[B-Greek] KOSMOS

William Ross woundedegomusic at gmail.com
Wed Sep 6 15:04:02 EDT 2006


Sparked by your comments, I decided to see what the dictionary had to
say about what a "gloss" was. It appears that I did not really
understand it at all. It seems to me that I have heard the word used
to refer to "a word or phrase that maps pretty well to an origin
word." In reality, according to the dictionary definition below, it
seems, a "gloss" is an "explanation of a meaning" and what we are
seeking is a word to "stand in the place of a gloss." Is this how the
word is used in NT translation jargon? Or does is the translation word
also considered a "gloss" in this jargon?

http://m-w.com/dictionary/gloss

Thanks,

William Ross
VGB, Argentina

On 9/1/06, cwestf5155 at aol.com <cwestf5155 at aol.com> wrote:
>
>  William,
>
> There is some good stuff out and lexicography and theory that could shed
> some light on this thread, including the introduction to L&N.  But a good
> book has come out recently by J.A.L. Lee called "A History of NT
> Lexicography" (2003).
>
> Your comments seem to reflect a good understanding of "meaning/definition"
> and "gloss".
>
> But allow me to set the table with just a few things off the top of my head:
> 1.  There can be multiple definitions of a word: an economic clear and
> succint statement of the area of meaning covered by a word.  According to
> Lee, it usually involves one or more phrases that could/should be
> interchangeable with a gloss--I'm thinking about that one.
> 2.  There can be multiple glosses of a word for any given definition--maybe
> "habitat" could be a good gloss for KOSMOS in some contexts.
>
> However, I therefore would qualify "one one would be hard pressed to find a
> more suitable gloss for KOSMOS than "world".  The most suitable gloss
> depends on the context, and words have no meaning apart from context.  Lee
> talks about one of the major problems with traditional NT lexicography (and
> Biblical studies) is the focus on a particular gloss (and consequent
> arguments), even when translation is not an issue.
>
> An additional comment from linguistics and relevance theory: John and any
> other writer can take a word and use it in a special way, give it a special
> definition or refine its meaning, which is "constraint".  Any time an author
> uses a word repeatedly, the meaning of the word is interpreted both in the
> context of its previous occurrences and in its current context--so it
> doesn't have to have the same meaning every time if there are clear signals
> otherwise in the close context.
>
> So lexical theory does not support the theory that words have their own
> theology in NT study (a kind of scary assumption behind some of our best
> works that contain word studies), but does recognize the authors such as
> John "play" with words.
>
> Cindy Westfall
> Assistant Professor
> McMaster Divinity College
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: woundedegomusic at gmail.com
> To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent: Fri, 1 Sep 2006 7:21 AM
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] KOSMOS
>
>
> I didn't mean to suggest that "habitat" was "the meaning" of KOSMOS, or
> even
that it would make a suitable gloss. I just said that they had a lot
> in
common. I do note that BDAG 5b bears this out:

 b. the world as the
> habitation of humanity

7a seems to relate to my idea of a "stage":

 a. as
> scene of earthly joys, possessions, cares, sufferings

I think we would, as
> you say, be hard pressed to find a more suitable gloss
for KOSMOS than
> "world" but I think that it does not perfectly convey KOSMOS
and it has been
> helpful to me to consider those differences.

Thanks to all,

William
> Ross
VGB, Argentina


-----Original Message-----
From: Carl W. Conrad
> [mailto:cwconrad2 at mac.com]
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 9:17 AM
To:
> Wounded Ego
Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] KOSMOS

I
> honestly don't think "habitat" will do. While it is true
that KOSMOS does
> in some instances correlate to "world" as
the inhabited world, the standard
> ancient Greek term for
"the inhabited world" is OIKOUMENH (e.g. Lk 2:1, for
> which see
BDAG. That word is used 15x in the GNT. The sense of KOMOS, on
>
the other hand, does correspond in its breadth of idiomatic usage
to
> "world" in English, "monde" in French. As with many other Greek
words used
> in the NT, it is appropriate to convey its sense as
it appears in its
> context. Where it refers to "people generally"
or "humanity" then it might
> be preferable to use one of those
words/phrases as a gloss for KOSMOS in a
> specific passage. I think,
however, that "world" is a standard English gloss
> for KOSMOS in
Bible versions in English is that "world" covers much the
> same
RANGE of denotations and connotations as the Biblical Greek
> word
KOSMOS.

There have occasionally been discussions about the
> inadequacies of
BDAG or L&N with regard to treatment of a particular word,
> but I
don't see the word KOSMOS as a word mishandled by them.

E.g., here's
> BDAG's entry on KOSMOS -- just a listing of headings
and sub-headings,
> without the examples cited for each usage:

KOSMOS, OU, hO (Hom.+)
 1. that
> which serves to beautify through decoration, adornment, adorning
 2.
> condition of orderliness, orderly arrangement, order
 3. the sum total of
> everything here and now, the world, the (orderly)
universe, in philosophical
> usage
 4. the sum total of all beings above the level of the animals, the
> world
 5. planet earth as a place of inhabitation, the world
 a. generally
> b. the world as the habitation of humanity
 c. earth, world in contrast to
> heaven
 6. humanity in general, the world
 a. generally
 b. of all humanity,
> but especially of believers, as the object of
God?s love
 7. the system of
> human existence in its many aspects, the world
 a. as scene of earthly joys,
> possessions, cares, sufferings
 b. the world, and everything that belongs to
> it, appears as that
which is hostile to God, i.e. lost in sin, wholly at
> odds w. anything
divine, ruined and depraved
 8. collective aspect of an
> entity, totality, sum total


On Friday, September 01, 2006, at 07:52AM,
> William Ross
<woundedegomusic at gmail.com> wrote:

>I think KOSMOS has a lot
> in common with the word "habitat." I am beginning
>to get some images in my
> head, such as an aquarium. If fish in an aquarium
>used the word KOSMOS then
> they would never be referring to the tank itself
>(which was their
> "Universe") because they had no conception of that.
Rather,
>they would
> think of the picture on the back of the tank (their "sky") and
>the
> arrangement of coral and the treasure chest and rocks, along with the
>fish
> in the habitat. If, someone were to remove the picture from the back
>and
> destroy the treasure chest and such and kill the fish, then the world
>would
> be no more because the order was destroyed. If there were a new
>pictu e and
> the treasure chest was remade as a pier, then that would be a
>new world.
> Also, if a fish were first removed from the tank in a plastic
bag
>full of
> water, then replaced after the renewal, then he would live in a new
>world -
> even though he is once again in the same tank, with largely the
same
>props.
> This is because it is a different habitat - a different life system.
>
>We
> see just this thing in 2 Peter 3:6
>
>4 And saying, Where is the promise of
> his coming? for since the fathers
>fell asleep, all things continue as they
> were from the beginning of the
>creation.
>5 For this they willingly are
> ignorant of, that by the word of God the
>heavens were of old, and the earth
> standing out of the water and in the
>water:
>6 Whereby the world [KOSMOS]
> that then was, being overflowed with water,
>perished:
>7 But the heavens
> and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept
>in store, reserved
> unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of
>ungodly men.
>
>The
> KOSMOS is also like a theatrical stage set. As Shakespeare said, "All
>the
> world is a stage." One could tear down the set and then create a new
>world.
> Believers are on the stage but not part of the set - not part of
> the
>play.
>
>We also speak of "in my world" or "in his own world." Even in
> English there
>is this sense of arrangement that is different from "humanity
> in general"
>and the anachronistic "universe."
>
>In John and Paul, the
> "habitat" is primarily characterized by the "moral
>climate" and the ones
> who dictate the "rules" of the society.
>
>William Ross
>VGB,
> Argentina
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:
> b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
>[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org]
> On Behalf Of Craig J
>Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 10:18 PM
>To:
> b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: Re: [B-Greek] KOSMOS
>
>Carlton Winbery
> wrote:
>> John 1:10 seems to me to be three distinct uses of KOSMOS.
>>
>>
> EN TWi KOSMWi HN, KAI hO KOSMOS DI' AUTOU EGENETO, KAI hO KOSMOS
>> AUTON
> OUK EGNW.
>>
>> 1) alludes to him being part of humanity.
>> 2) the
> universe
>> 3) humanity apart from God
>
>I don't think such a strong and
> overly technical distinction is necessary.
A
>straight forward reading could
> make them all the same, as in the following
>slight paraphrase:
>
>"He was
> in the world, and that world was made through him, and that world
>did not
> know him"
>
>I guess KOSMOS would then equate to something like 'the mass of
> humanity'.
>I'm not sure why you have 'humanity' for 1 & 3, but need to
> change it to
>'the universe' for 2 in between..?
>
>--
>Craig
> Johnson
>Brisbane, Australia
>Blog Experiment:
> http://bloggledegook.blogspot.com/
>
>---
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>


Carl
> W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989
> Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW:
> http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/

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-- 

William Ross
VGB, Argentina



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