“¶ And there were certaine Greeks among them, that came vp to worship at the feast:”
1611 King James Version (KJV)
12:20 Certain Greeks - A prelude of the Gentile Church. That these were circumcised does not appear. But they came up on purpose to worship the God of Israel.
Joh 12:20 And there were certain Greeks, etc. Among those who came to worship were Greeks, members of the Gentile division of the race which embraced all that were not Jews. These were not Jews who spoke the Grecian language and lived in Greek countries; those are called in the original Greek "Hellenistoi". We find the latter in the Jerusalem church in large numbers. See Ac 6:1. These who sought to visit Jesus were "Hellenes", a term only used of the Greek race. It is probable that they belonged to the large class of "devout Greeks", met elsewhere by Paul (Ac 17:4), who were sick of heathenism and were attracted by the grand Hebrew revelation of the unity of God. On this great national occasion they had accompanied Jews settled abroad as they returned to worship in the city of David.