Wood Of Ephraim – Worm; Scarlet-Worm

Wood Of Ephraim

(2 Samuel 18:6).

See EPHRAIM, FOREST OF.

Woof

woof (`erebh, "mixture," "woof" (Leviticus 13:48)).

See WARP.

Wool

wool (tsemer; erion): Wool and flax were the fibers most used by the ancient weavers. Wool was used principally for the outside garments (Leviticus 13:48 Proverbs 31:13; Ezekiel 34:3; Hosea 2:5,Hosea 2:9). Syrian wool is found on the world's markets today, but it is not rated as first quality, partly because it is so contaminated with thorns, straw and other foreign matter which become entangled with the wool while the sheep are wandering over the barren, rocky mountain sides in search of food. Extensive pastures are almost unknown.

Two kinds of wool are sold:

(1) That obtained by shearing. This is removed from the animal as far as possible in one piece or fleece usually without previous washing. The fleeces are gathered in bales and carried to a washing-place, which is usually one of the stony river beds, with but a small stream flowing through it during the summer. The river bed is chosen because the rocks are clean and free from little sticks or straw which would cling to the washed wool. The purchaser of this washed wool submits it to a further washing with soap, ishnan (alkali plant), "soapwort", or other cleansing agent (see FULLER), and then cards it before spinning and weaving. The wool thus obtained is nearly snow white.

(2) The second supply of wool is from the tanneries where the wool is removed from the skins with slaked lime (see TANNER). This is washed in many changes of water and used for stuffing mattresses, quilts, etc., but not for weaving.

Gideon used a fleece of wool to seek an omen from God (Judges 6:37). Mesha, king of Moab, sent a large quantity of wool as a tribute to the king of Israel (2 Kings 3:4). Wool was forbidden to be woven with linen (Deuteronomy 2:11; compare Leviticus 19:19). Priests could not wear woolen garments (Ezekiel 44:17). Wool dyed scarlet with the qermes was used in the blood-covenant ceremony (Hebrews 9:19; compare Le 14; Numbers 19:6).

The whiteness of wool was used for comparison

(1) with snow (Psalms 147:16);

(2) with sins forgiven (Isaiah 1:18);

(3) with hair (Daniel 7:9; Revelation 1:14).

James A. Patch

Word

wurd: The commonest term in the Old Testament for "word" is dabhar (also "matter" "thing"); in the New Testament logos ("reason," "discourse," "speech"); but also frequently rhema. Rhema is a "word" in itself considered; logos is a spoken word, with reference generally to that which is in the speaker's mind. Some of the chief applications of the terms may thus be exhibited:

(1) We have the word of Yahweh (or God; see below)

(a) as the revelation to the patriarch, prophet, or inspired person (Genesis 15:1; Exodus 20:1; Numbers 22:38, etc.);

(b) as spoken forth by the prophet (Exodus 4:30; Exodus 34:1; 2 Kings 7:1; Isaiah 1:10, etc.).

(2) The word is often a commandment, sometimes equivalent to "the Law" (Exodus 32:28; Numbers 20:24; Deuteronomy 6:6; Psalms 105:8; Psalms 119:11,Psalms 119:17; Isaiah 66:2, etc.).

(3) As a promise and ground of hope (Psalms 119:25,Psalms 119:28,Psalms 119:38, etc.; 130:5, etc.).

(4) As creative, upholding, and preserving (Psalms 33:6; compare Genesis 1:3; Psalms 147:15,Psalms 147:18; Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 11:3; 2 Peter 3:5,2 Peter 3:7).

(5) As personified (in Apocrypha, The Wisdom of Solomon 18:15; Ecclesiasticus 1:5, the Revised Version margin "omitted by the best authorities").

(6) As personal (John 1:1). Logos in Philo and Greek-Jewish philosophy meant both reason or thought and its utterance, "the whole contents of the divine world of thought resting in the Nous of God, synonymous with the inner life of God Himself and corresponding to the logos endiathetos of the human soul; on the other hand, it is the externalizing of this as revelation corresponding to the logos prophorikos in which man's thought finds expression (Schultz). Compare also the references to Creation by "the word of God" and its personifications; see LOGOS; incarnated in Jesus Christ (John 1:14; 1 John 1:1,1 John 1:2; Revelation 19:13, "His name is called, The Word of God," Ho Logos tou Theou). See PERSON OF CHRIST.

(7) Cannot be broken, endureth forever (2 Kings 10:10; Psalms 119:89; Isaiah 40:8, etc.).

(8) A designation of the gospel of Christ: sometimes simply "the word"; with Jesus "the word of the Kingdom" (Matthew 13:19; Mark 2:2; Acts 4:4,Acts 4:29,Acts 4:31, etc.). In John's Gospel Jesus frequently speaks of His "word" and "works" as containing the divine revelation and requirements made through Him, which men are asked to believe in, cherish and obey (John 5:24; John 6:63,John 6:68, etc.); "the words of God" (John 3:34; John 8:47; John 14:10; John 17:8,John 17:14, etc.); His "word" (logos and rhema) is to be distinguished from lalia, speech (compare Matthew 26:73; Mark 14:70), translated "saying," John 4:42 (4:41, "Many more believed because of his own word" (logos); 4:42, "not because of thy saying" (lalia), the Revised Version (British and American) "speaking"); in the only other occurrence of lalia in this Gospel (John 8:43) Jesus uses it to distinguish the outward expression from the inner meaning, "Why do ye not understand my speech?" (lalia), "Even because ye cannot hear my word" (logos).

(9) "Words" are distinguished from "power" (1 Corinthians 4:20; 1 Thessalonians 1:5); are contrasted with "deed" (Malachi 2:17; 1 Corinthians 4:20; 1 John 3:18). (10) Paul refers to "unspeakable words" (arrheta rhemata) which he heard in Paradise (2 Corinthians 12:4), and to "words (logoi) .... which the Spirit teacheth" (1 Corinthians 2:13).

For "word" the Revised Version (British and American) has "commandment" (Numbers 4:45, etc.); for "words," "things" (John 7:9; John 8:30; John 9:22,John 9:40; John 17:1), "sayings" (John 10:21; John 12:47,John 12:48); for "enticing words," "persuasiveness of speech" (Colossians 2:4); conversely, "word" for "commandment" (Numbers 24:13; Numbers 27:14; Joshua 8:8, etc.), with numerous other changes.

W. L. Walker

Work; Works

wurk, wurks: "To work" in the Old Testament is usually the translation of `asah, or of pa`al (of the works both of God and of man), and "work" (noun) is most frequently the translation of ma`aseh, or mela'khah; in the New Testament of energeo, ergazomai (and compound), with ergon (noun). The word "works" (erga) is a favorite designation in John for the wonderful works of Jesus (5:36; 10:38; 15:24, etc.; "miracles" to us, "works" to Him). "Works" is used by Paul and James, in a special sense, as denoting (with Paul) those legal performances by means of which men sought to be accepted of God, in contradistinction to that faith in Christ through which the sinner is justified apart from all legal works (Romans 3:27; Romans 4:2,Romans 4:6, etc.; Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:2,Galatians 3:5,Galatians 3:10), "working through love" (Galatians 5:6; 1 Thessalonians 1:3), and is fruitful in all truly "good works," in which Christian believers are expected to abound (2 Corinthians 9:8; Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:17, etc.). When James speaks of being justified by "works" as well as by "faith" (2:14-26), he has in view those works which show faith to be real and vital. "Dead works" avail nothing (compare Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 10:24). Judgment is according to "works" (Matthew 16:27, the Revised Version (British and American) "deeds," margin "Greek: `doing' " praxis; Romans 2:6; 1 Peter 1:17, etc.), the new life being therein evidenced. A contrast between "faith" and "good works" is never drawn in the New Testament.

See, further, JUSTIFICATION.

W. L. Walker

Worker; Workfellow; Workman

wur'-der, wurk'-fel-o, wurk'-man (charash, pa`al; ergates, sunergos): "Worker" (artificer) is the translation of charash, "to cut in" (1 Kings 7:14, "a worker in brass"), and of charash, "artificer," etc. (1 Chronicles 22:15); "workers of stone," rendered "workman," "workmen" (Isaiah 40:20; Isaiah 44:11; Jeremiah 10:3,Jeremiah 10:9, "artificer"; Hosea 8:6); `asah, "to work," is translated "workers" of iniquity (Psalms 37:1, "them that work unrighteousness"); `asah mela'khah, "to do work" (2 Kings 12:14,2 Kings 12:15, "workmen," "them that did the work"; 1 Chronicles 22:15; 2 Chronicles 24:13, etc.; Ezra 3:9);'aneshe mela'khah, "men of work" (1 Chronicles 25:1, "workmen," "them that did the work"); `amel, "working," "toiling" (Judges 5:26, "put .... her right hand to the workmen's hammer"); pa`al, "to act," "do," when translated "workers," is joined with "iniquity," "workers of iniquity" (Job 31:3; Job 34:8,Job 34:22; Psalms 5:5; Psalms 6:8; Psalms 14:4, etc.; Proverbs 10:29; Proverbs 21:15); ergates, "worker," is translated "workman" (Matthew 10:10, "laborer"; 2 Timothy 2:15; Acts 19:25), "workers" (of iniquity) (Luke 13:27), "deceitful workers" (2 Corinthians 11:13), "evil workers" (Philippians 3:2); dunamis, "power," is translated "(workers of) miracles" (1 Corinthians 12:29 margin, the Revised Version (British and American) "powers"); sunergeo, "to work with" (2 Corinthians 6:1, "working together with him").

Workfellow is the translation of sunergos, "joint or fellow-worker" (Romans 16:21; Colossians 4:11).

Workmaster occurs in Ecclesiasticus 38:27, as the translation of architekton.

For "of ("with") cunning work" (Exodus 26:1,Exodus 26:31; Exodus 28:6,Exodus 28:15; Exodus 36:8,Exodus 36:35; Exodus 39:3,Exodus 39:8), the American Standard Revised Version has "the work of the skillful workman," the English Revised Version "of the cunning workman"; instead of "I was by him as one brought up (with him)" (Proverbs 8:30), the Revised Version (British and American) has "I was by him as a master workman.

W. L. Walker

World (General)

1. Original Words:

In the King James Version this word represents several originals, as follows: 'erets "earth"; chedhel, "the underworld"; cheledh, "lifetime," "age"; `olam, "indefinite time," "age"; tebhel, "fertile earth"; ge, "earth"; aion, "age," "indefinite time," with frequent connotation of the contents of time, its influences and powers; oikoumene, "inhabited earth," the world of man considered in its area and distribution; last, and most frequently, kosmos, properly "order," with the suggestion of beauty; thence the material universe, as the great example of such order; then the moral universe, the total system of intelligent creatures, perhaps sometimes including angels (1 Corinthians 4:9), but as a rule human beings only; then, in view of the fact of universal human failure, humanity in its sinful aspect, the spirit and forces of fallen humanity regarded as antagonistic to God and to good, "all around us which does not love God."

2. Remarks:

Of the above terms, some need not detain us; 'erets, as the original to "world," occurs only thrice, chedhel, once, cheledh, twice, `olam, twice (including Ecclesiastes 3:11), ge, once. The most important of the series, looking at frequency of occurrence, are tebhel, aion, oikoumene, kosmos. On these we briefly comment in order.

(1) Tebhel.

Tebhel, as the original to "world," occurs in 35 places, of which 15 are found in Psalms and 9 in the first half of Isaiah. By derivation it has to do with produce, fertility, but this cannot be said to come out in usage. The word actually plays nearly the same part as "globe" with us, denoting man's material dwelling-place, as simply as possible, without moral suggestions.

(2) Aion.

We have indicated above the speciality of aion. It is a time, with the suggestion always of extension rather than limit (so that it lends itself to phrases denoting vast if not endless extension, such as "to the aions of aions," rendered "forever and ever," or "world without end"). In Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 11:13, it denotes the "aeons" of the creative process. In numerous places, notably in Matthew, it refers to the "dispensations" of redemption, the present "age"of grace and, in distinction, the "age" which is to succeed it--"that world, and the resurrection" (Luke 20:35). Then, in view of the moral contents of the present state of things, it freely passes into the thought of forces and influences tending against faith and holiness, e.g., "Be not fashioned according to this world" (Romans 12:2). In this connection the Evil Power is said to be "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4).

(3) Oikoumene.

The word oikoumene occasionally means the Roman empire, regarded as pre-eminently the region of settled human life. So Luke 2:1; Acts 11:28, and perhaps Revelation 3:10, and other apocalyptic passages. In Hebrews it is used mystically of the Empire of the Messiah (1:6; 2:5).

(4) Kosmos.

We have remarked above on kosmos, with its curious and suggestive history of meanings. It may be enough here to add that that history prepares us to find its reference varying by subtle transitions, even in the same passage. See e.g. John 1:10, where "the world" appears first to denote earth and man simply as the creation of "the Word," and then mankind as sinfully alienated from their Creator. We are not surprised accordingly to read on the one hand that "God .... loved the world" (John 3:16), and on the other that the Christian must "not love the world" (1 John 2:15). The reader will find the context a sure clue in all cases, and the study will be pregnant of instruction.

Handley Dunelm

World, Cosmological

wurld, koz-mo-loj'-i-kal:

1. Terms and General Meaning

2. Hebrew Idea of the World

3. Its Extent

4. Origin of the World--Biblical and Contrasted Views

5. The Cosmogony of Genesis 1--Comparison with Babylonian and Other Cosmogonies

6. Genesis 1 and Science

LITERATURE

1. Terms and General Meaning:

The Hebrews had no proper word for "world" in its wide sense of "universe." The nearest approach to such a meaning is in the phrase "the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1, etc.). Even this, in a physical reference, does not convey the modern idea, for the earth is still the center with which heaven and the heavenly bodies are connected as adjuncts. It is here, however, to be remembered that to the Hebrew mind the physical world was not the whole. Beyond were the heavens where God's throne was, peopled by innumerable spiritual intelligences, whose hosts worshipped and obeyed Him (Genesis 28:12; Psalms 103:19–21, etc.). Their conception of the universe was thus enlarged, but the heavens, in this sense, would not be included in the "world." For "world," in its terrestrial meaning, several Hebrew words are used. The King James Version thus occasionally renders the word 'erets, "earth" (the rendering is retained in the Revised Version (British and American) in Isaiah 23:17; Jeremiah 25:26; in Psalms 22:27; Isaiah 62:11, it is changed to its proper meaning "earth"); `olam, "age," twice rendered "world" in the King James Version (Psalms 73:12; Ecclesiastes 3:11), is changed in the Revised Version (British and American)--in the latter case into "eternity." The chief word for "world" in the sense of the habitable earth, the abode of man, with its fullness of created life, is tebhel--a poetical term (1 Samuel 2:8; 2 Samuel 22:16; Job 18:18; Job 34:13; Job 37:12; Psalms 9:8; Psalms 18:15, etc.)--answering to the Greek oikoumene.

In the New Testament a frequent word for "world" is aion, "age" (Matthew 12:32; Matthew 13:22,Matthew 13:39,Matthew 13:40,Matthew 13:49; Matthew 24:3; Mark 4:19; Luke 16:8; Romans 12:2; Hebrews 1:2, etc.). the Revised Version (British and American) notes in these cases "age" in margin, and sometimes changes in text into "of old" (thus the American Standard Revised Version in Luke 1:70; Acts 3:21), "ages," "times," etc., according to the sense (compare 1 Corinthians 10:11; Hebrews 6:5; Hebrews 9:26; 2 Timothy 1:9;. Titus 1:2, etc.). Most generally the Greek word used is kosmos, the "ordered world" (e.g. Matthew 4:8; Matthew 5:14; Matthew 26:13; Mark 8:36; John 1:9; John 8:12; Acts 17:24; Romans 1:8,Romans 1:20, etc.). The wider sense of "all creation," or "universe" (see above on the Old Testament), is expressed by such phrases as panta, "all things" (John 1:3), pasa he ktisis, "the whole creation" (Romans 8:22).

2. Hebrew Idea of the World:

Two errors are to be avoided in framing a representation of the Hebrew conception of the world.

(1) The attempt should not be made to find in the Biblical statements precise anticipations of modern scientific discoveries. The relations of the Biblical teaching to scientific discovery are considered below. Here it is enough to say that the view taken of the world by Biblical writers is not that of modern science, but deals with the world simply as we know it--as it lies spread out to ordinary view--and things are described in popular language as they appear to sense, not as telescope, microscope, and other appliances of modern knowledge reveal their nature, laws and relations to us. The end of the narration or description is throughout religious, not theoretic.

(2) On the other hand, the error is to be avoided of forcing the language of popular, often metaphorical and poetic, description into the hard-and-fast forms of a cosmogony which it is by no means intended by the writers to yield. It is true that the Hebrews had no idea of our modern Copernican astronomy, and thought of the earth as a flat surface, surmounted by a vast expanse of heaven, in which sun, moon and stars were placed, and from whose reservoirs the rain descended. But it is an exaggeration of all this to speak, as is sometimes done, as if the Hebrews were children who thought of the sky as a solid vault (Genesis 1:6–8; Job 37:18), supported on pillars (Job 26:11), and pierced with windows (Genesis 7:11; Isaiah 24:18), through which the rains came. "The world is a solid expanse of earth, surrounded by and resting on a world-ocean, and surmounted by a rigid vault called the `firmament,' above which the waters of a heavenly ocean are spread" (Skinner). The matter is carried farther when elaborate resemblances are sought between the Hebrew and Babylonian cosmogonies (see below). Such representations, though common, are misleading. Language is not to be pressed in this prosaic, unelastic way. It is forgotten that if the "firmament" or "heaven" is sometimes spoken of as a solid vault, it is at other times compared to a "curtain" stretched out (Psalms 104:2; Isaiah 40:22), or a "scroll" that can be rolled up (Isaiah 34:4); if "windows" of heaven are once or twice mentioned, in many other places there is a quite clear recognition that the rain comes from the clouds in the air (Judges 5:4; Job 36:28; Psalms 77:17, etc.); if the earth is sometimes spoken of as a "circle" (Isaiah 40:22), at other times it has "corners" and "ends" (Isaiah 11:12; Deuteronomy 33:17; Job 37:3; Psalms 19:6, etc.); if sun, moon and stars are figured as if attached to the firmament--"fixed as nails," as one has put it--"from which they might be said to drop off" (Isaiah 14:12, etc.), far more frequently the sun is represented as pursuing his free, rejoicing course around the heavens (Psalms 19:5,Psalms 19:6, etc.), the moon as "walking" in brightness (Job 31:26), etc. The proper meaning of the word raqia` is simply "expanse" and the pellucid vault of the heavens, in which the clouds hung and through which the sun traveled, had probably for the Hebrews associations not very different from what it has to the average mind of today. The earth, itself composed of "dry land" and "seas" (Genesis 1:9,Genesis 1:10), the former with its mountains, valleys and rivers, may have been conceived of as encircled by an ocean--the circular form being naturally suggested by the outline of the horizon. A few passages convey the idea of depths within or beneath, as well as around the solid earth (Genesis 7:11; Deuteronomy 33:13)--a thought again suggested by springs, wells, floods, and similar natural phenomena--but there is no fixity in these representations. One place in Job (26:7) has the bold idea of the earth as hung in free space--a near approach to the modern conception.

3. Its Extent:

The ideas formed of the extent of the world were naturally limited by the geographical knowledge of the Hebrews, and expanded as that knowledge increased. At no time, however, was it so limited as might be supposed. The TABLE OF NATIONS (which see) in Genesis 10:1–32 shows a wide knowledge of the different peoples of the world, "after their tongues, in their lands, in their nations" (10:20,31). The outlook to the West was bounded by the Mediterranean ("great sea," Numbers 31:6; Ezekiel 47:10, etc.), with its "islands" (Genesis 10:5; Isaiah 11:11, etc.), to Tarshish (Spain?) in the extreme West. To the North was the great empire of the Hittites (Joshua 1:4; 1 Kings 10:29, etc.). North and East across the desert, beyond Syria, lay the familiar region of Mesopotamia (Aram-Naharaim, Psalms 60:1–12, title), with Ararat (Genesis 8:4) still farther North; and, southward, in the Tigris-Euphrates valley, the ancient and powerful empires of Assyria and Babylonia (Genesis 2:14; Genesis 10:10,Genesis 10:11), with Media and Elam (Genesis 10:2,Genesis 10:22), at a later time Persia (Esther 1:1), farther East To the Southeast, between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, lay the great peninsula of Arabia, and to the West of the Red Sea, Southwest of Canaan, the mighty Egypt, Israel's never-forgotten "land of bondage" (Exodus 20:2, etc.). South of Egypt was Ethiopia. Of more distant peoples, India is first mentioned in Esther 1:1; Esther 8:9, but trade with it must have been as early as the days of Solomon. On the dim horizon are such peoples as Gomer (the Cimmerians, North of the Euxine Genesis 10:2; Ezekiel 38:6) and Magog (Genesis 10:2; Ezekiel 38:2 the Scythians (?)); probably even China is intended by "the land of Sinim" in Isaiah 49:12. In the apocryphal books and the New Testament the geographical area is perceptibly widened. Particularly do Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and Italy, with their islands, cities, etc., come clearly into view. A list like that in Acts 2:9–11 of the representatives of peoples present at the day of Pentecost gives a vivid glimpse of the extent of the Jewish religious connection at this period (compare Acts 8:27 ff).

4. Origin of the World--Biblical and Contrasted Views:

From the first there has been abundant speculation in religion and philosophy as to how the world came to be--whether it was eternal, or had a commencement, and, if it began to be, how it originated. Theories were, as they are still, numberless and various. Some cosmogonies were purely mythological (Babylonian, Hesiod); some were materialistic (Democritus, Epicurus--"concourse of atoms"); some were demiurgic (Plato in Timaeus--an eternal matter formed by a demiurge); some were emanational (Gnostics--result of overflowing of fullness of divine life in "aeons"); some were dualistic (Parsism, Manicheism--good and evil principles in conflict); some imagined endless "cycles"--alternate production and destruction (Stoics, Buddhist kalpas); many were pantheistic (Spinoza--an eternal "substance," its "attributes" necessarily determined in their "modes"; Hegel, "absolute spirit," evolving by logical necessity); some are pessimistic (Schopenhauer--the world the result of an irrational act of "will"; hence, necessarily evil), etc.

In contrast with these conflicting, and often foolish and irrational, theories, the Biblical doctrine of the origin of the world stands alone and unique. It is unique because the view of God on which it rests is unique. According to the teaching of the Bible, from its first page to its last, God is a free, personal Spirit, one, omnipotent, holy, and the world originates in a free act of His almighty will (Genesis 1:1; Psalms 33:9; Hebrews 11:3; Revelation 4:11, etc.), is continually upheld by His power, ruled by His providence, and is the sphere of the realization of His purpose. As against theories of the eternity of the world, accordingly, it declares that the world had a beginning (Genesis 1:1); as against dualism, it declares that it is the product of one almighty will (Deuteronomy 4:35; Isaiah 45:7; 1 Corinthians 8:6, etc.); as against the supposition of an eternal matter, it declares that matter as well as form takes its origin from God (Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:3); as against pantheism and all theories of necessary development, it affirms the distinction of God from His world, His transcendence over it as well as His immanence in it, and His free action in creation (Ephesians 4:6; Revelation 4:11); as against pessimism, it declares the constitution, aim and end of the world to be good (Genesis 1:31; Psalms 33:5; Matthew 5:45, etc.). To the Old Testament doctrine of the origin of the world the New Testament adds the fuller determination that the world was created through the agency of the "Word" (Logos), or Son (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16,Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:2,Hebrews 1:3, etc.).

5. The Cosmogony of Genesis 1--Comparison with Babylonian and Other Cosmogonies:

No stronger proof could be afforded of the truth and sublimity of the Biblical account of the origin of things than is given by the comparison of the narrative of creation in Genesis 1:1–2:4, with the mythological cosmogonies and theogonies found in other religions. Of these the best known, up to the time of recent discoveries, were the Babylonian account of the creation preserved by Berosus, a priest of Babylon in the 3rd century BC, and the Theogony of the Greek Hesiod (9th century BC). Hesiod's poem is a confused story of how from Chaos came forth Earth, Tartarus (Hell), Eros (Love) and Erebus (Night). Erebus gives birth to Aether (Day). Earth produces the Heaven and the Sea. Earth and Heaven, in turn, become the parents of the elder gods and the Titans. Cronus, one of these gods, begets Zeus. Zeus makes war on his father Cronus, overthrows him, and thus becomes king of the Olympian gods. The descent of these is then traced. How far this fantastic theory, commencing with Chaos, and from it generating Nature and the gods, has itself an original affinity with Babylonian conceptions, need not here be discussed. It hardly surpasses in crudeness the late shape of the Babylonian cosmogony furnished by Berosus. Here, too, Chaos--"darkness and water"--is the beginning, and therefrom are generated strange and peculiar forms, men with wings and with two faces, or with heads and horns of goats, bulls with human heads, dogs with four bodies, etc. Over this welter a woman presides, called Omorka. Belus appears, cuts the woman in twain, of one half of her makes the heavens, and of the other the earth, sets the world in order, finally makes one of the gods cut off his head, and from the blood which flowed forth, mixed with earth, forms intelligent man. That Berosus has not essentially misrepresented the older Babylonian conceptions is now made apparent through the recovery of the Babylonian story itself.

In 1875 George Smith discovered, among the tablets in the British Museum brought from the great library of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal (7th century BC), several on which was inscribed the Chaldean story of creation, and next year published his work, The Chaldean Account of Gen. The tablets, supplemented by other fragments, have since been repeatedly translated by other hands, the most complete translation being that by L. W. King in his Seven Tablets of Creation in the Babylonian and Assyrian Legends concerning the Creation of the World. The story of these tablets, still in many parts fragmentary, is now familiar (see BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA, RELIGION OF). Here, too, the origin of all things is from Chaos, the presiding deities of which are Apsu and Tiamat. The gods are next called into being. Then follows a long mythological description, occupying the first four tablets, of the war of Marduk with Tiamat, the conflict issuing in the woman being cut in two, and heaven being formed of one half and earth of the other. The 5th tablet narrates the appointing of the constellations. The 6th seems to have recorded the creation of man from the blood of Marduk. This mythological epic is supposed by many scholars to be the original of the sublime, orderly, monotheistic account of the creation which stands at the commencement of our Bible. The Babylonian story is (without proof) supposed to have become naturalized in Israel, and there purified and elevated in accordance with the higher ideas of Israel's religion. We cannot subscribe to this view, which seems to us loaded with internal and historical improbabilities. Points of resemblance are indeed alleged, as in the use of the Hebrew word tehom for "deep" (Genesis 1:2), cognate with Tiamat; the separation of heaven and earth (Genesis 1:6–8); the appointing of the constellations (Genesis 1:14–18), etc. But in the midst of the scanty resemblances, how enormous are the contrasts, which all writers acknowledge! Gunkel, e.g., says, "Anyone who compares this ancient Babylonian myth with Genesis 1:1–31, will perceive at once hardly anything else than the infinite distance between them. There the heathen gods, inflamed against each other in wild warfare, here the One, who speaks and it is done" (Israel und Babylonien, 24). One can understand how these wild polytheistic legends could arise from corruption of a purer, simpler form, but not vice versa. The idea of a "deep," or chaos, must have preceded the fanciful and elaborate creation of the woman-monster, Tiamat; the distinction of sky and earth would go before the coarse idea of the cutting of the woman in two; and so with the other features of supposed resemblance. Professor Clay has recently shown reason for challenging the whole idea of the borrowing of these myths from Babylonia, and declares that "it is unreasonable to assume that the Hebrew tehom is a modification of a Babylonian pattern ..... To say, therefore, that the origin of the Marduk-Tiamat myth is to be found in a Nippurian version, originally known as Ellil-Tiamat, is utterly without foundation" (Amurru, 50). Much more reasonably may we adopt the hypothesis of Dillmann, Kittel, Hommel, Oettli, etc., that the relation between these Babylonian legends and the Biblical narratives is one of cognateness, and not of derivation. These traditions came down from a much older source and are preserved by the Hebrews in their purer form (see the writer's POT, 402-9).

The superiority of the Ge cosmogony to those of other peoples is generally admitted, but objection to it is taken in the name of modern science. The narrative conflicts, it is said, with both modern astronomy and modern geology; with the former, in regarding the earth as the center of the universe, and with the latter in its picture of the order and stages of creation, and the time occupied in the work (for a full statement of these alleged discrepancies, see Dr. Driver's Genesis, Introduction).

6. Genesis 1 and Science:

On the general question of the harmony of the Bible with science it is important that a right standpoint be adopted. It has already been stated that it is no part of the aim of the Biblical revelation to anticipate the discoveries of 19th-century and 20th-century science. The world is taken as it is, and set in its relations to God its Creator, without consideration of what after-light science may throw on its inner constitution, laws and methods of working. As Calvin, with his usual good sense, in his commentary on Genesis 1:1–31 says, "Moses wrote in the popular style, which, without instruction, all ordinary persons endowed with common sense are able to understand. .... He does not call us up to heaven; but only proposes things that lie open before our eyes." This of itself disposes of the objection drawn from astronomy, for everywhere heaven and earth are spoken of according to their natural appearances, and not in the language of modern Copernican science. To this hour we use the same language in speaking of the sun rising and setting.

The further objection that modern knowledge discredits the Biblical view by showing how small a speck the world is in the infinitude of the universe is really without force. Whatever the extent of the universe, it remains the fact that on this little planet life has effloresced into reason, and we have as yet no ground in science for believing that anywhere else it has ever done so (compare Dr. A. R. Wallace's striking book, Man's Place in the Universe). Even supposing that there are any number of inhabited worlds, this does not detract from the soul's value in this world, or from God's love in the salvation of its sinful race. The objection drawn from geology, though so much is sometimes made of it, is hardly more formidable. It does not follow that, because the Bible does not teach modern science, we are justified in saying that it contradicts it. On the contrary, it may be affirmed, so true is the standpoint of the author in this first chapter of Gen, so divine the illumination with which he is endowed, so unerring his insight into the order of Nature, that there is little in his description that even yet, with our advanced knowledge, we need to change. To quote words used elsewhere, "The dark watery waste over which the spirit broods with vivifying power, the advent of light, the formation of an atmosphere or sky capable of sustaining the clouds above it, the settling of the great outlines of the continents and seas, the clothing of the dry land with abundant vegetation, the adjustment of the earth's relation to sun and moon as the visible rulers of its day and night, the production of the great seamonsters and reptile-like creatures and birds, the peopling of the earth with four-footed beasts and cattle, last of all, the advent of man--is there so much of all this which science requires us to cancel?" (Orr, Christian View of God and the World, 421).

Even in regard to the "days"--the duration of time involved--there is no insuperable difficulty. The writer may well have intended symbolically to represent the creation as a great week of work, ending with the Creator's Sabbath rest. In view, however, of the fact that days of 24 hours do not begin to run till the appointment of the sun on the 4th day (Genesis 1:14), it seems more probable that he did not intend to fix a precise length to his creation "days." This is no new speculation. Already Augustine asks, "Of what fashion these days were it is exceeding hard or altogether impossible to think, much more to speak" (De Civ. Dei, xi.6, 7); and Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages leaves the matter an open question. Neither does this narrative, in tracing the origin of all things to the creative word of God, conflict with anything that may be discovered by science as to the actual method of creation, e.g. in evolution. Science itself is gradually coming to see the limits within which the doctrine of evolution must be received, and, kept within these limits, there is nothing in that doctrine which brings it into conflict with the Biblical representations (see ANTHROPOLOGY; CREATION; EVOLUTION; also the writer's works, God's Image in Man and Sin as a Problem of Today). Whatever may be said of the outward form of the narrative, one has only to look at the great ideas which the first chapter of Genesis is intended to teach to see that it conveys those great truths on the origin and ordering of things which are necessary as the basis of a true religious view of the world, no matter to what stage knowledge or science may attain. This chapter, standing at the head of the Bible, lays the foundation for all that follows in the Biblical view of the relation of God to the world, and yields the ground for our confidence that, as all things are created by God and dependent on Him, so everything in Nature and providence is at His disposal for the execution of His purposes and the care and protection of His people. The story of creation, therefore, remains to all time of the highest religious value.

LITERATURE.

See articles "Earth" in Smith's DB and in EB. The other works mentioned above may be consulted. A valuable extended discussion of the word "Firmament" may be seen in Essay V of the older work, Aids to Faith (London, Murray), 220-30.

James Orr

World, End Of The

See ESCHATOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT; HEAVENS, NEW.

Worm; Scarlet-Worm

wurm, skar'-let-wurm:

(1) tola`, tole`ah, tola`ath, tola`ath, from tala`; compare Arabic tala, "to stretch the neck"; usually with shani, "bright" (of Arabic sana, "a flash of lightning"), the term tola`ath shani being translated "scarlet" in English Versions of the Bible; also in the same sense the following: sheni tola`ath (Leviticus 14:4), tola` (Isaiah 1:18, English Versions of the Bible "crimson"), shanim (Proverbs 31:21; Isaiah 1:18, English Versions of the Bible "scarlet"), shani (Genesis 38:28; Joshua 2:18; Song of Songs 4:3); also kokkos, and kokkinos (Matthew 27:23; Hebrews 9:19; Revelation 17:3,Revelation 17:4; Revelation 18:12,Revelation 18:16).

(2) rimmah, from ramam, "to putrefy" (Exodus 16:20); compare Arab ramm, "to become carious" (of bone).

(3) cac (only in Isaiah 51:8); compare Arabic sus, "worm"; ses, "moth" (Matthew 6:19).

(4) zochalim (Micah 7:17, the King James Version "worms," the Revised Version (British and American) "crawling things"), from zachal, "to crawl."

(5) skolex (Mark 9:48), skolekobrotos, "eaten of worms" (Acts 12:23).

Besides the numerous passages, mostly in Ex, referring to the tabernacle, where tola`ath, with shani, is translated "scarlet," there are eight pasages in which it is translated "worm." These denote worms which occur in decaying organic matter or in sores (Exodus 16:20; Isaiah 14:11; Isaiah 66:24); or which are destructive to plants (Deuteronomy 28:39; Jonah 4:7); or the word is used as a term of contempt or depreciation (Job 25:6; Psalms 22:6; Isaiah 41:14). Rimmah is used in the same senses. It occurs with tola`ath as a synonym in Exodus 16:24; Job 25:6; Isaiah 14:11. In Job 25:6, English Versions of the Bible, rendering both tola`ath and rimmah by "worm," 'enosh and 'adham by "man," and introducing twice "that is a," makes a painfully monotonous distich out of the concise and elegant original, in which not one word of the first part is repeated in the second. Cac (Isaiah 51:8), English Versions of the Bible "worm," is the larva of the clothes-moth. See MOTH. In none of the cases here considered are worms, properly so called, denoted, but various insect larvae which are commonly called "worms," e.g. "silkworm," "apple-worm," "meal-worm," etc. These larvae are principally those of Diptera or flies, Coleoptera or beetles, and Lepidoptera or butterflies and moths.

Tola`ath shani, "scarlet," is the scarlet-worm, Cermes vermilio, a scale-insect which feeds upon the oak, and which is used for producing a red dye. It is called by the Arabs dudeh, "a worm," a word also used for various insect larvae. It is also called qirmiz, whence" crimson" and the generic name Cermes. This scarlet-worm or scale-insect is one of the family Coccidae of the order Rhynchota or Hemiptera. The female is wingless and adheres to its favorite plant by its long, sucking beak, by which it extracts the sap on which it lives. After once attaching itself it remains motionless, and when dead its body shelters the eggs which have been deposited beneath it. The males, which are smaller than the females, pass through a complete metamorphosis and develop wings. The dye is made from the dried bodies of the females. Other species yielding red dyes are Porphyrophora polonica and Coccus cacti. The last named is the Mexican cochineal insect which feeds on the cactus and which largely supplanted the others after the discovery of America. Aniline dyes have in turn to a great extent superseded these natural organic colors, which, however, continue to be unsurpassed for some purposes.

See COLORS.

Alfred Ely Day