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Adherents of modern witchcraft perform a ritual 'skyclad' 120 Photograph by John Moss, Camera Press, London There were other terms used as synonyms for 'pagan' in early Church literature. In the Greek-influenced cultural world of the eastern Mediterranean, the words ethne and ethnikoi described this category of otherness and foreignness. By the early 4th century, they were superseded by the term Hellenes, which referred to those instructed in Greek culture and ideas, and by inference the worship of Greek divinities. 'Barbarian' was another word of Greek origin that would come to be used quite widely. It originally meant someone who did not speak Greek, or who was a foreigner in other words, but it later acquired connotations of cultural if not military inferiority. When it came to spreading the word of the Bible amongst Germanic tribes during the 4th century, the missionary Bishop Ulfilas translated Hellenes (Latin gentilis) into Gothic as háithnô, or 'heathen'. This perhaps denoted, rather like 'pagan', a person who lived in wild remote places (the heaths) and clung to old ways, but it could also derive from the Armenian word hetanos for 'nation' or 'tribe'. The Latin gentilis, or

Author

Davies, Owen

Language

EN

Rating

3.7 / 5 (67 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14