We have seen what range of meaning px and Sja have in OT, and have observed that yjj and oiKovniyr) are used in LXX to render them. In connexion with the meanings of ic4<r^o5 it is not uniiniKirtant to notice that there are in NT l)ariiliel or closely flimihir pa-ssages in one of which yij or oIkov/jJi'ti is found, and in the other itoffMOt. Comp. iMt 4« with Lk 4», Mt 24" and 20", Mt5' with Uo 4", Jn :i" and 8'='. Yet, even though icdo'/u)! at times seems to have much the
same meaning as -y^ or oUovu^vrj in many passages of LXX, it was felt to be a preferable word for many purposes. In sjjite of the usage of LXX there was danger of confusion in employing oUou- IJiiv-n, which was applied by Greeks and Romans specially to the GriEco-Roman world. [This word occurs most frequently in the writings of St. Luke, and most often with the meaning just indicated], Klmiioi may also more readily have suggested a comprehensive idea, so as to include more at least than yri did ; it suggested tlie idea of a whole, if not necessarily of an ordered whole. The philo- sophical associations which still clung to the woid also made it more suitable when the intention was to signalize certain princiiiles which underlay and governed the entity in question. It may be ob- served that ol/cov/ji^yri occurs but once in St. Paul's writings (Ro 10'*), and there in a quotation from LXX ; 7-5 also is met with there comparatively rarely.
We proceed to review the use of K6<r/ios in NT more in detail. Our object in doing so will be to mark dill'erences between various writers, and also to some extent in the same writers, in the denota- tion of the term, and in the concejition implied when that which is denoted is the same. It will be seen that there are instances in all the chief groups of writings of its standing for (1) the material universe, (2) our world as containing mankind, but without tlio connotation that the world or men have certain ethical characteristics. The ethical signilication of the word appears to be contined to the Epp. of St. Paul, the Gospel and Epp. of St. John, tlie Ep. of St. James, and 2 Peter ; though there is a possible exception wlien the king- doms of the world and their glory are ottered as a temptation (Mt 4'), and the possession of the whole world is compared with the true interests of the soul (Mk S-'", iMt 16-'», Lk 9-s>) ; we may in these places be intended to gather that worldlj- dominion and wealth are even of themselves dangerous to the soul. Further, we ought to be better able to form for ourselves a char and complete view of the conception as a whole presented in the teaching of NT and in iiulividual writers, after marking aspects of it which are severally pro- minent in particular passages. The idea tlius obtained we must take with us in order that we may fully feel the force of other passages. This is specially true in the case of St. John's «Titings. Thus, when in Jn 13' it is said that the hour had come that Jesus ' should depart out of this world unto the Father,' and that He had ' loved his own which were in the world,' some thought of what the world is must have been present to the mind of the evangelist. It is, moreover, obvious that where St. John uses the word in successive, or nearly successive, clauses or sentences — as he does again and again in clis. 14-17 — though from each occur- rence the same notion cannot be gathered fully, it would be a mistake to regard them disconnectedly. The word has one meaning in the thought of the writer, though he may not be equally conscious of all its elements at every moment, and thougli he is still less able to convey the whole of it at once to others, but lights up hr.st this, then that part of it, after his characteristic manner.
1. The material universe, the heaven and earth which were created at the bc;;innini;, moaC trequcntly in tlic ])hrase &«■* jwTapoXr; xcrf^uv, or Others similar to this, ilt 21-1 '^:^^ Lk ll^ Jn 170 ••", Ro 1», Eph 1*. 1 P 1», Ho *' 0'». In Jn 11» we read of the natunil Iit;ht of this world ; in 1 Co 8^ W^ i* xcrfj^ seems to be equivalent to the Latin phrase in renim nalura.
1 Co i'^' hfloiijfs, perhaps, here. An;,'el8 are added probably aa distintfuiMhed from the world ; men, on the other hand, aa a particular and important part of it.
2. The earth, but rarely without reference to that which II contains, and espocially to its hinnan inhabitants.
(a) The scone ot human life, the aboiie of mankind, Ho 619. U 1 Co lia, L'ph «ia, 1 Ti I" «', Ue 10», 1 P 6». Ja 1» tJi^ liw, 1 Ja
340
WORLD
"WORMWOOD
41 9-17. In Jn 2125 little more eeeme to be implied than the extent of space included.
(6) The earth, together with all the treasures it contains, and including, no doubt, dominion over men, Mt 4**, Mt l(pJ = iIk 8^** ~L\i 9'^, Uo 41a, 1 Co 322.