In this era of the debates over transgenderism and same-sex marriage, I am reminded of how those who are antagonistic toward Christianity have made some interesting comments about how Christians should keep their religious practices of worship amongst themselves.
To gain a sense of the word use and context at the time, we should look at how it was used outside of the church as well as inside. Worship is not some unique 'Christian' or 'religious' word, although it has morphed into that meaning in our modern world. It was a word that simply meant ot give rightful honour to someone who has a posiiton or quality of being worthy of honour and respect.
What emerges is that society is making a distinction between worship and daily life.
But is this a problem the secular world has come up with? Maybe not. Maybe society has just followed what the church has been doing for decades.
Words matter. They have meaning and they have application and consequences. And the church has been making a distinction between worship and daily life practice/belief without thinking about either biblical truth or community consequences. We have possibly been using contempory church jargon over biblically faithful terminology and truth.
What do I mean?
'Worship' is one of the most common words in modern Christianity. Yet I'm not sure we are using it rightly or really know what it means.
The world sees it primarily as a religious term, and these days the church uses it primarily in the context of a Sunday gathering or even more narrowly in relation to the music and singing part of the Sunday gathering.
Culturally in the West, the primary context in which we think of worship is religious, such as is revealed in the first definition given in the Oxford Dictionary:
The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.
It was encouraging to find reference in the Cambridge Dictionary also of the word usage in the category of worship in non-religious contexts giving the following examples:
"As a child I worshipped my older brother""We are in an era of fitness and health worship"
The English Word
The Old English word 'worship' originates from usage around the 11th or 12 Century in the form of 'woerdscipe'. You may have heard someone say 'worship means worth-ship' and this truly is where the word comes from.
Old English worðscip, wurðscip (Anglian), weorðscipe (West Saxon) "condition of being worthy, dignity, glory, distinction, honor, renown," from weorð"worthy" (see worth) + -scipe (see -ship). Sense of "reverence paid to a supernatural or divine being" is first recorded c. 1300. The original sense is preserved in the title worshipful "honorable" (c. 1300). worship (v.) c. 1200, from worship (n.).
In times past the term 'Your Worship' was used to address a judge, and in some places in the UK the term is still used for magistrates. 'The Right Worshipful' is also still used for adressing the Mayor of the town or city in places in India, UK and Australia.
In Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," the lovestruck knight Arcita is banished from the dukedom of Theseus, but he sneaks back in and disguises himself as a servant in the household of Emily, the woman he longs to be with. Arcita gains such a reputation throughout the dukedom as a noble person that Theseus' advisors recommend promoting him from servant to squire. In Chaucer's fourteenth-century words, the advisors tell Theseus to "put him in worshipful service.""Worshipful service" is Middle English for something like "noble employment" or "honorable work"--a job fit for someone of good social standing and virtue. This archaic meaning of "worshipful" reminds us that in Middle English, "worship" could still mean "dignity," "honor," or "reputation." These meanings were related to the root of the word "worship," which is still partially visible today--it was the Old English "weorth," meaning "worth." In its earliest days, "weorthscipe" was literally "worthness," the appropriate treatment of something or someone of worth. The meaning of "dignity" for "worship" lasted at least until Shakespeare's time, when "your worship" could be used as a polite term of address, like "your majesty," as in this line from The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Will't please your worship to come in, sir?"
In Scripture
Our English word 'worship' is the word that was chosen by the translators for the Hebrew and Greek words (hishtachavah, and proskuneo respectively) which literally mean 'to bow down'.
In the Old Testament the word is not only used of bowing before God (YHWH) but also of people, simply as a sign of honour and respect. The outward act of bowing in honour is meant to express the inward attitude of bowing in honour.
- In fact the first use of the word in Scripture is when Abraham 'bowed down' to the three men(angels) who came to visit him. (Genesis 18:2)
- Abraham bowed down before the people of the land in Genesis 23.
- Jacob and his family 'bowed down' in respect to Esau in Genesis 33.
- In the story of Joseph, when he tells his dream to his brothers about how their sheaves of wheat would bow down to his, this same word is used, and again when the brothers actually 'bowed themselves down' in Genesis 42, 43.
- The same word is used again when Abigail bowed before King David (1 Samuel 25), and Ruth bowed before Boaz (Ruth 2:10).
We could say that instead of taking a literal translation route, a dynamic route was taken by the translators - meaning for meaning at the time, rather than word for word. Unfortunately because our English word has changed in meaning over time we tend to apply our current English usage understanding of the word 'worship' onto the biblical words, because our English bibles naturally have the English word in them!!
The Hebrew word "hishtachavah" means to bend down, fall down, bow, give honour, kneel, worship. The word comes from "shachah", which means to bow, bend, be humble, and as Strongs (7812) comment on "Shachah" says: "shâchâh, shaw-khaw', A primitive root; to depress, that is, prostrate (especially reflexively in homage to royalty or God): - bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship."
While we might assume all kinds of meanings of our word 'worship', in the Old Testament the Hebrew word simply meant to:
"express respect before elders and family members…and persons who are being honored"
Of course there were times when due to the context of the 'bowing', a follower of God refused to bow to another man, such as Daniel's friends who refused to bow in the context of everyone bowing to the golden statue of the image of Nebuchadnezzar who demanded he be honoured as a 'god'. That wasn't about showing respect for another human being in the earthly leadership role, but a man who was elevating himself to a position solely reserved for YHWH demanding others bow to him as one who wanted to hold a position of supreme diety and authority in the lives of human beings. It would have been a false honouring that displeased YHWH and the word translated worship here is the Aramaic/Chaldee 'segid' (equivelent to sagad in Hebrew, which is only used a few times in the OT and each time refers to false honour/bowing/worship).
And thus even in the Old Testament when the Messiah is prophesied about it is also mentioned that all kings will 'bow down' before Him and all nations serve Him.(Psalm 72:11) And of course ultimately it can be assumed that the one who deserves the most honour - God Himself - will have people bow before Him as the Lord and King (1 Chronicles 29:20)
the Hebrew word "hishtachavah" is not an expression of the acknowledgment of a deity, a divinity, or a divine nature, but that it is outward evidence of an inner acknowledgement of persons in authority and dignitaries, either the Eternal himself, or his messengers, his delegated human agents or other persons of honor.
Again in the New Testament, the Greek word "proskuneo" is not only used of worship of God/Christ, but also of bowing down to other people, such as in Matthew 18:26 when the servant 'knelt' (proskuneo) before the man he was indebted to and asked for patience promising he would repay all!
So the word is more than only a religious term referring to attitude toward a diety.
It is more an 'honour' term than a uniquely religious term.
So how should we replace what is mis-placed? Keep reading in Part 2 of this blog…...
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