A Look at Greece

The earliest known inhabitants of Greece were called Ionians. It is believed that this name came from their ancestor Javan (Hebrew, Ya·wanʹ), a son of Japheth and therefore a grandson of Noah. (Genesis 10:1, 2) In the Christian Greek Scriptures of the Bible, Greece is called Hel·lasʹ. It is a rugged and rocky land, with some heavily wooded mountains. Long ago the Greeks became skilled seafarers.

The ancient Greeks had many gods, described as having human form and great beauty. These gods supposedly ate, drank, and slept; and though they were considered holy and immortal, they also seduced and raped and were capable of deceit and crime. Such myths may actually be distorted memories of the time before the Flood when angelic sons of God rebelliously came to earth, cohabited with women, produced powerful offspring called Nephilim, and filled the earth with violence.​—Genesis 6:1-8, 13.

In the fourth century B.C.E., Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, set about unifying the formerly independent Greek city-states, bringing them under Macedonian control. In the second century B.C.E., Greece became a Roman province, and Grecian culture spread to Rome.

The widespread use of koi·neʹ Greek contributed to the rapid expansion of the Christian good news throughout the Mediterranean area.

The apostle Paul visited Macedonia and Greece during his second and third missionary tours. He formed Christian congregations in Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, and Beroea. Silas, Timothy, Titus, and other early Christians also taught here. Today, Greece has more than 320 congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses and upwards of 23,000 proclaimers of God’s Kingdom.