THE WORLD — but originally 'order, arrangement, ornament' (English 'cosmetic' is the same root: making a face orderly and pleasing). By the time of the New Testament it had long since become the standard word for the ordered universe, and by extension humanity spread across it. 'The field is the kosmos' (Matthew 13:38) sets the wheat-and-weeds parable's scope at the whole inhabited world, not one nation or one visible congregation — good and evil growing mixed everywhere a person could be found, with no human authority given the job of sorting them early. → first discussed at Matt 13:38