LEX3.KWH draft copy
First Presbyterian Church, Austin, Texas
The Scripture Class
OCCASIONAL LEXICON # 3 KOSMOS
1. IN HOMER: kosmos means order and arrangement first and most
importantly. Secondarily it means ornaments and other adornments
(of women), or trappings (of horses). In some cases it refers to
the ordering (i.e., the architectural plans, including building
materials) to be used in a building or a construction. By
extension, and in uses both literal and figurative, the dative
case of Kosmos (=to the Kosmos) and Kosmos with the preposition
Kata (Kata Kosmon = according to) have the meaning "duly", and/or
"becomingly" (the negative of the last phrase indicates that
which is unbecoming or untoward in nature).
2. IN THE PRE-SOCRATICS AND PLATO: There is a tradition that
the first one to describe the universe as a Kosmos was
Pythagoras; but the notion of the universe as a discernible order
turns up in the fragments of his predecessors (e.g., Anaximander
and Anaximenes). In any event, it is difficult to trace the
exact evolution of the Kosmos concept through discrete and
discernible stages, since there was a good bit of back and forth
in the opinions of the early philosophers and poets. Be that as
it may, Kosmos assuredly had progressed through the notions of
1)order, 2)order of this universe, and 3)the universe as order by
the time of Empedocles (c. 490 - 430 B.C.). It was Empedocles who
taught the doctrine of the four "elements" of earth, water, air,
and fire. He also taught that all individual things came to be by
reason of a mixture of these elements. As Empedocles saw things,
love and hate are the cause of the motion and therefore the
mixing of these elements. (Compare our notion that "nature
abhors a vacuum", which echoes the language of Empedocles.)
Empedocles" notions of love and hate led him in turn to a theory
of value as the basic explanation of Nature, since love and hate
accounted also for the good and evil in the world. It also is of
more than passing interest that one of the principal things
Empedocles was attempting to deal with were the notions of change
amid constancy put forward by Heraclitus. Whatever the origins of
the original insight, the Pythagoreans did have a theory of
Kosmos. The universe was a Kosmos (an order, an arrangement)
because it could be reduced to mathematical proportions
(Harmonia), and since the Arche (the outset, the starting or
foundation point for all things) was number (Arithmos).
Heraclitus then becomes the first (we know of) to take the
further step and identify this cosmic order with "law" (Nomos),
thereby setting in motion a train of thought leading to the
notions of Natural Law. Heraclitus called the law that ensured
this order "divine" (Theios), but his naming is only one of
several strands which led to a belief in the divinity of the
Kosmos. The vitalism of the Milesian/Ionian school (located
primarily in the Greek cities of the Aegean coast of what is now
Turkey) was one such strand. There philosophers such as Thales
secularized elements in previous supernaturalist religions to
make a central space for the Kosmos concept. The Milesian
scholars dealt especially with the religions and science of
Babylon and Egypt, although they may well have dealt with some of
the ideas which circulated out of both India and Israel. They
coupled this secularization with a belief in the divinity of the
heavenly bodies (Ouranioi). These same ideas also were held by
Plato who made a place for the Kosmos as having an ethical role
in his understanding of the Harmonia (for Plato the Kosmos is a
"visible god" [a Horatos Theos]). (A young Aristotle also
affirmed the divinity of the Kosmos, but he left this idea behind
when he revised his theory of the physical universe (Phusis).
3. IN THE MATURE ARISTOTLE AND LATER: In the fully developed
Aristotelian system there are only two divinities and one of
them, the First Mover (or, as some interpreters have it, the
Unmoved Mover), is outside the Kosmos. The other divinity is the
outer sphere of the Kosmos, the sphere of the "fixed" stars and
the domain of Aither (ether), which is divine because of its
eternal circular motion. Stoic pantheism restored the
(Pantheistic) divinity of the Kosmos, and, in keeping with late
Stoic theories of fire (combustion) and Pneuma, considered Kosmos
to be a living, ensouled, and intelligent being. (In early
Christian times, and in a denial of the Gnostic tradition which
viewed the notion of Kosmos as the product of evil and ignorance,
both Philo and Plotinus defended the sensible universe: both
called it a "son of God" in its function as an image (Eikon -
icon) of its ultimate transcendent source. (Much of the above was
drawn from F. E. Peters, Greek Philosophical Terms: A Historical
Lexicon (NYU Press, 1967).
4. IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES: There is absolutely no concept
comparable to the notion of Kosmos in early Hebrew, late Hebrew,
or in Aramaic. Three terms are found over and over again in the
sacred Hebrew writings (all other cognate words are insignificant
by comparison).
Erets: meaning Earth (frequently); Land (frequently); country
(some 140 times; ground (less than 100 times). Compare Genesis
1:1, et seq.
Adamah: less than 250 times overall, meaning ground, soil, land.
Compare Gen 1:25, et seq.
Tebel: less than 40 times, meaning fruitbearing or habitable
earth. Many times in the Psalms: compare 9:8; 24:1; et seq.
5. IN THE SO-CALLED SEPTUAGINT TRANSLATION INTO GREEK: In an
all-too-brief survey I found no instances in which Kosmos was
used to translate any of the Hebrew terms listed above. The most
common translation terms seem to have been Ge (land, earth) and
Oikoumene (habitable earth or land).
6. IN THE REST OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: Although Ge, Kosmos, and
Oikoumene are roughly cognate notions which can be found in
varying degrees throughout the New Testament, the Kosmos term is
favored only by two writers (or schools of writing). Thus, for
example, Matthew uses Kosmos some 9 times; Mark uses Kosmos 3
times; Luke/Acts uses Kosmos 4 times. The favorite cognate term
in the synoptics is Ge (earth): thus, Matthew 5, et seq. [the
"Sermon on the mount"] and Luke 2, et seq. [the birth narrative,
and teaching parallels with Matthew and Mark]. The next most
favored word is Oikoumene (the inhabited earth).
7. SO WHERE DO WE FIND KOSMOS USED TO ITS FULLEST EXTENT? The
answer is simple: in Paul and in the writings of the School of
John. Thus, there is one instance where Kosmos means adorning (I
Pe 3:3): of the other instances (187 or more), by far the
greater number are to be found in the writings set down by Paul
and the School of John. Thus, there are 67 instances of Kosmos
in the Fourth Gospel, and another 22 instances in the letters
which bear the name of the School of John. Paul"s attested
writings account for another 40 + instances. The conclusion seems
unmistakable. Even as Paul was influenced by his Stoic teachers
and used the Greek language in (usually) thorough-going Stoic
patterns, even so the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth reported by
the School of John are framed in Stoic language. There is one
major difference, however: to the (late) Stoics the Kosmos
participated in or was of the essence of the deity; in the
teaching of Jesus reported by the School of John (as also in the
teachings of Paul of Tarsus) the Kosmos is anything but divine.
Rather, the Kosmos, like the human beings who inhabit the portion
of the Kosmos we call planet earth, has missed the mark implicit
in the act of Creation, and stands in need of remedy. It shares
the same need as its human population (each and every human,
including we ourselves) for it also stands in need of redirection
away from pointlessness and toward the point which was the
Creator's intention.
Copyright -- Kenneth Warren Hamstra, 1994
Uploaded to Compuserve by permission by John W. Burgeson