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WORK. — This article deals with tlie special sense in whicli tlie word is employed in the N'l' of the office of the preacher of the gospel. (For other senses see Business, Labour.) Popular opinion tends to rey:ard spiritual ministry as the spontaneous activity of a certain temperament re- quiring no particuhir ell'ort. The teaching of the NT directly contradicts this notion. It declares that it is only liy systematic and severe labour that we can win men for God. This is borne out by the terms used in the .apostolic writings. In the Fourth Gospel we hear the Lord speaking of the fulliUing of the 'work' which He had been sent to acconi)dish (Jn n'). This word (^^701') was taken up by the Church and applied to the task set before its evangelists. The mission entrusted to Saul and Barnabas is described as ' the work ' to which they received a vocation from the Holy Spirit (Ac 13= ; cf. 14-«).
In the Pauline Epistles this work is said to be 'the work of the Lord,' i.e. the definite service which Christ lays upon believers of proclaiming the gospel. All the faithful are called to this. The special charismata of some are bestowed in order that they may be used for ' the perfecting of the saints, unto tlie work of ministering' (Eph 4'-). Abundant activity in this office follows a firm belief in the Resurrection (1 Co 15^). In 1 Co 3'"" the ' work' is likened to a building which must be built so as to stand the test of the tire of judgment. It is therefore natural to speak of the Christian minister as the ipyaTris whose ideal is to produce nothing which will shame him (2 Ti 2''). The dignity of his vocation is expressed in the highest terms when he is named a ' fellow-worker with God' (I Co 39, 2 Co 6>; cf. 1 Th 3^ KVm). The spirit in which the work is to be done is denoted by another word, k6itos, which is ' almost a tech- nical word for Christian work' (H. B. Swete, Apocalypse, London, 1907, p. 25), and signiiies the weariness which attends the efl'ort required of those who undertake this work. It suggests the idea of an athlete undergoing great fatigue (see J. B. Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, London, 1891, p. 161). With its cognate verb St. Paul uses it in this connexion some twenty times. The leaders of the Church are distinguished by it (I Th 5''^). It must be endured by those who would be teachers of the Word (1 Ti 5''). The Apostle himself had experienced it to the full (1 Co 15'", 2 Co 11^).
LiTERiTURE. — A. W. Robinson, Co.operation with God, London, IMS. C. T. DiMONT.
WORLD. — The conception of the world in the apostolic writings is one of much complexity. Its content is derived partly from the OT, partly from later Judaism ; but it has also assimilated an important element from Greek thought, and the peculiar experience of early Christianity has added to it a sinister significance of its own. Thus the various synonyms by which it is expressed reveal so many narrowly dill'erentiated senses in each, and also shade oft' into each other in such a way, that a delicate problem for exact exegesis is often created. The three terms chiefly to be considered are i] oiKoviiivf}, 6 aluiv o5tos, and 6 Kda^os, which in their proper significance denote the world respec- tively as a place, a period, and a system.
1. The spatial conception of the world.— The spatial conception of the world as the orbis ter- rarum, the comprehensive abode of man and scene of human life, is rendered in the OT by six and its more poetical synonym '73ri, which in the LXX are translated, the former by 7^, the latter by olKov/x4vri {vice versa in a few passages in Isaiah). In the apostolic writings 77; is retained in this sense in quotations from the LXX (e.g. Ac 2''-', Ro 9", He 1'"), also in Ac 17=^ Ja 5°, and frequently in the
Apocalypse (1°-' 3'°, etc.). The more distinctive term is i) oUoviiivri (sc. yri). Originally it was used, with racial self-consciousness, to signify the terri- torial extent of Greek life and civilization (Herod, iv. 110); but after the conquests of Alexander, and in consequence of the same unifying inlluences as those by whiidi the Greek dialects were merged in the ko^p^, it came to express a view and feeling of the inhabited world as overpassing all national distinctions and boundaries. Later, when the rule of the Cicsars seemed to be practically co-extensive with the habitable earth, it acquired a more special sense — the Empire as a territorial unity (e.q. Lk 2') ; but in the apostolic writings it has the larger significance, the world-wide abode of man (Ac 11-'" 17"", and 19-'' by passionate exaggeration, '24", Ro 10'", Rev 3'" W), or, by a natural transition, man- kind (Ac 17^', Rev 12'»). As an example of the elasticity whicdi characterizes the use of these terms, it may be noted that to express the same thought of the world-wide field for the dissemina- tion of the gospel St. Paul prefers k^mos (Ro 1', Col 1") ; and that, on the contrary, the writer of Hebrews gives to oUovixhri the proper significance both of kIxt/xo!, the 'terrestrial order' (l"), and of aiuiv (cf. the unique Tr)i> /ii\\oviTai> olKoviiivqv of 2' and fj^WovTos alwvos, 6^).