The Israelites were forbidden to wear clothing made of interwoven wool and linen, called iipv* sha'atnez. The context, Lv 19" Dt 22", seems to indicate that the objection was to the mixture as such. The matter is the subject of discussion in the Mislina (Kilaim i.\. 1), and Josephus briefly states that the reason was because such cloth of wool and linen was the special dress material of the j)riest-s {Ant. IV. viii. 11). It is one of the tit-bits of rabbinical conscientiousness to discuss whether a man wearing a woollen coat, of which the buttons are sewn on with linen thread, is wearing shdatniz, and so breaking the Law.
Woof was tiie stamlard of lustrous whiteness (Ps 147", Is 1", Dn 7', Kev l'«), as goats'-hair or sack- cloth was of intense black {Rev G'-).
G. M. Mackie.
WORD (X(5705, ^;«a).— Commenting on Dt 8', Philo says [Leg. Allcg. iii. 01), rh iiii> yi.p irrdixa. ffirfx^oXov rov Xityov^ t6 5^ p^M^ fi^ptK aCrroO. The definition of priijui, as an isolated specitic alKr- mation in contrast with X47os, a connected whole, though for the most part tenable, cannot be uni- versally accepted. In LXX both words are used indilVeieiitly as tr. of i?^, and sometimes X670! is found, where on the ground of this distinction we might have expected M/«i (Is 50^). In the familiar phrase, 'the word of the Lord came,' 'word' is rendered in the historical books, now by X47os (2 .S 24", 1 K 6" 12^ 16' etc.), now by prjfui (1 S 15'°, 2 S "*, 1 K 17» 19» etc.) ; but in the prophetical books (with the pos-sible exception of Jer 1', where the translation is inexact) X(^ot is invariably used to denote the message which God revealed to the prophet that he migTit declare it to the people in 11 is name. It may oe noted that, in referring to the call of the Baptist — ' the word of the Lord came nnto John ' (3'^) — St. Luke uses pfifia. The choice of ^5/ia may be accidental ; or ho may have done so designedly to mark the contrast between the word that came to the Baptist and the word (X470f) pro- claimed and revealed by Christ.
At a very early date, if not at the very begin- ning of the Church, A Xoyot was used xar' ^foxi)" to desJOTate the special revelation of grace given in and by Jesus Christ (Lk 1', Ac 4* etc.). Our Lord appears to have so described His inessagc (Mt 13^, Mk4'*). St. Mark thus summarizes llie teaching of Jesus (2^). At the institution of the diacouate the
apostles characterize their own distinctive duty as a steadfast continuance in the ministry of the word (Ac 6*) ; it is represented as the exclusive subject and substance of the i)roclaniation of the early missionaries of the cross (Ac 8* 17'' etc.); it is found in the earliest as well as in the latest of the Epistles of St. Paul ( 1 Th 1«, 2 Ti 4-). By describing the gospel in this way, the speakers or writers meant to imply that it was tlie perfect and authoritative word which was to supersede all other words that God h.ad spoken to men. In relation to its origin it is the word of God (Lk 8", Ac 4", 1 Co 14* He 4'=, 1 P !•«) ; in respect of its method of communication it is the word of hearing (1 Th 2", He 4-) ; as to its nature it is the word of the kingdom (Mt 13"), of truth (2 Ti 2"'), of life (Ph 2'«) ; it is pre-eminently the word of salvation (Ac 13**), of reconciliation (2 Co 5"*), the word of the cross (1 Co l'*). (See Cremer, Bill. Theol. Lex.* pp. 302, 393; Trench, N.T. Sijn. 289, 337). For Word in the personal sense see Logos. John Patrick.
WORLD.— 'The world,' in that meaning of the terra from which others that are in use may be most clearly derived, denotes a system known to man througli his senses, to which he himself on one side of his nature belongs, but from which, as a personal being, he can and usually does regard himself as distinct. It is a portion of the material universe, and may even stand for the whole of it where man's knowledge of nature is limited. It will be our chief aim in this article to examine the view taken in OT and NT of this material system, and of man's actual as well as his true relation to it.
i. In Old Tkstament.— Sgn, which is commonly rendered 'world' both by AV and KV, is not a word of larger meaning than |";n ' earth ' ; indeed, so far as a distinction can be drawn between them, it has the narrower application. [Cf. art. Earth, and see esp. Pr 8" ii-|N '?3n = RV 'his habitable earth,' also Job 37'-]. The two words const.-intly occupy the corresponding places in the parallelisms of Heb. poetry (Ps 19^ 24' etc.). '^3" occurs only in poetry, and the word ' world ' may have been thought to have somewhat more jioetic associa- tions, and have been adopted for tliis reason to translate it. [Sjn is never rendered by 'earth' either in AV or IIV ; pN is rendered by ' world ' only at Ps 22"", Is 23" 62", and Jer 25-« in AV, and only at Job 37'-, Is 23", and Jer 25^ in RV. In these last two places ' earth ' was reserved to tr. n?7tt].