This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon. This except comes from Chapter 4: Written from the Foundation of the World.

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In the previous post, we explored the meaning of the Greek word translated “foundation.” Now, as we continue to discover when the book of life was written, we examine one of several Greek words rendered “world.”

Kosmos

Four different Greek words are translated “world” in the New Testament, but Jesus and the New Testament writers only use one word, kosmos, when employing the phrase, “the foundation of the world.”

Kosmos means “that which is ordered or arranged.” It’s where we get the English term “cosmetics.” It’s related to a verb that means “to set in order,” or “to adorn, decorate.” As William Mounce explains, “In classical Greek and the LXX [Septuagint, or the Greek translation of the Old Testament], kosmos communicated the idea of order and adornment, and from this it developed into the basic term for the cosmos or the universe.”

New Testament writers employ kosmos nearly two hundred times in a variety of ways. First, kosmos refers to the universe, which God designed and created. In his address on Mars Hill, Paul notes, “The God who made the world [kosmos] and everything in it ​— ​he is Lord of heaven and earth ​— ​does not live in shrines made by hands” (Acts 17:24). 

Second, kosmos describes the planet Earth. It’s mankind’s dwelling place, set apart from  heaven. After Jesus feeds five thousand, the people marvel at this miracle and remark, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world [kosmos]” (John 6:14). Later, Jesus invites his disciples to accompany him to Judea as he works his way toward the home of his recently deceased friend, Lazarus. When the disciples remind him that the Jews in Judea just tried to stone him, Jesus replies, “Aren’t there twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world [kosmos]” (John 11:9).

Third, kosmos may depict all humanity. In what is perhaps Jesus’s most memorable statement, he declares:

For God loved the world [kosmos] in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world [kosmos] to condemn the world [kosmos], but to save the world [kosmos] through him (John 3:16-17). 

Paul puts the apostles’ mistreatment in perspective when he writes: 

Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless; we labor, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now, we are like the scum of the earth [kosmos], like everyone’s garbage (1 Cor. 4:11-13). 

Fourth, kosmos summarizes the totality of human existence in this present life, with all its experiences, possessions, and emotions. Jesus uses kosmos in this way as he challenges his disciples to deny themselves:

If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world [kosmos] yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life (Matt. 16:24-26)?

Finally, kosmos identifies the world order alienated from God, in rebellion against him, and condemned for its godlessness. This is the world over which Satan rules, according to Jesus and the New Testament writers. In a blunt discussion with Israel’s leaders, Jesus distinguishes “this world” from the heavenly realm. He tells them, “You are from below … I am from above. You are of this world [kosmos]; I am not of this world [kosmos]. Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins” (John 8:23-24).

We find more than half of the New Testament’s occurrences of kosmos in John’s Gospel (seventy-eight times) and epistles (twenty-four times), where it plays a key role in John’s theology. The kosmos resists the very God who created it (John 1:9-11; 7:7), and the evil one rules over it (John 12:31; 16:11).

So, when we encounter the New Testament phrase, “the foundation of the world,” which “world” is in focus? In the context of each of the ten passages containing this phrase, Jesus and the New Testament writers clearly refer to the creation of the universe. For illustrative purposes, here are three samples:

John 17:24 – Jesus prays, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation.” 

Hebrews 9:26 – comparing the singular death of Jesus with repeated animal sacrifices: “Otherwise, he [Jesus] would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

1 Peter 1:20 – “He [Jesus] was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you.”

In summary, John’s use of “the foundation of the world” in Revelation 13:8 and 17:8 is consistent with other New Testament applications of this phrase. It refers to the creation of the universe. 

So, when we put the terms “foundation” and “world” together as they are used in the context of these ten passages, we can see that the New Testament writers are referring to the creation of the universe.

However, we still need to understand two prepositions: “from” and “before.” One or the other appears in each of the ten Scripture references to “the foundation of the world.” And the placement of the prepositions is key. That’s the purpose of the next post.

Next: Written from the Foundation of the World (Part 3)