RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
World
nifying the earth as a whole, but is frequently used in the sense of oikoumené, e.g., “all the inhabitants of the world ” (Isa. xviii. 3; Ps. xxxiii.8). Another view of the world is shown in Dan. ii. 37-39, which contains a specimen of the hyperbolical style of expression, common in oriental courts. Although the etymology and content of the word ‘olam-aion is imperfectly known, there is no doubt that it expressed originally a conception of time, not the world itself in the sense of a qualitatively defined organism (cf. [V Esdras iv. 27-32).
In Greek mythology the conception of a universe is also lacking; the whole being paraphrased by the statement of its parts, as in Homer’s description of the shield of Achilles, where are named earth,
heaven, and sea (cf. E. H. Berger,
2. Greek Mythische Kosmographie der Griechen,
and Suppl. III. to Roscher’s Lexikon, Leip- Apocryphal sic, 1904). The word Kosmos is said Conception. to have been first used by Pythagoras to designate the universe (Plutarch, De placitis philosophorum). This Hellenic. conception of the Kosmos was first introduced into Biblical literature by the author of the Wisdom of Solomon. The word as used here combines Old- Testament and Hellenic conceptions; sometimes ho kosmos alternates with ta panta, ‘‘ the whole.”’ The whole universe (hé sustasis kosmou) is made from formless matter by God, through his word, his wisdom being with him (ix. 1, 9, xi. 17); hence the eternal spirit of God is in all things (xii. 1). As the world is permeated by the divine wisdom, it is the foundation of man’s cognition of the order of the world (vii. 17-23); from the grandeur and beauty of creation, man learns by comparison to know the creator (xiii. 5). The kosmos also signifies man, since Adam is called the first-formed father of the world (x. 1); a multitude of wise men is termed the salvation of the world, while the family of Noah is “the hope of the world ”’ (vi. 26, xiv. 6). However, the entirety of things in nature and the history of nations is also expressed by the words kosmos and ation (v. 16-17, xvi. 17, xiii. 9, xiv. 6).
In the New Testament, the formula ‘‘ heaven and earth ”’ continues to be used; the creator being God, the father of Jesus Christ (Matt. v. 18, vi. 10, xi.
25; Mark xiii. 31; Luke x. 21; Eph.
3. General fii. 15; Col. i. 16, 20; II Pet. iii. 7, 13; New- Rev. xxi. 1). Paul uses ta panta for Testament both divisions of creation (Rom. ix. Conception. 5; I Cor. viii. 6; Eph. i. 10; Phil. iii. 21; Col. i.16,20). In the Acts of the
Apostles, to heaven and earth are added the sea and all that it contains (iv. 24, xiv. 15), and God is addressed as the creator of the kosmos and the lord of heaven and earth; this is the same as if he were called the lord of the world. Particular stress has been laid upon the use of the phrase, “ the whole world,” by Jesus. It is not indeed improbable that Jesus, in common with strictly monotheistic Judaism, possessed a conception of the world as a unity, in accord with his conception of God. When, in Matt. xi. 25, he praises God as the lord of heaven and earth, this signifies, in spite of the antiquity of the phrase, the same as lord of the world. Whether “ world ” had for Jesus precisely the significance of
“kosmos ”’ remains uncertain, since he spoke in Aramaic and it is not known what Aramaic words are represented by kosmos and aién. Dalman believes that in Mark viii. 36, kol ‘olmah is the Aramaic equivalent for holon ton kosmon; the conception of the whole world as a possession is met elsewhere in Jewish writings.
Paul uses kosmos with several shades of meaning: (1) As the universe: “from the creation of the
world”? (Rom. i. 20; Eph. i. 4); cf. 4. Pauline also the phrase ta stoicheia tou kosmou Usage. (‘‘ elements, rudiments, of the world,” Gal. iv. 3; Col. ii. 8, 20). In general he prefers the term ta panta. (2) In accord with the Stoic idea of a “ system of gods and men,” he separates the concept of the world into angels and men (cf. I Cor. vi. 1, 2). (3) It sometimes signifies oikoumené, the ‘ inhabited earth,” when he is thinking of his missionary field. (4) In II Cor. i. 12 it seems to mean life; related to this is the phrase cited by Dalman as rabbinical, ek tou kosmou exerchesthat, ‘‘ to go out of the world ” (I Cor. v. 10). (5) Kosmos often signifies for Paul the human race, for example, in Rom. iii. 19, v. 12-13. (6) From this is evolved the peculiarly Christian significance, especially emphasized in the Johannine writings, according to which the “ world ” as an essence is far removed from and even opposed to God. Its standards and values are rejected by Christians (II Cor. vii. 10). (7) The word kosmos can also be used to express earthly possession (cf. Mark viii. 36). For Christian ‘‘ the world” is only “ this world,” the fashion of which passeth away (I Cor. vii. 31). The Christian has nothing in common with it, for, by Christ’s death, he is crucified for the world (Gal. vi. 14).
The Johannine writings must be treated separately. Here the word kosmos, besides being used in a similar way to that of the Pauline epistles, is em-
ployed in a thoroughly Jewish manner, 5. Johanninee.g., in John vii. 4, xii. 19, where it Usage. denotes the people. Even more clearly than for Paul, the kosmos is for John not only the whole of creation, but more especially mankind as the object of salvation (i. 29, iii. 16, 17; I John ii. 2), of enlightenment (John viii. 12), and judgment (iii. 17). “‘ This world ”’ is conceived in a thoroughly Jewish and Pauline spirit; it is ruled by the devil (xii. 31) and passes away with all its pleasures (I John ii. 17), for the world is essentially opposition to God (I John ii. 15); it “ lieth in wickedness ” (I John v. 19) and can neither know nor believe in God and his Son, and must therefore hate those who are “‘ not of the world ” (John xvii. 14). Christians must overcome the world (I John v. 4) as Jesus has overcome it (John xvi. 33).
The most important characteristic of the conception “ the world ” in the New Testament is that, as a whole, it is subordinated to the recognition of the salvation of Christ and his foundation of the kingdom of God among mankind. Hence arises a religious conception of the world which is folly for the partizans of Hellenic philosophy but God-given wisdom for Christian believers (I Cor. i. 21-24). For Paul, God the Father is the creator of the world and the goal of the Christian community; Christ
World Worms