," (Revelation 21:8) this English translation gets the point across, but the original Greek in which the Apostle John wrote it read this way, "Those who conjure spirits of lying and seek to use it to defraud and steal from people shall go to Second Death." (Revelation 21:8 Greek, Commentary Bible Hub). That is quite a different translation. The English gives the impression all liars are bound for hell, while Greek specifies what kind of liar, someone like Gorden Geccko in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps fits the description of his verse better than say a Christian hiding a Jew from Nazis in 1940s.
In addition to language, the Greeks gave the Church robust debate, discussion, and intellectual forums to debate the faith; what we now describe as theology, divinity, Christology, doxology, orthodoxy, and more come from the Greek method of explaining the faith. The Apostle Paul learned to speak to these Hellenistic people who were as cerebral as experiential. We see the apex of Paul's argument for the Gospel in the Book of Romans, but this book was long in making via the earlier Epistles to the Greeks. The Holy Spirit authored the New Testament, and the Writers were divinely inspired, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness," (2 Timothy 3:16), but our Lord and God Jesus Christ knew what cultures he came into, he deliberating came at time when there was a worldwide civilization called Rome, one language Greek, and roads paved by the Romans and ships fashioned by Greeks that could sail across the world. These tools made it possible to share the Gospel at pace that is only matched by today's technology.
The Greeks gave us the Apostle Luke. Luke studied at Alexandria, the most prestigious and brilliant school and library in world. In fact, Luke knew the Christ was to die on the cross, and in the Library in Alexandria there was giant white cross and physicians wore crosses to honor the Lord. (Dear and Glorious Physician, Taylor Caldwell). Luke did what no apostle endeavored to do. He talked to the women when writing His gospel. In Greek culture women were revered and almost equal to men, the same was in Roman society which copied Greek culture. An example is Claudia, Pontius Pilate's Wife who told her husband in council to not crucify Jesus Christ (Matthew 27:19). The reason we have such a detailed account of Christ's Birth and early life (Luke 2) is because Luke talked to Mother Mary (Madonna). To Luke this was normal, to get the most accurate information you must interview all witnesses, including women, while in Jewish Culture this was unheard of and women were considered slaves (until Christ made disciples of them, see my blog post, How Jesus Liberated Women). The Apostle Luke in addition to penning his Gospel account, penned Acts, and is believed to have written Hebrews or compiled it.
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| St. Luke the Evangelist |
The Greeks preserved the most accurate Old Testament (Septuagint) that contains the prophecies, even in Genesis that allude to Jesus Christ which have been removed by the later Hebrew translation of the 12 Century used in Bibles today. The Septuagint is about 60 B.C. while the Hebrew Old Testament is 1200 A.D., almost two thousand years removed from the events and with an antichristian spin. The Greek Orthodox Church prior to splintering into Slavic and other nationalistic churches preserved the New Testament from heterodoxy. It was the Greek Orthodox Church that was under Emperor Constantine called forth a Nicene Council, and subsequent councils to clarify the faith and preserve it from the heretics like Arians and Nestorians. We undermine the Apostolic or Patristic Fathers in Evangelicism, but without them there is no Evangelicism, Pentecostalism, and Charismatics; all of which are Orthodox according to the Councils of the Early Church Fathers. It was the Orthodox Fathers who preserved what the Apostles wrote in the New Testament and endeavored to articulate in the age of apostasies. We owe the Church Fathers, just as we owe the Crusaders of the Roman Church that saved the West from destruction numerous times.
The Greeks became the greatest Christian Empire in the world called Byzantium. The Byzantines created mosaic art, the floating dome cathedral famously scene in Hagia Sophia, they created an incredible city called Constantinople. At the center of Byzantium was a constitution and law based in the Christian faith (a theocracy), "The constitution of the Byzantine Empire was based on the conviction that it was the earthly copy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Just as God ruled in Heaven, so the Emperor, made in his image, should rule on earth and carry out his commandments ... It saw itself as a universal empire. Ideally, it should embrace all the peoples of the Earth who, ideally, should all be members of the one true Christian Church, its own Orthodox Church. Just as man was made in God's image, so man's kingdom on Earth was made in the image of the Kingdom of Heaven." (Steven Runciman, The Byzantine Theocracy 2004 pp 1–2, 162-63.). The Byzantiones were civilized people who had incredible intellect, were literate, mastered Greek Fire, clothed everything in gold, and created a world of such decadence and opulence that no civilization has been able to completely copy. The Byzantines reigned for almost two thousand years, and were ultimately destroyed by Muslims known as Ottomans in blank. But the Byzantine civilization lives on in art and culture, they will never be forgotten. I recommend reading The Alexiad by Ann Commenus, here account of Byzantine culture is very revealing.
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| Constantinople, Capital of Byzantium |
The Greco Peoples were the most receptive to Gospel next to the Romans. Most of the New Testament is comprised of letters to Greek Cities and congregations, "Galatia, Galatians", "Colossi, Colossians," "Ephesus, Ephesians," "Corinth, 1 and 2 Corinthians," "Thesslonaki, 1 and 2 Thessalonians," "Phillipi, Phillippians," and even in Revelation Christ addresses the Asia-Greco Churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The Apostle Paul spent most of his time in Greek cities, he spent three years in the city of Corinth alone.
The Greek culture, language, and methods have impacted the Church in profound ways. The Greeks in this day in age consider their country to be Christian, but they have gone astray and it is more of tradition religion than a relationship with Jesus like their ancestors had under St. Paul. It is my prayer that the People of Greece like their ancestors in Ephesus have "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first." (Revelation 2:4). While certainly there is a remnant in Greece, for the remnant everywhere in the world, but Greece as a whole needs to return to the One True God, and remember their contributions to His Church.
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