We are reminded by our critic that Genesis 1:2 does not speak of the

'world' but of the 'earth', and that the 'world' is limited to Adam and his

dominion.  This, however, is an assumption and a denial of several important

relevant features.  The Scriptures abound with references to angels,

principalities, powers, thrones and dominions.  Were these mighty beings

created on one of the six days of Genesis 1?  If so, which?  We read in Job,

that when the Lord 'laid the foundations of the earth, the morning stars sang

together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy'.  Unless this passage is

to be discredited, these morning stars and sons of God belong to an earlier

creation than that of the six days, for it is simply impossible for such to

'shout for joy' before they themselves were created.  They constituted a

kosmos or 'world' long before the world that came under Adam's dominion.  Not

only so, the huge reptiles, some 80 feet, some 100 feet long, whose skeletons

have been unearthed in every continent, and the tiny fossils found deep down

in the lower strata, or even an examination of a piece of coal, demonstrate

beyond contradiction that a kosmos, a world, an order existed long before

Genesis 1:2.

We must now consider the word translated 'world' and while we will

still abide by Scripture usage and ignore pagan meanings when they conflict

with Scripture usage, we would remind ourselves, and those also who set such

store by pagan Greek as to call those who stand fast to the usage of

Scripture 'heretics', that the word kosmos as used by the Greeks, was most

certainly not limited to the dominion of man.  While, therefore, it suits

such to emphasize pagan Greek when dealing with kataballo and katabole even

though such usage runs counter to Biblical Greek, yet when the word kosmos is

used in the sense that the Greek philosophers used the term, they swing right

over, and become very 'Biblical'.

We quote from Lloyd's Encyclopaedic Dictionary:

'Cosmos Gr. (1) order, (2) an ornament, (3) a ruler, (4) the world or

universe from its perfect order and arrangement, as opposed to chaos.

Ancient Philosophy: The term kosmos in the fourth sense appears first

in the philosophy of Pythagoras ... with regard to extent it had

several senses: (1) the earth, (2) the firmament, (3) the region in

which the stars are fixed or apparently move; in the Alexandrian Greek,

the known world (Liddell and Scott)'.

The word translated 'world' in Ephesians 1:4 is this Greek word kosmos, and

we now examine the Old Testament Greek Bible to see how that venerable

version, so often quoted by Christ and His apostles, uses the word.  The

early church knew no other Bible, and its phraseology influenced all their

To these early believers the word kosmos would have the following

'Jewel' Hebrew equivalent keli (Isa. 61:10).

'Ornament' Hebrew equivalent adi (Ex. 33:4).

'Delight' Hebrew equivalent maadan (Prov. 29:17).

'Host' Hebrew equivalent tsaba (Gen. 2:1).

It is the last reference that challenges us.  The LXX issued by Bagster

has, as its English translation of Genesis 2:1, 'And the heavens and the