ancienthebreworg posted video:
The meaning of the Hebrew word shahhah, which is often translated as worship. … hebrew bible translations worship obeisance
| Category | : Education |
| Tags | : Ancient Hebrew , Hebrew Translations , Hebrew Word |
thank for your answer anienthebreworg concerning the word worship in ge 22:5
Thank you for the comments dunklaw, great additional information.
The Greek proskuneo corresponds closely to the Hebrew as to conveying the thought of both obeisance to creatures and God or a deity. The manner of expressing the obeisance is perhaps not so prominent in proskuneo. Scholars derive the Greek term from the verb kuneo, ‘kiss.’ The usage of the word in the Greek (as also in the Greek Septuagint) shows that persons to whose actions the term is applied prostrated themselves.—Mt 2:11; 18:26; 28:9.
So the modern interpretation is somewhat different.
“being translated as cursed in this verse”
Bad news for Barack Obama. LOL.
“we can still worship the way we are comfortable”
But if God wants us to worship(shahhah) Him, shouldnt we do just that. i.e. prostrate before Him?
No, the point is not that we must now prostrate ourselves, we can still worship the way we are comfortable, but recognize that the way the ancient worshiped/did obeisance is very different from the way we do.
The only explanation I have heard for barak (which is usually translated as “bless”) being translated as cursed in this verse is that it is an idiom, similar to when we say “that is bad” when we really mean “that is good.”
Yes, I think you are correct. The problem is that our modern culture has influenced how we interpret the ancient culture. Therefore, the translators convert the ancient culture to make it “user friendly” with the modern culture. This of course makes for “easy” reading, but erases the original cultural context of the text. We have a preconceived idea of what “worship” is based on our culture and we “expect” to find this same idea in the Bible. The translators accomodate and we are happy 🙂
I think you struck a cord with this one Jeff. I’m sure it won’t sit well for some. We can see how translators sometimes disregard or don’t understand the culture of the time, or worse… see an opportunity to support a doctrine. LOVE this video.
If Shahhah does not mean worship, as you state, then why do “ALL” the translations translate shahhah as worship in Genesis 22:5? My point is that there is no word or concept for what we consider worship in the Bible.
The Bible is very clear that we are to “only” serve YHWH (see 1Sam 22:12). However, when the Bible speaks of serving YHWH alone it is always in the context of “not” serving other gods. I stand corrected, the Bible does not forbid us to serve other people.
And another thing the video got wrong is that people are forbidden to serve other people (the word ‘eved’).
Eved means a slave or a servant, not a worshiper, and the Torah clearly does not forbid people from serving other people.
Why putting such a falsified and misleading video?
The verb “shahah” means to bow down, not worship, and is mentioned in many places in the Bible as an act of corutesy between people. To infer from this that people actually worshiped each other, to me it seems like nothing but infidelity.
Thanks. So now we all should do a full prostration when we worship God as Moses and even Jesus fell on their faces to worship God.
Maybe you could also do a video on why the word ‘barak’ is translated to curse instead of bless in Job 2:5.
Thank you. There are different Hebrew words for different kinds of bowing.
חסד – hhesed – bend the neck
כרע – kara – bend the waist
ברך – barakh – bend the knee
שחה – shahhah – full prostrate to the ground
Good video, but I think shahhah can either mean to bow or to prostrate. Shahhah itself is the act of bending the body. Thus one can shahhah in respect, in defeat, in humilation or in worship to God.
Thank you Wayman. It is a sad part of translations, accuracy is very frequently sacrificed for ease of reading. The Bible is an ancient Eastern text, as you well know and have demonstrated on numerous occasions, and can only be understood correctly by understanding Eastern philosophy.
Great explanation. Also below in the comments. This was interesting ( the part about the translation switch.) Nicely done! Down with user friendly texts. lOL
The word ונשובה is the verb שוב meaning “to turn back” or “return.” The word translated as “obeisance/worship” is the word just before that – ונשתחוה. This verb is in the hitpa’el (reflexive) form (which is why there is a tav and a vav inside the root) with the vav prefix meaning “and” and the prefix letter nun which identifies the subject of the verb as first person plural (we). This whole word would be translated as “and we will bend ourselves down.”
Thank you, that is very interesting. But also keep in mind that the Hebrew is a very concrete language where all words are related to something that can be sensed by the five senses. In contrast, in English, words are frequently abstracts (ie: respect, believe, etc), which is a concept that cannot be sensed by the five senses.
That word is the word translated as “come again” and is the word after shachah although they do look similar since they are the same verb form.
Your welcome littleamigos
in ge 22:5 the word is spelled ונשׁובה, why is this so different than shahhah or why do you say this word is shahhah?
Even in English, the word ‘worship’ (from the Old English ‘worthscripe’) originally simply meant ‘to show respect’ or ‘to believe something to have worth’.
Interesting indeed.
AWESOME Jeff!!! Thank so much for this video.