Die Nuwe-Testamentiese wêreldbeeld

Abstract

This article deals with the New Testament world view. In the introductory part the author deals at some length with some underlying hermeneutic issues. The subsequent section deals with the fact that the New Testament "world view" is primarily temporal and not spatial. He comes to the conclusion that the real core of the New Testament view of the world is to be found in the view of history, of which the essential elements (creation, upholding of creation, re-creation, between ascension and Second Advent and fulfilment) are analysed in some detail. He then goes on to deal with some "views of the world" in the Greek New Testament. He refers to the concepts of ouranos kai ge., oikoumene, kosmos and aion. This is followed by a discussion of the New Testament view of the dispensations (aiones) of the history of the world. The article is concluded with a discussion of the implications of these concepts for a Christian view of life and the world in the dispensation between the "already" and the "not yet": a world in which man lives as a "new man" in the "old world".