2. The temporal conception of the world.— The temporal conception of the world as a swrulitm, a cycle of history, complete within itself yet related to a before and an after, is distinctively expressed by aiuii>, or in contrast with the ' world to come,' as actually it always is, by 6 atwv oDtos (1 Co 1-" 2''- '• ' 3'*, 2 Co 4-', Epii 1-' ; variants, 6 ^vearuis atuv. Gal l' ; 0 aluf ToC Kda-fiov tovtov, Eph 2- ; 6 vvv aliif, 1 Ti 6", 2 Ti 4"', Tit 2'2 ; 6 yi/;' Ka:p6s, Ro 3=" S">).
The use of oViy in this sense, as denoting the present order of existence, does not occur in the OT (Ec 3J1 ?), but is character- istic of later Hebraism, the contrast between the two 'teona* (nin nSy, K^n D^iy) bein^ an essential feature in tiie Apoca- lyptic view of history. Diilman remarks upon the absence of evidence for this form of expression in any extant pre-Christian writing (Words 0/ Jesus, p. 148); it occurs chiefly in the later part^ of the Banich Apocalypse, in U Ezra (e.g. vi. 9, vii. 12, \'i, viii. 1. 52), and the Slaeonic Enoch. In Rabbinism (Dalman, p. 150) the earhest witnesses for the expression are Hiltel and Jochanan ben Zakkai (li. c. a.d. 80). The idea, however, is vouched for by earlier documents, Enoch, Jubilees, Agsumption of Moses (see on the whole subject Bousset's Religion des Judentums-, p. 278 ff.), and the frequency of its occurrence in the NT, with the assumption of its, familiarity, seems to imply its popular currency (contrariwise, Dalman — ' the expressions characterised the language of the learned rather than that of the people ' [p. 161]).
But while aiwv oCtos is primarily a time-concept, this world-age in contrast with the future age of the 'regeneration,' the temporal element tends to become secondary. The notion of a jieriod of time (emphatic in 1 Co 7^') is always implied ; but the ruling idea approximates to that which properly belongs to the k6ij-/<.os, the organic .system of terres- trial existence {e.g. in 1 Co 1'-" 6 ai'ui' oDros and 6 Kdapos are parallel and .synonymous). The opposi- tion between the two ' ;eons ' is qualitative even more than temporal: the one is 'evil' (Gal I''), under the dominion of the Devil (2 Co 4'') and kindred spirits (1 Co 2"- *), a world of sin and death in contrast with that other eternal world of right- eousness (2 P 3") and life. The two, indeed, are thought of as in a sense contemporaneo\is ; the '\\'orld to come' projects itself into the present; its 'powers' are ahea<ly experienced by all in whom the Spirit of God dwells and the work of spiritual quickening and transformation is begun (He 6'').
3. The world as an organic system.— The world as an organic system, a universe, is distinctively 6 Koa/xo^,
The idea which underlies all the various uses of icoaixo^ is that of order or arrangement (as in the common Homeric phrases, Karii *cda^oi' = ' in an orderly manner'; learo Kotrtiov
694
WOKLD
WORLD
KaOiV<ti' = ' to sit in order'), and since the atron^'est impression of un\arj'inp and reliable order in nature is ^i^'en by the move- ment of ttie lieavenly bodies, it was probably to this that the term was first applied in a more special sense. In classical Greek, while it is sometimes used with reference to the firma- ment above, and it« sense is not anywiiere restricted to the earth, so also in the LXX it translates tt^f, the * host ' of heaven (in Enoch also, xdaMOv toii/ it>utiT-nipiav, XX. 4). and elsewhere appears only in the sense of ' ornament.' I'y thaijoras is credited with bavinir been the first to employ the word to express the philosophical conception of an ordered universe of being (Plutarch, de I'lac. I'hil. 886 li) ; and from the I'ythajioraiantt it passed into the common vocabulary of philosophic poeiry atid speculation. Plato ((Jorifias, 508 A) defines Kotriu-oi; in its widest extent, ovpavov ital yijv Ka't 6fov^ Kai avOpwiTov^ Tr)V KotvtovCav (Tvvfxeiv KaL tf>tXiav Kai Kotrp-WTrjra Kal iritj(ftpO(rvvTiv »tal SijcaioTTjTO, «ol TO oAof toGto 5ca ravTa Koafiov koXoiktiv . . . ovk aKocr^iai', oyfie aKoKatriav. In Stoicism the idea was further develojied in a mystical and pantheistic fashion. The universe, the macrocosm, was conceived after the analogy of the microcosm, man. It was a f(jiof ffji^vxov (cat AoYiKof ; and as the human organism consists of a body and an animating soul, so God was the eternal world-soul animating and ruling the imperishable world-body. Through the influence especially of Posidonius, this conception of the Cosmos became widely influential in the Gra:co. Roman world (see P. Wendland, 'Die heUenistisch- romische Kullur^ Tubingen, 1907, p. 84 ff.). In the OT there is neither term nor conception corresponding to the Hellenic KOff/Aos (yet cf. ^S'?, Jer 10^^, Ec 115) j jt is in Hellenistic com- positions such as 2 Maccabees and the Book of Wisdom that they first appear in Judaism. In the latter the idea of the Cosmos is specially prominent. ^ trvo-Tao-ts koo-mou is formed by the word of God out of formless matter (lU 7" lliT) and the ever-living Spirit of God is active in all things (121) ; Divine wisdom and beauty pervade the world in all its diverse parts, establishing all things by number, measure, and weight (724 81 1120), and at the same time giving to human intelligence its power to apprehend the Miine ordering of all things (717-23 S8), a striking anticipation of Ro 120. in the same book there is another anticipation of NT usage, the employment, unknown to classical Greek, of (coo-^os for the world of mankind, the human race as a unity. Thus Adam is described as TrpajTojrAaa-Tos TTar^p Koa/xou (IQi) ; a multitude of wise men is the salvation of the world (624), ag the family of Noah was its hope (H**).