Ezekiel’s prophecy speaks of “very many” fish in the Great Sea. (Ezek. 47:10) Fine coral and an abundance of sponge are found in these waters, in addition to more than 400 varieties of fish.

Bible writers not only used the name “Great Sea” (Josh. 1:4; 9:1, 2; 15:12, 47; 23:4; Ezek. 47:15, 19, 20; 48:28), but they also referred to it by other comprehensive terms. To them this body of water was the “western sea,” forming as it did the western boundary of Palestine. (Deut. 11:24; 34:1, 2) From the location of Jerusalem it was viewed as the “western sea” in contrast with the “eastern sea,” that is, the Dead Sea. (Joel 2:20; Zech. 14:8) Or it was called “the sea of the Philistines” (Ex. 23:31) or simply “the Sea.”—Num. 34:5.

From time immemorial Phoenicians and other bold seafaring people traversed the Great Sea, discovered a number of its islands, and carried on trade between many of its port cities. The Bible mentions such islands as Arvad, Cauda, Chios, Cos, Crete, Cyprus, Malta, Patmos, Rhodes, Samos, and Samothrace. Also, some of the coastal cities and sites on these islands and along the continental shores of the eastern section of the Great Sea are listed in the Bible, namely: Acco (Ptolemais), Achzib, Adramyttium, Alexandria, Amphipolis, Ashkelon, Attalia, Cnidus, Dor, Fair Havens, Gebal, Lasea, Patara, Phoenix, Puteoli, Rhegium, Salamis, Salmone and Syracuse.

Jesus Christ visited the seaport regions of Tyre and Sidon (Mark 7:24, 31); Peter was in Joppa and Caesarea (Acts 10:5, 6, 24); Paul was in Paphos, Troas, Neapolis, Cenchreae, Ephesus, Assos, Mitylene and Miletus. (Acts 13:13; 16:11; 18:18, 19; 20:14, 15) The Great Sea is noted for its fierce storms that have resulted in numerous shipwrecks and much loss of life. Among the more fortunate were those who survived with Jonah and Paul on their famous voyages.—Jonah 1:3-16; Acts 27:14, 15, 39-44.

GREECE, GREEKS

These names come from Graikoiʹ, the name of a tribe in NW Greece. The Italians applied the name (Latin, Graeci) to the inhabitants of Greece as a whole. Eventually even Aristotle in his writings used the term in a similar way.

Another earlier name, “Ionians,” appears from the eighth century B.C.E. onward in Assyrian cuneiform records, as well as in Persian and Egyptian accounts. This name comes from that of Javan (Heb., Ya·wanʹ), son of Japheth and grandson of Noah. Javan was the Japhetic ancestor of the early peoples of Greece and the surrounding islands, as well as, evidently, of the early inhabitants of Cyprus, parts of southern Italy, Sicily, and Spain.—Gen. 10:1, 2, 4, 5; 1 Chron. 1:4, 5, 7; see JAVAN; ELISHAH; KITTIM; RODANIM; TARSHISH No. 1.

While “Ionian” now applies geographically to the sea between southern Greece and southern Italy and the chain of islands along the W coast of Greece, the name once had a broader application more in harmony with the Hebrew Scriptures’ use of “Javan.” The prophet Isaiah, in the eighth century B.C.E., spoke of the time when the returned exiles of Judah would be sent to distant nations, including “Tubal and Javan, the faraway islands.”—Isa. 66:19.

In the Christian Greek Scriptures, the land is called Helʹlas (“Greece,” Acts 20:2), and the people Helʹlenes. The Greeks themselves had used these names beginning several centuries before the Common Era and continue to do so. “Hellas” may have some connection with “Elishah,” one of Javan’s sons. (Gen. 10:4) The name “Achaia” was also applied to central and southern Greece following the Roman conquest of 146 B.C.E.

THE LAND AND ITS FEATURES

Greece occupied the southern part of the mountainous Balkan Peninsula and the islands of the Ionian Sea on the W and of the Aegean Sea on the E. To the S, lay the Mediterranean. The northern boundary is indeterminate, particularly so since in the earlier periods the Javanites of Greece were not consolidated into a particular nation. However, in later times “Greece” is understood to have reached to the regions of Illyria (corresponding roughly to western Yugoslavia and Albania) and Macedonia. In actuality, the Macedonians may have been of the same basic stock as those later called Greeks.

The land then, as now, was both rugged and rocky, rough limestone mountains occupying some three-fourths of the terrain. The mountain slopes were heavily wooded. The scarcity of fertile plains and valleys and the rockiness of the soil sharply reduced the agricultural capacities of the land. The mild climate, however, favored the growth of olives and grapes. Other products were barley, wheat, apples, figs and pomegranates. Herds of sheep and goats found pasturage on the uncultivated areas. There were some mineral deposits—silver, zinc, copper, lead—and the mountains supplied abundant quantities of fine marble. The prophecy of Ezekiel (27:1-3, 13) includes Javan among those trading with Tyre, and lists “articles of copper” among the products traded.

Maritime advantages

Travel by land was slow and difficult due to the mountains. Animal-drawn carts easily bogged down in the winter seasons. So the sea was the best avenue of Greek transportation and communication. The long, jagged coastline, deeply indented by bays and inlets, supplied abundant harbors and shelters for ships. Due to the several penetrating gulfs, few points within the ancient boundaries were more than forty miles (c. 64 kilometers) distant from the sea. The southern part of mainland Greece, called the Peloponnesus, came close to being an island. Only a narrow neck of land, crossing between the Saronic Gulf and the Gulf of Corinth, connects the Peloponnesus with central Greece. (Today the Corinth Canal cuts through the narrow isthmus for four miles [6.4 kilometers] without locks, making the separation complete.)

The Javanites of Greece early became a seafaring people. The heel of Italy’s “boot” lay only about one hundred miles (161 kilometers) across the Strait of Otranto from NW Greece. To the E, archipelagoes (chains of islands formed by submerged mountains with their tops rising above the water’s surface) served as giant steppingstones across the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor. At the NE corner of the Aegean a narrow passage, the Hellespont (also called the Dardanelles), led into the Sea of Marmara and then through the Bosporus Strait into the Black Sea. Also, by sailing along the southern coast of Asia Minor, Greek ships early traveled to the shores of Syria and Palestine. A ship could cover as much as sixty miles (c. 97 kilometers) during a daylight period. Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians in Macedonia, likely written in Corinth might, therefore, have taken a week or more to deliver, depending on weather conditions (and the number of ports stopped at along the way).

Greek influence and settlements were by no means limited to mainland Greece. The numerous islands studding the Ionian and Aegean Seas were considered as much a part of Greece as the mainland. Southern Italy and Sicily (possibly settled by descendants of Elishah) were included in what was called Great Hellas or, in Latin, Graecia Magna. The historical evidence indicates that the Javanites of Greece maintained contact and trade relations with those of Tarshish (Spain), far surpassing the Phoenicians in this regard. Similar association is found between the Greeks and the Javanites of Cyprus.

ORIGIN OF THE GREEK TRIBES

Modern historians offer various ideas on the origin of the Greek tribes and about their entry into the area. The popular view of successive “invasions” by northern tribes is largely based on Greek myths and archaeological conjecture. Actually, secular history concerning Greece does not begin until about the eighth century B.C.E. (the first Olympiad being celebrated in 776 B.C.E.) and a connected record is possible only from the fifth century B.C.E. onward. This was many centuries after the Flood and hence long after the later dispersal of families due to the confusion of mankind’s language at Babel. (Gen. 11:1-9) During these many centuries other races perhaps infiltrated the original stock of Javan and his sons, but for the period prior to the first millennium B.C.E. there are only theories of doubtful value.

Principal Greek tribes

Among the principal tribes found in Greece were: the Achaeans of Thessaly, the central Peloponnesus, and Boeotia; the Aetolians in W central Greece, the N part of the Peloponnesus, Elis, Aetolia, and the nearby islands; the Dorians of the eastern Peloponnesus, the southern islands of the Aegean and the SW part of Asia Minor; and the Ionians of Attica, the island of Euboea, the islands of the middle Aegean and the W coasts of Asia Minor. Any relationship between these tribes and the Macedonians in the earlier periods is uncertain.

PATRIARCHAL ARRANGEMENT AND THE CITY-STATES

The Greek-speaking tribes were quite independent, and even within the tribes the city-states that developed were likewise quite independent. Geographical features contributed to this. Not only did many Greeks live on islands, but on the mainland the majority lived in small valleys ringed by mountains. As to their early social structure, The Encyclopedia Americana (1956 ed., Vol. XIII, p. 377) offers this view: “The ultimate social unit was the patriarchal household . . . the patriarchal tradition was strongly entrenched in Greek culture: the active citizens of a city-state (polis) were adult males only. The patriarchal family was enclosed within a series of concentric kinship circles—the clan (genos), the phratry [or group of families], the tribe.” This harmonizes quite well with the post-Flood patriarchal arrangement described in the Bible book of Genesis.

The pattern in Greece was somewhat similar to that of Canaan, where the various tribes (descended from Canaan) formed petty kingdoms, often based around a particular city. The Greek city-state was called a poʹlis. This term seems to have applied originally to an acropolis or fortified height around which settlements developed. Later it came to designate the entire area and the citizens forming the city-state. Most Greek city-states were small, usually having no more than 10,000 citizens (plus women, slaves and children). At its height, in the fifth century B.C.E., Athens is said to have had only about 43,000 male