John 12:20

OLBGrk;

It is not easy to be determined what these Greeks were; whether Jews, who, being scattered in the Grecian country upon the conquests which the Grecians had made upon the Jews under Alexander the Great, and those who succeeded him, still remained in those countries, but kept so much of the religion of their country, as to come up to the passover; or Gentiles, which are ordinarily called Greeks in contradistinction to the Jews, Acts 14:1, Acts 16:1 18:17 Romans 1:16 1 Corinthians 1:23,24 Ga 3:28. But it is most probable that they were Gentiles; for though some say that the Jews would never have suffered the Gentiles to have come into the temple to worship, yet the contrary is plain from the instance of the eunuch, Acts 8:27; who was a heathen, and came to Jerusalem to worship. And, Acts 17:4, we read of a great multitude of devout Greeks; in the Greek the word is sebomenwn, worshipping Greeks. And it is plain that from the beginning there was a liberty for strangers, not of Israel, but such as came out of a far country, for the Lord's name's sake; and Solomon prayeth at the dedication of the temple, that the Lord would hear them, 1 Kings 8:41: and there was belonging to the temple a court of the Gentiles for that purpose; it is called the court without the temple, Revelation 11:2. What worship they there performed is a greater question: some think they only prayed; others think they offered sacrifices in that court, from /Apc /APC 2Ma 3:35; but certain it is, that there were divers of the Gentiles devoutly disposed, that, hearing of the Jewish temple, and the solemn worship performed there at their solemn feasts, came, some as spectators at those great conventions, others with a true design to worship the God of the Jews.