If Jesus is not God, why was He worshiped even as an infant? He is worshiped very often in the NT, but he never says "Stop worshiping me, I am not God". The Greek word clearly refers to worship. The word proskyneo also once refers to Peter, who was worshipped and then immediately said "Stop, I'm only a man too!"
Acts of the Apostles 10:25-26
When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter helped him up, saying, “Stand up; I, too, am just a man.”
The word also once refers to an angel who then immediately said, "Stop worshiping me, worship only God!"
Revelation 22:8-9
I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel. And he said to me, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours. Worship God!”
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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, regardless of his nature (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.”
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. So, in spite of their both sharing the same fleshly human nature, one gave the other
proskuneo or
shachah!
We see the same thing at 1 Kings 1:16, 31 when Bathsheba gives
shachah to her husband and king, David. Not only does the Septuagint use
proskuneo for these verses (3 Kings 1:16, 31 in Sept.), but at verses 21 and 31 she calls David, “The Lord of me” (“My Lord”).
Angels, when acting as representatives of Jehovah and speaking his words, could properly receive
proskuneo as representatives for a superior authority.
Gen. 18:2 uses
shachah to describe what Abraham did to the angels (p. 37,
New Bible Dictionary, second ed., 1982, Tyndale House Publ.) who came to him, and what Lot did to two of those same angels (
shachah) is described at Gen. 19:1 (Also see Unger and White, pp. 7 and 482.)
Proskuneo is also used in these two scriptures in the Septuagint. Also see Numbers 22:31: Balaam “worshiped” (
proskuneo - Sept. and
shachah [”fell flat” - KJV] - Hebrew OT) the ANGEL and the angel accepted it! (Unlike Rev. 19:10 and 22:8, 9.)
“The angel of the Lord [angel of Jehovah/Yahweh], sometimes ‘the angel of God’ or ‘my (or ‘his’) angel,’ is represented in Scripture as a heavenly being sent by God to deal with men as his personal spokesman. In many passages he is virtually identified with God and speaks not merely in the name of God but as God in the first person singular.” -
New Bible Dictionary, p. 38.
