The NWT translation of Matt. 28:9 is "And look! Jesus met them and said: “Good day!” They approached and took hold of his feet and did obeisance to him."
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Worship/Obeisance
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 extremely 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.
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."
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 adds this footnote: "The Greek word [
proskuneo] denotes an act of reverence whether paid to a creature, or the Creator."
[1]
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. 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").
