Some enquiries concerning the first inhabitants, language, religion, learning and letters of Europe / By a member of the Society of Antiquaries in London [i.e. F. Wise].

Francis Wise

Date:: 1758

Credit: Some enquiries concerning the first inhabitants, language, religion, learning and letters of Europe / By a member of the Society of Antiquaries in London [i.e. F. Wise]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Greeks, in imitation of the Egyptians, called without dif- tinction all other nations Barbarous; and therefore the Phenicians and Egyptians themfelves, who abounded in {cience, and brought colonies into their country, are ne- verthelefs called Barbarous, upon account of their fpeech. But thefe were not the Barbarians, who are (1) faid to be _ older than the Greeks; for there were natives of Greece, long before the arrival of the Phenicians and Egyptians. And who were thofe natives, but the defcendants of the firft inhabitants, that is, Scythians or Barbarians? Whofe language was likewife the primitive language of the coun~ Gentes, and the Saxon WeSene Erhnici. And the Apoftle all along feems to have underftood it in that fenfe, as Rom.1. v.16. 2. ¥.9,10. 1Cor.1. v. 23. unlefs once where he oppofes it to Barbarians, as Rom.1. v.14. En\uot a PED) Baplcests, oQois TE xg} avonTeis, apuAetHs eipus and there it necefiarily means Greeks. S. Luke the Apoftle’s colleague is fo to be underftood, Acts 14. v. 1. 18. v.4. 19. V.10. 21. v.28. as likewife the Fathers and later Chriftian Writers. 03 alepépe? tdy Te Nopunos i, dtc EAAHN, & jae Isduav wove, mevray J aySpdmov & Ses Kuee@. Clem. Alexand. Strom. VI. p. 638. Ed. Sylb. Teer as EAAHNON Odts alenenvor’ sceronty Te ds 6 amd wane Korsuynes Smospages vas BAAH- NON Senoneras. Socrat. Hift. Eccl. Lib. Ic.2. And to go no further than S. Epiphanius. EAAHNISMOS 22 sav xeovey F Sephy tvapEduw@ Ale. ro Tis Eidwas- aareras. Refp. ad Epift. Acacii. Kaz aererur tySevde § yeeanme F Iedulous wb % EA- AHNIZMON, Adv. Heeref. Lib. I. pag.g. Am 3 a Segiy ids mod ACerdu 0 Sves EAAHNI=MOS. Id. ibid. Here we fee the word BaAluiquis, or Gentili/m, ap- plied to a people who lived at a time when the Greeks were fcarce known, or had a name. Now let me fuppofe that the Text, in conformity to the Syriac verfion, ftood thus in the original: “Oss a ¢ “Enlw © Isdtuos, aexropi 1G dnestusta, [Eau] RdeCap@, Maros tadSeees. Here the word is ufed in both fen- fes, and the proper antithefis likewife preferved, of Gentile and Few, Greek and Barbarian: but a common tranfcriber, or even S. Jerom himfelf, might eafily take the latterEtw to be redundant, thinking it equivalent to That which went before, and fo wholly omitted it; and then, that the word Bdo- Cap@ might not ftand alone without its oppofite, took in Sxv%us a glofs, tho’ it only fignified the fame thing. If this is, as it feems to be, a corrupt read- ing, I know no other way of accounting for it. (1) “On abe Barbdeay nvay aire mapeinnpauen’ cio D ioe deraoTeest Bagless. Pla- to in Cratylo. Vol. I. p.425. Ed. Serran. C 2 try,$