The deficiency of the English language: worship

"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."


The English translation, NIV, recorded this incident of Jesus meeting the Samaritian woman as such. Now take a look at the The Message version:

"Oh, so you're a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?"

"Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God's way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.

23-24"It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."


Unknown to many readers, the English language is unable to translate the original language beyond the word 'worship' which served to obscure the meaning of the original text. Effectively, every time the word 'worship' appears in the bible, it can mean different things. Take this passage from John 4 for example.

...you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Here, the meaning of worship is 'to literally bow down and to prostrate oneself, to pay homeage and to show respect'.

..."Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Here and so on, the word means to offer God sacrifice or praise or adoration. The sacrifice here means commitment by Christ followers to live godly lives.

So what we actually see is that in one passage, one word can have two distinct meanings. One is to associate more with fear and symbolise some sort of a 'power distance'. The other sort of talks about a more personal type of relations with God. This is the 'worship' that is being talked about in Romans 12.

So, time to think more about the various keywords, not in terms of English, but in its original meanings.

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