Translation
Both JEWS and CONVERTS,
CRETANS
Go to footnote number
and ARABS,
Go to footnote numberwe hear them speaking the great things of THEOS in our own dialects.
Paraphrase
Those who have PRAISED GOD all their lives,
And those who have RECENTLY LEARNED TO PRAISE [GOD],
THE REJECTS AND OUTCASTS, and
THOSE WHO FOLLOW THE ALTERNATE LIFESTYLE OF CRISS-CROSSING THE LAND AS NOMADS, we each hear them proclaiming in our respective dialects the wonderful things done by THE CREATOR AND OWNER OF ALL THINGS.
Footnotes
1
Crete was to Greece what Australia once was to England, a place to send the rejects and the outcasts. It is thought that the name came from a Hebrew verb meaning “to round up and cut off,” and then it was given a Greek quasi-equivalent which means “a judge,” which comes from the verb “to separate or distinguish.” Those outcasts ended up taking the island from its other inhabitants. We do not know what they chose to call themselves or their new island home; all we have is the name given to it by outsiders. Paul in Titus 1:12 perpetuated the common sentiment when he referred to Cretans as “always liars, evil brutes and lazy gluttons.”
2
Arabia comes from Arab, which means “to criss-cross or traverse” and refers to a nomadic lifestyle. It did not refer to a specific nation or ethnic group, but to a region that was occupied by various people groups, and to the way of life adopted by those who lived in that region – the nomadic lifestyle. According to Abarim Publications, it referred to people “who move around without a particular headquarter, or drifters from no specified location.” There were many connections between the people of Israel and the people of Arabia. Israel passed through, and spent 40 years in the Arabian desert, and many Jews continued living a nomadic lifestyle even after they entered the land promised to them. It appears that nomads were accepted in society, yet theirs was an alternate lifestyle, different from the established life of farm lands, villages, towns or cities. It is mentioned in this passage because it pointed to an alternate lifestyle, different from the rest.
The people at Abarim Publications (https://www.abarim-publications.com/NaLi/A-LocBig.html) surmise that “the name Arabia also belonged to the phenomenon of large-scale international information exchange; a kind of proto-internet that was governed by the tales of caravan men, or the slow but grand unification of the world’s wisdom traditions by means of the informal exchange of stories and legends, and this as a side-effect of international trade.
The Collective Meaning of this List of Names
This list of names is obviously intended to point to “everyone.” Some of the names point in that direction, other names indicate the various extremes possible such as the “high and elevated” as well as “the rejects and outcasts.” It includes those who “praise God” and those who are bound by sin, as well as those whose strengths are converging to make a flow of great strength and those who live in fearful submission to those who lord over them. It even includes the “alternate lifestyle” of the nomads.
WE SHOULD ASK OURSELVES THESE QUESTIONS:
- Do I include everyone, or do I tend to exclude some people?
- Do I yearn for the salvation of the outcasts and rejects of society?
- Do I participate in forming clicks in my congregation?