This is a plea to language experts out there!

I’ve been having some chats to JWs lately on my doorstep, and I’d like to have a better grasp of the Greek word often translated as ‘worship’. (proskuneo)

Now, I understand from my pastor that the word means something along the lines of “prostrate yourself before” or “do obeisance to”.  He mentioned that it takes the force of ‘worship’ when that being that is worshipped is God. 

So how is this treated in the OT in Hebrew?  The LXX?  I’m just trying to establish a helpful rule for myself when I’m looking at Scripture to know when I can correctly tell if the word gives connotations of divinity regarding its object.

I’m just waiting for all you good little evangelicals to tell me that context will guide… :P

But seriously, that is less of a help to a JW.  Not entirely convincing at times.

It is obvious as anything that people worship Jesus in the NT, both in the Gospels, and after his resurrection and after his ascension.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses are amazing with their nitpicking selective misleading Greek expertise.

And it is obvious that the NT relates passages from the OT about YHWH to Jesus.

Yeh, language expert I am not.... however did and essay on worship this year..

‘The term is never expressly and explicitly defined in a single text (Carson 2002, 15). Added to this, there are a number of words in the original languages that the English Bible renders as worship. In a number of incidences the word ‘worship’ is placed in English (NIV) text, where there is no corresponding word in the original languages. This highlights the fact that the concept of worship is larger than just an exercise in lexical equivalence. However, two words, in particular, do gives us insights into the key concepts associated with worship in the Bible.

The Hebrew verb (hishtahava) has a lexical meaning of ‘to bow down, prostrate oneself’ and corresponds to the New Testament Greek verb (proskuneo), which has a similar lexical meaning. Both these terms have significant use throughout the Bible where the English word ‘worship’ appears. Key to the concepts conveyed by the words are the ideas of ‘honoring’ and ‘adoring’.

A second Hebrew verb of (eved) with a lexical meaning of ‘to serve’, or ‘work’, or ‘to do’ and corresponds to the New Testament Greek verb (latreuo), which has a similar lexical meaning. Both these terms also have significant use throughout the Bible where the English word ‘worship’ appears. Key to the concept conveyed by the words is the idea of ‘obedience’.

Another verb used less throughout the bible is the Hebrew word (yara), which corresponds to the Greek word (fobeo) and has the lexical idea of ‘to fear, reverence or honor’.

While the concept of worship can be expressed more richly than any lexical equivalence, the use of the particular original words helps to show that Biblical worship, involves the ideas of honoring, adoring and obedience towards God.’

Hope that helps - Robert Doyle did an article in the briefing a few years ago about worship - ‘Jesus the One true worshiper’

Hi Peter

I’m not a student of Greek or Hebrew (despite having studied Greek....very painfully), but one thing I’ve learned about JWs and their theories on worship which can be useful when speaking to them came from an evangelistic sermon Dominic Steele gave once on revelation (yes, both evangelistic and revelation are meant to be in that sentence together).

Dominic was speaking in a country town with a large proportion of JWs present, and pointed out the passage in revelation where all of creation is worshipping the slain lamb, and God the father looks on with approval [Rev 4 -5] - now if Jesus isn’t God, then how can God tolerate people in his very own throne room worshipping someone other than Him?  I’ve used that on some doorknockers rather than the standard argument on John 1:1 (which they’ve all been schooled in responding to) and it makes them think.

This may not answer your question but I’ve found it a helpful way to look at “worship” in a JW context.

Sounds intriguing, Kathryn.

Do you mean there were heaps of JWs in the town, or at Dominic’s meeting?

Hi David - sorry, that was a bit ambiguous...I meant there were a lot of JWs in town, but hopefully also many of them came to the talk!  Christians in the Media were doing a mission in Orange to help out Orange Evangelical Church, and I remember when Dominic told us he was going to do the final evangelistic talk on revelation I thought the heat had finally got to him!  It was one of the hottest 10 days in a row I remember, and I was locked in a kitchen cooking for everyone, so the heat was even worse - maybe that’s why this talk has stuck in my mind so much, I don’t know...anyway, Dominic gave a similar talk at the Christians in the Media conference earlier this year - have a listen to
www.christiansinthemedia.org/downloads/050825_DSteele_Rev_4-5.mp3 and see what you think about JWs, worship, evangelism and revelation.

Thanks Kathryn.

Are you coming on the mission to Bathurst? We are looking forward to meeting lots of Christians in the Media folk.

To address the actual topic at last, I found some good stuff by doing a google.

See for instance
The New World Translation and proskuneo .

[There’s one error on this page, btw. Us old geezers know that the original 1950 version of the NWT did have a reference to Jesus being worshipped, because it originally had in Hebrews 1, like almost every other translation

Let all the angels of God worship him

but I think this was an oversight by the esteemed translation committee.

Mind Heart Foundation: meaning of proskuneo
A few misleading statements about the aorist aktionsart, but mostly reliable.

Stand To Reason: Was Jesus Worshipped?
Greg Koukl makes good sense, but the fonts on the page are so small!

Hope this helps.

Unfortunately no I won’t be in Bathurst David - I loved being a part of Chrsitians in the Media while I lived in Sydney, but 2 years ago I transferred to Perth with work and so now I go to Western Suburbs Community Bible Church, which is by the way affiliated with you guys in Bathurst - come visit us at wscbc.org.au or even better come meet with us at 5pm on Sundays at the Mount Claremont Community Centre in Mt Claremont, Perth.  Our minister is Matt Greenwood (matt@wscbc.org.au) and we’d love to see anyone who’s visiting from the proper side of the country (I’m never going to get used to the sun setting over the ocean, it’s just wrong) when you come over here. 

End of advertisement.....

for some reason the hyperlink didn’t come up - www.wscbc.org.au - go on, have a look - there’s a really groovy green colour scheme, or say hi to Matt at matt@wscbc.org.au

Kathryn, we have supported Western Suburbs Community Bible Church and have watched one of your dvds, though we can’t get the most recent one to play in the computers we use at church.

I was able to watch it on my home computer, though.

One day I would like to visit Perth, as I have a cousin in City Beach and a friend at Bull Creek, but it isn’t likely to happen any time soon.

but with red edeals and virgin discounts you can get here and back for $600 or so return - so why not come on over and say g’day!

Proudly sponsored by the WA Tourist bureau?

No, proudly sponsored by www.wscbc.org.au !  Look, we’re even getting daylight saving in January - come on, fly on over and see how far into the 19th century we’ve moved recently!

Dear all, many thanks for your helpful links, etc…

I’ll have to look at them sometime next week.  I have a study on the Reformers’ views on predestination to prepare… :s

Kathryn, I’m at Unichurch Qld up in Brisbane, so we’re also associated with you guys in Perth and also Orange and Bathurst.  I’ll be heading down to the conference in Sydney later this year, but I don’t think my wife can make it.

:(

One more reference for you. Have just finished slogging through David Peterson’s Chapter in ‘Worship: Adoration and Action’, which has a fairly detailed study on both OT and NT usage of proskuneo.

Cheers,

Jon.