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Let us now bring forward our first witness. The first occurrence of kosmos is in that
venerable version, the Septuagint. Grinfield in his "Apology for the Septuagint", says:
"This version of the Hebrew Scriptures was made between two and three centuries
before the Christian era, and was universally received by the Hellenists or Jews of the
Dispersion as authoritative and canonical, being publicly used in their synagogues both
before and after the Christian era. Christ and the apostles, in their reference to the Old
Testament, make their principal citations in the words of the LXX, and occasionally,
where it differs from the Hebrew text. The bulk of the citations in the New Testament,
are equal in extent to Mark's Gospel. The most remarkable and important feature of this
version consists in its regular selection of the same doctrinal words and expressions, as
those which were subsequently adopted by the Evangelists and Apostles. The terms
Repentance, Faith, Righteousness, Justification, Redemption, Sanctification, &100:,:
together with the titles of the Lord, Christ, Saviour, Holy Spirit, &100:, are the very same in
the Alexandrian version as in the New Testament, and they are precisely in the same
meaning" (Author's own italics).
Such is the character of the witness we are about to hear. The first occurrence of
kosmos in the LXX is Gen. 2: 1:
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and ALL THE HOST (kosmos) of them."
The Hebrew word translated "host" or "kosmos" is tsaba, the essence of which is
"order'. It is used of the assembly in orderly troops of soldiers and of the starry host of
heaven, God calling Himself "The Lord of Hosts". Gen. 2: 1 certainly includes Adam,
(which is not the point at issue), it also includes "heaven and earth" "all the host of them"
which "X" denies. There are one or two other places in that "two dozen" references so
cavalierly dismissed, that are written long after man's world had become the thing it is,
yet including the heavenly bodies and heavenly rulers--all of which the uncritical reader
loses if "X" is blindly followed.
"And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the SUN, and the
MOON, and the STARS, even all the host (kosmos) of heaven" (Deut. 4: 19).
Is Moses to be reckoned as among those who mislead "ignorant souls"? If so we are
glad to be numbered with him. Here right in the midst of man's world, Moses declares
that the kosmos includes the whole starry universe. Shall we repeat the oratorical
question (i.e. a question that is put, but which does not seek an answer), "Is the word
kosmos never used of . . . . . a starry world . . . . .?" Deut. 17: 3 repeats the truth
already expressed in 4: 19. The prophet Isaiah takes us further. He includes in the
kosmos beings who are evidently spiritual powers, for they are used as a parallel with
kings on the earth.
"The Lord shall punish the host (kosmos) of the high ones that are on high, and the
kings of the earth upon the earth" (Isa. 24: 21).
Here kosmos embraces the higher ranks of heavenly beings, and this one passage is
enough to justify our contention that the "world" that was overthrown at the bringing in
of chaos at Gen. 1: 2, includes "principalities and powers" as in Eph. 6: 12. These
"high ones" (marom, Heb.) would be included in that great ascension spoken of in
Psalm 68: and Eph. 4::