[B-Greek] kosmos in 1 Pt. 3:3

yancywsmith yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Wed Aug 30 10:21:48 EDT 2006


David,

The meaining of KOSMOS in 1 Pet 3:3 is either "an object which serves  
to beautify" or "the arrangement/adornment." A basic feature  
linguistics is that communities using any given language develop a  
range of meanings, called a semantic range, assumed for the words  
they use. However, from language to language those semantic ranges  
almost never entirely coincide. So, the gloss "world" is entirely  
alien to the idea of "adornment" in English. But this is not the case  
in Greek. We can get a hint of this by remembering that in English  
cosmos and cosmetics are from the same Greek root. So, as absurd as  
it sounds to an English speaker that "world" and "adornment" could be  
somehow related be being meanings attached to the same word, it is  
true in Greek. Liddell and Scott give these definitions (with a few  
general source references) for the Greek word KOSMOS which give us an  
idea of the semantic range in Greek of KOSMOS.
	I. order,
		2. good order, good behaviour, decency,  Aesch., Dem.
		3. the form, fashion  of a thing, Od., Hdt.
		4. of states, order, government,  Hdt., Thuc.
	II. an ornament, decoration, embellishment, dress,  Il., etc.; esp.  
of women, Lat. mundus muliebris,  Ib., Hes., etc.:—in pl. ornaments,   
Aesch., etc.
		2. metaph. honour, credit,  Hdt., Soph., etc.
	III. a regulator,  title of the chief magistrate in Crete, Arist.
	IV. the world  or universe,  from its perfect order,  Lat. mundus,   
Plat., etc.
		2. mankind,  as we use ‘the world,’  N.T.
A third feature of linguistic semantics that is pertinent here is the  
fact that the reader must estimate which semantic value is relevant  
to the context, or the cognitive environment which the reader selects  
to derive the appropriate meaning. The reader is naturally led to  
select the most relevant semantic value and exclude the others  
relevant to other contexts. In this way the reader determines the  
precise semantic value of the word in the hope that, in as much as is  
possible, it matches the meaning selected by the author. The basis of  
translating KOSMOS as either adornment (an object) or adornment (a  
state) in 1 Pet 3:3 is the context the reader would be led to select,  
which the author indicates by speaking of garments and gold and hair  
and such.

Yancy Smith
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
5636 Wedgworth Rd.
Fort Worth, TX 76133
817-361-7565




On Aug 29, 2006, at 11:24 PM, David Koot wrote:

> Most English versions of 1 Pt. 3:3 translate kosmos as 'adornment'  
> or 'adorning.'  On what basis do they do so?  I have read Kittel's  
> article on the word, and done some additional research.  I believe  
> that for almost every other occurrence of kosmos in the NT, it  
> means 'world.'  How can they get 'adornment'  out of it in 1 Peter?
>
> David Koot
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek




More information about the B-Greek mailing list