We present a historical review of Einstein’s 1917 paper ‘Cosmological Considerations in the General Theory of Relativity’ to mark the centenary of a key work that set the foundations of modern cosmology. We find that the paper followed as a natural next step after Einstein’s development of the general theory of relativity and that the work offers many insights into his thoughts on relativity, astronomy and cosmology. Our review includes a description of the observational and theoretical background to the paper; a paragraph-by-paragraph guided tour of the work; a discussion of Einstein’s views of issues such as the relativity of inertia, the curvature of space and the cosmological constant. Particular attention is paid to little-known aspects of the paper such as Einstein’s failure to test his model against observation, his failure to consider the stability of the model and a mathematical oversight concerning his interpretation of the role of the cosmological constant. We recall the response of theorists and astronomers to Einstein’s cosmology in the context of the alternate models of the universe proposed by Willem de Sitter, Alexander Friedman and Georges Lemaître. Finally, we consider the relevance of the Einstein World in today’s ‘emergent’ cosmologies.

中文翻译：

---

爱因斯坦1917年的宇宙静态模型：百年纪念

我们将对爱因斯坦1917年发表的论文《广义相对论中的宇宙学考虑》进行历史回顾以纪念为现代宇宙论奠定基础的一项重要作品的百年纪念。我们发现，紧随爱因斯坦发展广义相对论之后，论文自然而然地迈出了下一步，并且该工作为他关于相对论，天文学和宇宙学的思想提供了许多见识。我们的综述包括对论文的观测和理论背景的描述；逐段导览作品；讨论了爱因斯坦关于惯性的相对性，空间曲率和宇宙常数等问题的观点。特别关注论文中鲜为人知的方面，例如爱因斯坦未能通过观察来检验其模型，他未能考虑模型的稳定性以及关于他对宇宙常数作用的解释的数学疏忽。我们回想起威廉·德·西特（Willem de Sitter），亚历山大·弗里德曼（Alexander Friedman）和乔治·勒马特（GeorgesLemaître）提出的宇宙替代模型时，理论家和天文学家对爱因斯坦宇宙学的反应。最后，我们考虑了爱因斯坦世界与当今“新兴”宇宙学的相关性。