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The Jehovah's
Witnesses teach that Jesus is a created thing and is not worthy of
worship. Christians counter that Jesus is worshipped in the New
Testament and cite verses such as Matt. 2:2,11; 14:33; 28:9; John
9:35-38;and Heb. 1:6. The Witnesses acknowledge that at times people
bowed down before Jesus the same way they would to God the Father, but
they deny that Jesus was worshiped. In fact, in the New World
Translation produce by the Jehovah's Witness, the Greek word for
worship "proskuneo" is always translated as "obeisance" whenever it
refers to Christ, but is translated as worship whenever it refers to
the Father. The witnesses select which way to translate the word "proskuneo"
depending on two things: Who is being addressed and what their
theology tells them. So, the debate continues. The Witnesses deny
Jesus' deity and the Christians rightfully proclaim it. Jesus is the
second person of the Trinity.
In an attempt to prove their position, Jehovah's Witnesses sometimes
quote 1 Chron. 29:20 which says in the King James, "And David said to
all the congregation, now bless the LORD your God. And all the
congregation blessed the LORD God of their fathers, and bowed down
their heads, and worshipped the LORD, and the king," (KJV). By quoting
the King James, the Jehovah's Witnesses is trying to establish that
since king David was worshipped along with God, it means that David
was worshipped to a lesser degree than God. Therefore, they say it
follows that Jesus can also be worshiped to a lesser degree than God
in the same way that King David was and it would not require that
Jesus be divine.
First of all, 1 Chron. 29:20 obviously cannot mean that David was
worshiped equally with God. This would be blasphemy. Therefore, it is
best to translate the word Hebrew word "shachah" as "pay homage," or
"bow down" as is attested to by other translations.
"Then David said to all the assembly, "Now bless the Lord your God."
And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and
bowed low and did homage to the Lord and to the king," (NASB).
"Then David said to the whole assembly, "Praise the LORD your God." So
they all praised the LORD, the God of their fathers; they bowed low
and fell prostrate before the LORD and the king," (NIV).
"Then David said to all the assembly, "Now bless the Lord your God."
So all the assembly blessed the Lord God of their fathers, and bowed
their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord and the king," (NKJV).
"Then David said to all the assembly, "Bless the Lord your God." And
all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and bowed
their heads and paid homage to the Lord and to the king," (ESV).
Is it legitimate to translate the verse this way? Yes it is because it
is consistent with Hebrew dictionaries which tell us that the word "shachah"
can mean worship, bow down, obeisance, reverence, fall down, crouch,
prostrate oneself, (Enhanced Strong's Lexicon, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc., 1995.) See the same thing stated in The
Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old
Testament, Richard Whitaker, Editor, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research
Systems, Inc., 1997). This would easily demonstrate that David was not
being worshiped. Instead, homage was being paid to him as was also
being paid to God -- though, of course, there is no confusion about
who is God and who is not. But, if that weren't enough, the Jehovah's
Witnesses' own New World translation translates the Hebrew word "shachah"
in 1 Chron. 29:20 as "prostrate."
"And David went on to say to all the congregation: "Bless, now,
Jehovah YOUR God." And all the congregation proceeded to bless Jehovah
the God of their forefathers and bow low and prostrate themselves to
Jehovah and to the king," (NWT).
Therefore, The Jehovah's Witness own bible recognizes that King David,
though greatly revered by the people, was not worshipped. Instead,
both God and David were revered by the people by prostration, not
worship.
But, let's assume the Jehovah's Witness argument for a moment. Even if
we were to say that Jesus could be with honored the same way that
David was honored, in a lesser sense than God, this does not mean that
Jesus is not God. Remember, Jesus is both God and man. As a man people
would bow down to Him. As God, He was worshipped. In addition, it is
said of Jesus that He knew all things (John 21:17), that He would be
with the disciples wherever they went (Matt. 28:20), etc. He is called
God by Thomas in John 20:28 and by the Father in Heb. 1:8. The
divinity of Christ is well attested to in the New Testament and only
the Jehovah's Witnesses with their preconceived idea that Jesus is not
divine, will twist the scriptures to suit their own needs.
The Bible says, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with
God and the word was God...and the word became flesh and dwelt among
us," (John 1:1,14). Clearly, Jesus is the word made flesh and as it
says in Col. 2:9, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in
Jesus. Jesus is not a created thing, but the creator of all things
(Col. 1:16-17), just as God alone is the creator of all (Isaiah
44:24). He is both God and man. This is called the Hypostatic Union.
The Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong and their continued attempt to
dethrone Christ will continue to fail as the truth of God's word is
revealed.
Provided By:
CHRISTIAN
APOLOGETICS AND RESEARCH MINISTRY
© Matthew J. Slick, 2002 |