About “Worship” and Proskuneo

Q: Vine’s, Strong’s, and other lexicons include “worship” as a definition of προσκυνέω. Why do you think these lexicons are wrong?

TRW: Before I talk about the lexicons, I want to make clear that my central conclusions about the Christian assembly are not affected by my conclusions about the definition of προσκυνέω. Regardless of how you define προσκυνέω, it still remains a fact that the word is never used in the New Testament to describe the purpose of the Christian assembly or to describe any of the activities of a Christian assembly.

But let’s define προσκυνέω. I’m familiar with how the various lexicons define προσκυνέω. I have nine of them in my library, and I consulted them all when I spent months researching this issue for my dissertation.

And yes, I think they’re wrong about προσκυνέω. I know that’s a bold statement, but I think the evidence is overwhelming.

You can find my 35-page paper on this topic at my website. But here is a short version.

In order to determine the meaning of a Greek word used in the New Testament, you must study the context of how the word is used wherever it is found. As one of my doctoral Greek professors emphatically said, “Context determines meaning … and nothing else. It’s true in all languages.”

For my research on προσκυνέω, I studied the context of all 265 times when προσκυνέω is used in the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint) and the Greek New Testament. You’re welcome to do the same study.

I found that the lexicons—and the English translations of the Bible—decided that, when προσκυνέω is performed before a person, the word should be translated as “prostrate” or “bow down.” But they (wrongly) decided that when προσκυνέω is performed before deity, the word should be translated as “worship.”

Why were they wrong? Because it’s obvious that, in both contexts—when προσκυνέω is done before people and when προσκυνέω is done before deity—the person is performing prostration.

Why is it obvious? Because the same “prostration indicators” are found in both contexts: προσκυνέω before people and προσκυνέω before deity. Within the context of dozens of these verses, προσκυνέω is found with these “prostration indicators,” such as “fall down” and προσκυνέω, “kneeling” and προσκυνέω, performing προσκυνέω “on the ground,” performing προσκυνέω “on the face,” or performing προσκυνέω “at the feet” of the one being honored.

In other words, in the Bible, we find people falling down on their face or on the ground to perform προσκυνέω before people, and they are doing the same thing when performing προσκυνέω before deity.

So, when translators translate προσκυνέω with “worship” or when lexicons define προσκυνέω as “worship,” they are not translating the term, they are interpreting the action of prostration. They should rather simply translate the term as “prostration” and let the readers then do their own interpretation of what the prostrator may have meant by the gesture of prostration.

There is much more to this issue, which you can read in my 35-page paper on this topic.