Barbara Is Not in the Bible — but the Word Behind It Is

فريق Christian Pure

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ملخص

  • Barbara is not a name in the Bible, but the Greek word behind it — barbaros — is in the New Testament three times.
  • The word was coined by imitating speech that could not be understood. It described language, not character, before it hardened into an insult.
  • In Acts 28:2 the people of Malta are called hoi barbaroi, and in the same sentence they build a fire for two hundred and seventy-six shipwrecked strangers in the rain.
  • Colossians 3:11 puts barbarian and Scythian on a list and says the list is not there.
  • Saint Barbara’s legend is late and the evidence thin; her feast was removed from the general Roman calendar in the twentieth century, though she is still honoured in the East.

Barbara is not a name in the Bible. But the word behind it is in the New Testament, and the people it describes are the kindest strangers in the book of Acts. What the name means Barbara is the feminine of the Greek barbaros — foreign, strange, not one of us. The origin is blunt and slightly comic. To a Greek ear, a language you could not understand sounded like someone saying “bar bar bar.” The word was invented by…

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قائمة المراجع (انقر للعرض)

Sources: Behind the Name entry for Barbara (feminine of Greek barbaros); Scripture quotations from the NIV via BibleGateway (Acts 28:2; 1 Corinthians 14:11; Colossians 3:11; Exodus 23:9; Hebrews 11:13; Acts 27:37). The onomatopoeic origin of barbaros is standard etymology. The removal of Saint Barbara’s feast from the General Roman Calendar took place in the 1969 revision.

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