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Replying to post 37 by WeSee]
WORSHIP
The words usually translated as 'worship' have different levels of meaning. When applied to YHWH God (the Father) it was clearly understood as the highest form of the words.
The Greek word
proskuneo (or
proskyneo) is defined in the 1971 trinitarian United Bible Societies’
A Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament, p. 154: “[Proskuneo] worship; fall down and worship,
kneel, bow low, fall at another’s feet.�
Even the trinitarian W. E. Vine writes in his
An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, p. 1247:
“PROSKUNEO ... to make obeisance, do reverence to (from
pros, towards, and
kuneo, to kiss), is the most frequent word rendered ‘to worship’. It is used for an act of homage or reverence (a) to God ...; (b) to Christ ...; (c) to a man, Matt. 18:26.�
“Obeisance,� of course, shows “respect, submission, or reverence� -
Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1961.
Noted Bible scholar J. H. Thayer defines
proskuneo:
“prop. to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence ... hence in the N. T. by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express
respect or to make supplication. It is used a. of homage shown to men of superior rank [position] ... Rev. 3:9 .... b. of homage rendered to God and the ascended Christ, to heavenly beings [angels]� - p. 548,
Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Baker Book House Publ., 1977.
Hasting’s
A Dictionary of the Bible tells us:
“Worship, both as [noun] and verb, was formerly used of reverence or honour done to men as well as to God …� - p. 941, vol. 4.
The Hebrew word most often translated “worship� is
shachah, and it is usually rendered as
proskuneo in the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament. Unger and White say of this word: “Shachah ... ‘to worship, prostrate oneself, bow down.’� And,
“The act of bowing down in homage done
before a superior [in rank] or a ruler. Thus David ‘bowed’ himself [
shachah] before Saul (1 Sam. 24:8). Sometimes it is a social or economic superior to whom one bows, as when Ruth ‘bowed’ [
shachah] to the ground before Boaz (Ruth 2:10).� -
Nelson’s Expository Dictionary of the Old Testament, 1980, Thomas Nelson Publ., p. 482.
Perhaps the most famous Biblical Hebrew scholar of all, Gesenius, tells us in
Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, p. 813, (#7812), ‘Shachah’:
“(1) to prostrate oneself before
anyone out of honor .... Those who used this mode of salutation fell on their knees and touched the ground with the forehead ..., and this honor was not only shown to superiors, such as kings and princes, 2 Sam. 9:8; but also to equals; Gen. 23:7.�
The act described by
proskuneo (or
shachah) was of bowing or kneeling, and it generally indicated an act of respect and a display of one’s willingness to submit to or serve another person who occupied a superior position, (somewhat similar to a salute in the military today).
It was done, of course, in its very highest sense to God alone, but it was also done, in a lower sense of the same word, to kings, angels, prophets, etc. That is why
proskuneo is translated “prostrated himself before� at Matt. 18:26
NASB, even though the
KJV uses “worship� there. Notice how other trinitarian translations render that verse (
RSV and
NIV for example) where a servant “worships� [
proskuneo] his master. And that is why, in the account of the man blind from birth whom Jesus healed, we see that man giving
proskuneo to Jesus at John 9:38. The
ASV, in a footnote for John 9:38, says,
“The Greek word [
proskuneo] denotes an act of reverence, whether paid to a creature, as here [Jesus], or to the Creator.�
At Rev. 3:9 Jesus shows the position of authority he will give to some of his human followers when he says he will make people “
worship before thy feet.� -
KJV. The word used there is
proskuneo! The
ASV again adds this footnote: “The Greek word [
proskuneo] denotes an act of reverence whether paid to a creature, or the Creator.�
We can see the same thing at Is. 45:14. Here God, speaking to his faithful human followers of the last days, says:
“and they [the rest of surviving mankind] ... shall fall down [
shachah - ‘worship’] unto thee, they shall make supplication [
palal - ‘pray’: see The
Jerusalem Bible and
AT] unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee [see IN/WITH study]; and there is none else.� -
KJV, ASV. - cf. Is. 49:23.
Even the ancient Greek translation, the
Septuagint, says at Is. 45:14 -
“and they ... shall [
proskuneo - ‘worship’] thee and make supplication [
proseuchomai - ‘pray’] to thee: because God is in thee; and there is no God beside thee, O Lord.� (Notice all the trinitarian-type “evidence� here that could “prove� these men are “equally God�!) - The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament, Greek and English, Zondervan Ed., 1970.
So we see that the king of Israel, for example, could receive
proskuneo or
shachah in his role as a representative of a higher authority (Jehovah), or he could receive it in recognition of his own earthly position of authority that God allowed him to have. For example, at 2 Sam. 14:22 Joab “worships� ‘my Lord’ (King David). The Hebrew word
shachah translated in most places in the Bible as “worship� is here translated “did obeisance� in the
RSV. In the Greek Septuagint the word used is
proskuneo.
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Part of the problem many modern English-speaking students of the Bible have in understanding this concept is that they haven't learned that their own language has changed so much in just the last few hundred years. If we all knew the parallel in our own language with the ancient understanding of this concept in the original Bible languages, it would be much more clear. In other words, the word "worship" in English had, just a few hundred years ago, the very same levels of meaning as did the original Bible words,
shachah and
proskuneo. A professor of Bible languages at Union Theological Seminary in New York, Dr. Marvin R. Vincent, wrote that in the
KJV (and other old translations into English) some uses of 'worship' may seem to be:
"An unfortunate translation, according to modern English, but justified by the usage of earlier English, according to which to worship meant simply to honor. Worship is worthship, or honor paid to dignity or worth. This usage survives in the [British] expressions 'worshipful' and 'your worship.' In the marriage-service of the English Church occurs the phrase, 'With my body I thee worship.' So Wycliffe [one of the earliest English Bible translators] renders Matthew 19:19, 'Worship thy father and thy mother;' and John 12:26, 'If any man serve me, my Father shall worship him.'" - pp. 533, 534,
Word Studies in the New Testament, vol. 1, Sage Software, 1996.
So, just like the Bible words
shachah and
proskuneo, The word 'worship' in English also, until relatively recent times, had various levels of meaning and could be applied to other men in a lower sense of the word. But the very same word also could be used in the highest sense to apply to the one true God only.
."
