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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

WO


WOLF

woolf ((1) ze'ebh (Gen 49:27; 11:6; 65:25; Jer 5:6; Ezek 22:27; Hab 1:8; Zeph 3:3; also as proper name, Zeeb, prince of Midian, Jdg 7:25; 8:3; Ps 83:11); compare Arabic dhi'b, colloquial dhib, or dib; (2) lukos (Mt 7:15; 10:16; Lk 10:3; Jn 10:12; Acts 20:29; Ecclesiasticus 13:17; compare 2 Esdras 5:18, lupus); (3) 'iyim, the Revised Version (British and American) "wolves" (Isa 13:22; 34:14; Jer 50:39)):

While the wolf is surpassed in size by some dogs, it is the fiercest member of the dog family (Canidae), which includes among others the jackal and the fox. Dogs, wolves and jackals are closely allied and will breed together. There is no doubt that the first dogs were domesticated wolves. While there are local varieties which some consider to be distinct species, it is allowable to regard all the wolves of both North America, Europe, and Northern Asia (except the American coyote) as members of one species, Canis lupus. The wolf of Syria and Palestine is large, light colored, and does not seem to hunt in packs. Like other wolves it is nocturnal. In Palestine it is the special enemy of the sheep and goats. This fact comes out in two of the seven passages cited from the Old Testament, in all from the New Testament, and in the two from Apocrypha. In Gen 49:27 Benjamin is likened to a ravening wolf. In Ezek 22:27, and in the similar Zeph 3:3, the eiders of Jerusalem are compared to wolves. In Jer 5:6 it is a wolf that shall destroy the people of Jerusalem, and in Hab 1:8 the horses of the Chaldeans "are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves." Babylon and Edom (Isa 13:22; 34:14; Jer 50:39) are to be the haunts of 'iyim (the Revised Version (British and American) "wolves") and other wild creatures.

The name of Zeeb, prince of Midian (Jdg 7:25; 8:3), has its parallel in the Arabic, Dib or Dhib, which is a common name today. Such animal names are frequently given to ward off the evil eye.

See also TOTEMISM .

Alfred Ely Day


WOMAN

woom'-an ('ishshah, "a woman" (feminine of 'ish, "a man"]; gune, "a woman" "wife"):

I. IN THE CREATIVE PLAN

II. IN OLD TESTAMENT TIMES

1. Prominence of Women

2. Social Equality

3. Marriage Laws

4. Inheritance

5. Domestic Duties

6. Dress and Ornaments

7. Religious Devotion and Service

(1) in Idolatry and False Religion

(2) in Spiritual Religion

III. INTER-TESTAMENTAL ERA

IV. IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES

1. Mary and Elisabeth

2. Jesus and Women

3. In the Early Church

4. Official Service

5. Widows

6. Deaconesses

IV. LATER TIMES

1. Changes in Character and Condition

2. Notable Examples of Christian Womanhood

3. Woman in the 20th Century

The generic term "man" includes woman. In the narrative of the creation (Gen 1:26,27) Adam is a collective term for mankind. It may signify human being, male or female, or humanity entire. "God said, Let us make man .... and let them" (Gen 1:26), the latter word "them" defining "man" in the former clause. So in Gen 1:27, "in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them," "them" being synonymous with "him."

See also ADAM ;ANTHROPOLOGY .

I. In the Creative Plan.

Whatever interpretation the latest scholarship may give to the story of woman's formation from the rib of man (Gen 2:21-24), the passage indicates, most profoundly, the inseparable unity and fellowship of her life with his. Far more than being a mere assistant, "helper" (`ezer "help" "helper" Gen 2:18), she is man's complement, essential to the perfection of his being. Without her he is not man in the generic fullness of that term. Priority of creation may indicate headship, but not, as theologians have so uniformly affirmed, superiority. Dependence indicates difference of function, not inferiority. Human values are estimated in terms of the mental and spiritual. Man and woman are endowed for equality, and are mutually interdependent. Physical strength and prowess cannot be rated in the same category with moral courage and the capacity to endure ill-treatment, sorrow and pain; and in these latter qualities woman has always proved herself the superior. Man's historic treatment of woman, due to his conceit, ignorance or moral perversion, has taken her inferiority for granted, and has thus necessitated it by her enslavement and degradation. The narrative of the Fall (Gen 3) ascribes to woman supremacy of influence, for through her stronger personality man was led to disobedience of God's command. Her penalty for such ill-fated leadership was that her husband should "rule over" her (Gen 3:16), not because of any inherent superiority on his part, but because of her loss of prestige and power through sin. In that act she forfeited the respect and confidence which entitled her to equality of influence in family affairs. Her recovery from the curse of subjection was to come through the afflictive suffering of maternity, for, as Paul puts it, "she shall be saved (from the penalty of her transgression) through her child-bearing" (1 Tim 2:15).

Sin, both in man and woman, has been universally the cause of woman's degradation. All history must be interpreted in the light of man's consequent mistaken estimate of her endowments, worth and rightful place. The ancient Hebrews never entirely lost the light of their original revelation, and, more than any other oriental race, held woman in high esteem, honor and affection. Christianity completed the work of her restoration to equality of opportunity and place. Wherever its teachings and spirit prevail, she is made the loved companion, confidante and adviser of her husband.

II. In Old Testament Times.

1. Prominence of Women:

Under the Hebrew system the position of woman was in marked contrast with her status in surrounding heathen nations. Her liberties were greater, her employments more varied and important, her social standing more respectful and commanding. The divine law given on Sinai (Ex 20:12) required children to honor the mother equally with the father. A similar esteem was accorded her in patriarchal times. Sarah held a position of favor and authority in Abraham's household. Rebekah was not less influential than Isaac, and was evidently the stronger personality. The "beautiful" Rachel (Gen 29:17) won from Jacob a love that accepted her as an equal in the companionship and counsels of family life. Many Hebrew women rose to eminence and national leadership. Miriam and Deborah were each a prophetess and a poetess. The former led bands of women in triumphant song and procession, celebrating the overthrow of enemies (Ex 15:20); the latter, through her dominating personality and prophetic power, became the virtual judge of the nation and led armies to victory. Her military general, Barak, refused to advance against Sisera without her presence and commanding influence (Jdg 4:8). Her ode of victory indicates the intellectual endowment and culture of her sex in that unsettled and formative era (Jdg 5). No person in Israel surpassed Hannah, the mother of Samuel, in intelligence, beauty and fervor of religious devotion. Her spiritual exaltation and poetic gift found expression in one of the choicest specimens of early Hebrew lyric poetry (1 Sam 2:1-10). Other women eminent as prophetesses were: Huldah, whose counsel was sought by high priest and king (2 Ch 34:22; compare 2 Ki 22:14); Noadiah (Neh 6:14); Anna (Lk 2:36). The power to which woman could attain in Israel is illustrated in the career of the wicked, merciless, murderous, idolatrous Jezebel, self-styled prophetess (Rev 2:20). Evidence of woman's eminence in the kingdoms of Judah and Israel is seen in the influence she exercised as queen mother (1 Ki 15:13) and queen (2 Ki 8:18); in the beautiful honor shown by King Solomon to his mother, Bath-sheba (1 Ki 2:19); in the filial devotion of the prophet Elisha (1 Ki 19:20); in the constant mention of the mother's name in the biographies of successive kings, making it evident that she was considered the important and determining factor in the life of her royal sons. Her teaching and authority were sufficiently eminent to find recognition in the proverbs of the nation: "the law of thy mother" (Prov 1:8; 6:20) was not to be forsaken, while contempt for the same merited the curse of God (Prov 19:26; 20:20; 30:11,17).

2. Social Equality:

Additional evidence of woman's social equality comes from the fact that men and women feasted together without restriction. Women shared in the sacred meals and great annual feasts (Dt 16:11,14); in wedding festivities (Jn 2:1-3); in the fellowship of the family meal (Jn 12:3). They could appear, as Sarah did in the court of Egypt, unveiled (Gen 12:11,14). Rebekah (Gen 24:16; compare 24:65), Rachel (Gen 29:11), Hannah (1 Sam 1:13) appeared in public and before suitors with uncovered faces. The secluding veil was introduced into Mohammedan and other oriental lands through the influence of the Koran. The custom was non-Jewish in origin, and the monuments make. It evident that it did not prevail, in early times, in Assyria and Egypt. Even Greece and Rome, at the time of their supreme culture, fell-far below the Hebrew conception of woman's preeminent worth. The greatest hellenic philosophers declared that it would radically disorganize the state for wives to claim equality with their husbands. Aristotle considered women inferior beings, intermediate between freemen and slaves. Socrates and Demosthenes held them in like depreciation. Plato advocated community of wives. Substantially the same views prevailed in Rome. Distinguished men, like Metullus and Care, advocated marriage only as a public duty. More honor was shown the courtesan than the wife. Chastity and modesty, the choice inheritance of Hebrew womanhood, were foreign to the Greek conception of morality, and disappeared from Rome when Greek culture and frivolity entered. The Greeks made the shameless Phryne the model of the goddess Aphrodite, and lifted their hands to public prostitutes when they prayed in their temples. Under pagan culture and heathen darkness woman was universally subject to inferior and degrading conditions. Every decline in her status in the Hebrew commonwealth was due to the incursion of foreign influence. The lapses of Hebrew morality, especially in the court of Solomon and of subsequent kings, occurred through the borrowing of idolatrous and heathen customs from surrounding nations (1 Ki 11:1-8).

3. Marriage Laws:

The Bible gives no sanction to dual or plural marriages. The narrative in Gen 2:18-24 indicates that monogamy was the divine ideal for man. The moral decline of the generations antedating the Flood seems to have been due, chiefly; to the growing disregard of the sanctity of marriage. Lamech's taking of two wives (Gen 4:19) is the first recorded infraction of the divine ideal. By Noah's time polygamy had degenerated into promiscuous inter-racial marriages of the most incestuous and illicit kind (Gen 6:1-4; see SONS OF GOD ). The subsequent record ascribes marital infidelity and corruption to sin, and affirms that the destruction of the race by the Flood and the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah were God's specific judgment on man's immorality. The dual marriages of the Patriarchs were due, chiefly, to the desire for children, and are not to be traced to divine consent or approval. The laws of Moses regarding chastity protected the sanctity of marriage (see MARRIAGE ), and indicated a higher regard for woman than prevailed in Gentile or other Semitic races (Lev 18:6-20). They sought to safeguard her from the sensual abominations prevalent among the Egyptians and Canaanites (Lev 18). Kings were forbidden to "multiply wives" (Dt 17:17). Concubinage in Israel was an importation from heathenism.

Divorce was originally intended to protect the sanctity of wedlock by outlawing the offender and his moral offense. Its free extension to include any marital infelicity met the stern rebuke of Jesus, who declared that at the best it was a concession to human infirmity and hardness of heart, and should be granted only in case of adultery (Mt 5:32).

See DIVORCE .

Hebrew women were granted a freedom in choosing a husband not known elsewhere in the East (Gen 24:58). Jewish tradition declares that a girl over 12 1/2 years of age had the right to give herself in marriage. Vows made by a daughter, while under age, could be annulled by the father (Nu 30:3-5) or by the husband (Nu 30:6-16). Whenever civil law made a concession to the customs of surrounding nations, as in granting the father power to sell a daughter into bondage, it sought to surround her with all possible protection (Dt 22:16 ff).

4. Inheritance:

The Mosaic Law prescribed that the father's estate, in case there were no sons, should pass to the daughters (Nu 27:1-8). They were not permitted, however, to alienate the family inheritance by marrying outside their own tribe (Nu 36:6-9). Such alien marriages were permissible only when the husband took the wife's family name (Neh 7:63). Unmarried daughters, not provided for in the father's will, were to be cared for by the eldest son (Gen 31:14,15). The bride's dowry, at marriage, was intended as a substitute for her share in the family estate. In rabbinical law, a century or more before Christ, it took the form of a settlement upon the wife and was considered obligatory. Provision for woman under the ancient Mosaic Law was not inferior to her status under English law regarding landed estates.

5. Domestic Duties:

Among the Hebrews, woman administered the affairs of the home with a liberty and leadership unknown to other oriental peoples. Her domestic duties were more independent, varied and honorable. She was not the slave or menial of her husband. Her outdoor occupations were congenial, healthful, extensive. She often tended the flocks (Gen 29:6; Ex 2:16); spun the wool, and made the clothing of the family (Ex 35:26; Prov 31:19; 1 Sam 2:19); contributed by her weaving and needlework to its income and support (Prov 31:14,24), and to charity (Acts 9:39). Women ground the grain (Mt 24:41); prepared the meals (Gen 18:6; 2 Sam 13:8; Jn 12:2); invited and received guests (Jdg 4:18; 1 Sam 25:18 ff; 2 Ki 4:8-10); drew water for household use (1 Sam 9:11; Jn 4:7), for guests and even for their camels (Gen 24:15-20). Hebrew women enjoyed a freedom that corresponds favorably with the larger liberties granted them in the Christian era.

6. Dress and Ornaments:

That women were fond of decorations and display in ancient as in modern times is clear from the reproof administered by the prophet for their haughtiness and excessive ornamentation (Isa 3:16). He bids them "remove (the) veil, strip off the train," that they may be better able to "grind meal" and attend to the other womanly duties of the home (Isa 47:2). These prophetic reproofs do not necessarily indicate general conditions, but exceptional tendencies to extravagance and excess. The ordinary dress of women was modest and simple, consisting of loose flowing robes, similar to those worn by men, and still in vogue among Orientals, chiefly the mantle, shawl and veil (Ruth 3:15; Isa 3:22,23). The veil, however, was not worn for seclusion, as among the Moslems. The extensive wardrobe and jewelry of Hebrew women is suggested by the catalogue given in Isa 3:18-24: anklets, cauls, crescents, pendants, bracelets, mufflers, headtires, ankle chains, sashes, perfume-boxes, amulets, rings, nose-jewels, festival robes, mantles, shawls, satchels, hand-mirrors, fine linen, turbans, veils. The elaborateness of this ornamentation throws light on the apostle Peter's counsel to Christian women not to make their adornment external, e.g. the braiding of the hair, the wearing of jewels of gold, the putting on of showy apparel, but rather the apparel of a meek and quiet spirit (1 Pet 3:3,4).

7. Religious Devotion and Service:

The reflections cast upon woman for her leadership in the first transgression (Gen 3:6,13,16; 2 Cor 11:3; 1 Tim 2:14) do not indicate her rightful and subsequent place in the religious life of mankind. As wife, mother, sister, she has been preeminently devout and spiritual. history records, however, sad and striking exceptions to this rule.

(1) In Idolatry and False Religion

Often woman's religious intensity found expression in idolatry and the gross cults of heathenism. That she everywhere participated freely in the religious rites and customs of her people is evident from the fact that women were often priestesses, and were often deified. The other Semitic religions had female deities corresponding to the goddesses of Greece and Rome. In the cult of Ishtar of Babylon, women were connected with the immoral rites of temple-worship. The women of heathen nations in the harem of Solomon (1 Ki 11:1) turned the heart of the wise king to unaccountable folly in the worship of the Sidonian goddess Ashtoreth, and of Chemosh and Molech, in turn the "abomination" of Moab and Ammon (1 Ki 11:5-8). The fatal speller Maacah morally blighted the reigns of her husband, son and grandson, until Asa the latter deposed her as queen and destroyed the obscene image of Asherah which she had set up (1 Ki 15:13). As "queen mother" (gebhirah, "leader") she was equivalent to the Turkish Sultana Valide.

Baal-worship was introduced into Israel by Jezebel (1 Ki 16:31,32; 18:19; 2 Ki 9:22), and into Judah by her daughter Athaliah (2 Ch 22:3; 24:7). The prominence of women in idolatry and in the abominations of foreign religions is indicated in the writings of the prophets (Jer 7:18; Ezek 8:14). Their malign influence appeared in the sorceress and witch, condemned to death by the Mosaic Law (Ex 22:18); yet continuing through the nation's entire history. Even kings consulted them (1 Sam 28:7-14). The decline and overthrow of Judah and Israel must be attributed, in large measure, to the deleterious effect of wicked, worldly, idolatrous women upon their religious life.

(2) In Spiritual Religion

The bright side of Hebrew history is an inspiring contrast to this dark picture. Prior to the Christian era no more luminous names adorn the pages of history than those of the devout and eminent Hebrew women. Jochebed, the mother of Moses, left upon him a religious impress so vital and enduring as to safeguard him through youth and early manhood from the fascinating corruptions of Pharaoh's Egyptian court (Ex 2:1-10; Heb 11:23-26). In Ruth, the converted Moabitess, the royal ancestress of David and of Jesus, we have an unrivaled example of filial piety, moral beauty and self-sacrificing religious devotion (Ruth 1:15-18). The prayers and piety of Hannah, taking effect in the spiritual power of her son Samuel, penetrated, purified and vitalized the religious life of the entire nation. Literature contains no finer tribute to the domestic virtues and spiritual qualities of woman than in the beautiful poem dedicated to his gifted mother by King Lemuel (Prov 31).

Women, as well as men, took upon themselves the self-renouncing vow of the Nazirite (Nu 6:2), and shared in offering sacrifices, as in the vow and sacrifice of Manoah's wife (Jdg 13:13,14); were granted theophanies, e.g. Hagar (Gen 16:7; 21:17), Sarah (Gen 18:9,10), Manoah's wife (Jdg 13:3-5,9); were even permitted to "minister" at the door of the sanctuary (Ex 38:8; 1 Sam 2:22); rendered conspicuous service in national religious songs and dances (Ex 15:20; Jdg 11:34; 1 Sam 18:6,7); in the great choirs and choruses and processionals of the Temple (Ps 68:25; Ezr 2:65; Neh 7:67); in religious mourning (Jer 9:17-20; Mk 5:38). They shared equally with men in the great religious feasts, as is indicated by the law requiring their attendance (Dt 12:18).

III. Inter-Testamental Era.

The women portrayed in the apocryphal literature of the Jews reveal all the varied characteristics of their sex so conspicuous in Old Testament history: devout piety, ardent patriotism, poetic fervor, political intrigue, worldly ambition, and sometimes a strange combination of these contradictory moral qualities. Whether fictitious, or rounded on fact, or historical, these portrayals are true to the feminine life of that era.

Anna is a beautiful example of wifely devotion. By her faith and hard toil she supported her husband, Tobit, after the loss of his property and in his blindness, until sight and prosperity were both restored (Tobit 1:9; 2:1-14).

Edna, wife of Raguel of Ecbatana and mother of Sarah, made her maternal love and piety conspicuous in the blessing bestowed on Tobias on the occasion of his marriage to her daughter, who had hitherto been cursed on the night of wedlock by the death of seven successive husbands (Tobit 7; 10:12).

Sarah, innocent of their death, which had been compassed by the evil spirit Asmodeus, at last had the reward of her faith in the joys of a happy marriage (Tobit 10:10; 14:13).

Judith, a rich young widow, celebrated in Hebrew lore as the savior of her nation, was devoutly and ardently patriotic. When Nebuchadnezzar sent his general Holofernes with an army of 132,000 men to subjugate the Jews, she felt called of God to be their deliverer. Visiting holofernes, she so captivated him with her beauty and gifts that he made a banquet in her honor. While he was excessively drunk with the wine of his own bounty, she beheaded him in his tent. The Assyrians, paralyzed by the loss of their leader, easily fell a prey to the armies of Israel. Judith celebrates her triumph in a song, akin in its triumphant joy, patriotic fervor and religious zeal, to the ancient songs of Miriam and Deborah (Judith 16:1-17).

Susanna typifies the ideal of womanly virtue. The daughter of righteous parents, well instructed in the sacred Law, the wife of a rich and honorable man, Joachim by name, she was richly blessed in position and person. Exceptionally modest, devout and withal very beautiful, she attracted the notice of two elders, who were also judges, and who took occasion frequently to visit Joachim's house. She spurned their advances and when falsely charged by them with the sin which she so successfully resisted, she escapes the judgment brought against her, by the subtle skill of Daniel. As a result, his fame and her innocence became widely known.

See SUSANNA ,THE HISTORY OF .

Cleopatra, full of inherited intrigue, is influential in the counsels of kings. She married successively for political power; murdered her eldest son Seleucus, by Demetrius, and at last dies by the poison which she intended for her younger son, Antiochus VIII. Her fatal influence is a striking example of the perverted use of woman's power (1 Macc 10:58; Josephus, Ant, XIII, iv, 1; ix, 3).

IV. In New Testament Times.

1. Mary and Elisabeth:

A new era dawned for woman with the advent of Christianity. The honor conferred upon Mary, as mother of Jesus, lifted her from her "low estate," made after generations call her blessed (Lk 1:48), and carried its benediction to the women of all subsequent times. Luke's narrative of the tivity (Lk 1; 2) has thrown about motherhood the halo of a new sanctity, given mankind a more exalted conception of woman's character and mission, and made the world's literature the vehicle of the same lofty reverence and regard. The two dispensations were brought together in the persons of Elisabeth and Mary: the former the mother of John the Baptist, the last of the old order of prophets; the latter the mother of the long-expected Messiah. Both are illustrious examples of Spirit-guided and Spirit-filled womanhood. The story of Mary's intellectual gifts, spiritual exaltation, purity and beauty of character, and her training of her divine child, has been an inestimable contribution to woman's world-wide emancipation, and to the uplift and ennoblement of family life. To her poetic inspiration, spiritual fervor and exalted thankfulness as expectant mother of the Messiah, the church universal is indebted for its earliest and most majestic hymn, the Magnificat. In her the religious teachings, prophetic hopes, and noblest ideals of her race were epitomized. Jesus' reverence for woman and the new respect for her begotten by his teaching were well grounded, on their human side, in the qualities of his own mother. The fact that he himself was born of woman has been cited to her praise in the ecumenical creeds of Christendom.

2. Jesus and Women:

From the first, women were responsive to his teachings and devoted to his person. The sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, made their home at Bethany, his dearest earthly refuge and resting-place. Women of all ranks in society found in him a benefactor and friend, before unknown in all the history of their sex. They accompanied him, with the Twelve, in his preaching tours from city to city, some, like Mary Magdalene, grateful because healed of their moral infirmities (Lk 8:2); others, like Joanna the wife of Chuzas, and Susanna, to minister to his needs (Lk 8:3). Even those who were ostracized by society were recognized by him, on the basis of immortal values, and restored to a womanhood of virtue and Christian devotion (Lk 7:37-50). Mothers had occasion to rejoice in his blessing their children (Mk 10:13-16); and in his raising their dead (Lk 7:12-15). Women followed him on his last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem; ministered to Him on the way to Calvary (Mt 27:55,56); witnessed his crucifixion (Lk 23:49); accompanied his body to the sepulcher (Mt 27:61; Lk 23:55); prepared spices and ointments for his burial (Lk 23:56); were first at the tomb on the morning of his resurrection (Mt 28:1; Mk 16:1; Lk 24:1; Jn 20:1); and were the first to whom the risen Lord appeared (Mt 28:9; Mk 16:9; Jn 20:14). Among those thus faithful and favored were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, Salome (Mt 27:56), Joanna and other unnamed women (Lk 24:10). Women had the honor of being the first to announce the fact of the resurrection to the chosen disciples (Lk 24:9,10,22). They, including the mother of Jesus, were among the 120 who continued in prayer in the upper room and received the Pentecostal enduement (Acts 1:14); they were among the first Christian converts (Acts 8:12); suffered equally with men in the early persecutions of the church (Acts 9:2). The Jewish enemies of the new faith sought their aid and influence in the persecutions raised against Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:50); while women of equal rank among the Greeks became ardent and intelligent believers (Acts 17:12). The fidelity of women to Jesus during his three years' ministry, and at the cross and sepulcher, typifies their spiritual devotion in the activities and enterprises of the church of the 20th century.

3. In the Early Church:

Women were prominent, from the first, in the activities of the early church. Their faith and prayers helped to make Pentecost possible (Acts 1:14). They were eminent, as in the case of Dorcas, in charity and good deeds (Acts 9:36); foremost in prayer, like Mary the mother of John, who assembled the disciples at her home to pray for Peter's deliverance (Acts 12:12). Priscilla is equally gifted with her husband as an expounder of "the way of God," and instructor of Apollos (Acts 18:26), and as Paul's "fellow-worker in Christ" (Rom 16:3). The daughters of Philip were prophetesses (Acts 21:8,9). The first convert in Europe was a woman, Lydia of Thyatira, whose hospitality made a home for Paul and a meeting-place for the infant church (Acts 16:14). Women, as truly as men, were recipients of the charismatic gifts of Christianity. The apostolic greetings in the Epistles give them a place of honor. The church at Rome seems to have been blessed with a goodly number of gifted and consecrated women, inasmuch as Paul in the closing salutations of his Epistles sends greetings to at least eight prominent in Christian activity: Phoebe, Prisca, Mary "who bestowed much labor on you," Tryphena and Tryphosa, Persis, Julia, and the sister of Nereus (Rom 16:1,3,6,12,15). To no women did the great apostle feel himself more deeply indebted than to Lois and Eunice, grandmother and mother of Timothy, whose "faith unfeigned" and ceaseless instructions from the holy Scriptures (2 Tim 1:5; 3:14,15) gave him the most "beloved child" and assistant in his ministry. Their names have been conspicuous in Christian history for maternal love, spiritual devotion and fidelity in teaching the Word of God.

See also CLAUDIA .

4. Official Service:

From the first, women held official positions of influence in the church. Phoebe (Rom 16:1) was evidently a deaconess, whom Paul terms "a servant of the church," "a helper of many" and of himself also. Those women who "labored with me in the gospel" (Phil 4:3) undoubtedly participated with him in preaching. Later on, the apostle used his authority to revoke this privilege, possibly because some women had been offensively forward in "usurping authority over the man" (1 Tim 2:12 the King James Version). Even though he bases his argument for woman's keeping silence in public worship on Adam's priority of creation and her priority in transgression (1 Tim 2:13,14), modern scholarship unhesitatingly affirms that his prohibition was applicable only to the peculiar conditions of his own time. Her culture, grace, scholarship, ability, religious devotion and spiritual enduement make it evident that she is often as truly called of God to public address and instruction as man. It is evident in the New Testament and in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers that women, through the agency of two ecclesiastical orders, were assigned official duties in the conduct and ministrations of the early church.

5. Widows:

Their existence as a distinct order is indicated in 1 Tim 5:9,10, where Paul directs Timothy as to the conditions of their enrollment. No widow should be "enrolled" (katalego, "catalogued," "registered") under 60 years of age, or if more than once married. She must be "well reported of for good works"; a mother, having "brought up children"; hospitable, having "used hospitality to strangers"; Christlike in loving service, having "washed the saints' feet." Chrysostom and Tertullian make mention of this order. It bound its members to the service of God for life, and assigned them ecclesiastical duties, e.g. the superintendence of the rest of the women, and the charge of the widows and orphans supported at public expense. Dean Alford (see the Commentary in the place cited) says they "were vowed to perpetual widowhood, clad in a vestis vidualis ("widow's garments"), and ordained by the laying on of hands. This institution was abolished by the eleventh Canon of the council of Laodicea."

Other special duties, mentioned by the Church Fathers, included prayer and fasting, visiting the sick, instruction of women, preparing them for baptism, assisting in the administration of this sacrament, and taking them the communion. The spiritual nature of the office is indicated by its occupant being variously termed "the intercessor of the church"; "the keeper of the door," at public service; "the altar of God."

See WIDOW .

6. Deaconesses:

Many of these duties were transferred, by the 3rd century, to the deaconesses, an order which in recent history has been restored to its original importance and effectiveness. The women already referred to in Rom 16:1,6,12 were evidently of this order, the term diakonos, being specifically applied to Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchrea. The women of 1 Tim 3:11, who were to serve "in like manner" as the "deacons" of 3:10, presumably held this office, as also the "aged women" of Tit 2:3 (= "presbyters" (feminine), presbuterai, 1 Tim 5:2). Virgins as well as widows were elected to this office, and the age of eligibility was changed from 60 to 40 by the Council of Chalcedon. The order was suppressed in the Latin church in the 6th century, and in the Greek church in the 12th. because of certain abuses that gradually became prevalent. Owing, however, to its exceptional importance and value it has been reinstated by nearly all branches of the modern church, the Methodists especially emphasizing its spiritual efficiency. Special training schools and courses in education now prepare candidates for this office. Even as early as the Puritan Reformation in England the Congregationalists recognized this order of female workers in their discipline. The spiritual value of woman's ministry in the lay and official work of the church is evidenced by her leadership in all branches of ecclesiastical and missionary enterprise. This modern estimate of her capability and place revises the entire historic conception and attitude of mankind.

See DEACONESS .

V. Later Times.

1. Changes in Character and Condition:

Tertullian mentions the modest garb worn by Christian women (De Cult. Fem. ii.11) as indicating their consciousness of their new spiritual wealth and worthiness. They no longer needed the former splendor of outward adornment, because clothed with the beauty and simplicity of Christlike character. They exchanged the temples, theaters, and festivals of paganism for the home, labored with their hands, cared for their husbands and children, graciously dispensed Christian hospitality, nourished their spiritual life in the worship, service and sacraments of the church, and in loving ministries to the sick. Their modesty and simplicity were a rebuke to and reaction from the shameless extravagances and immoralities of heathenism. That they were among the most conspicuous examples of the transforming power of Christianity is manifest from the admiration and astonishment of the pagan Libanius who exclaimed, "What women these Christians have!"

The social and legal status of woman instantly improved when Christianity gained recognition in the Empire. Her property rights as wife were established by law, and her husband made subject to accusation for marital infidelity. Her inferiority, subjection and servitude among all non-Jewish and non-Christian races, ancient and modern, are the severest possible arraignment of man's intelligence and virtue. Natural prudence should have discovered the necessity of a cultured and noble motherhood in order to a fine grade of manhood. Races that put blighting restrictions upon woman consign themselves to perpetual inferiority, impotence and final overthrow. The decline of Islam and the collapse of Turkey as a world-power are late striking illustrations of this fundamental truth.

2. Notable Examples of Christian Womanhood:

Woman's activity in the early church came to its zenith in the 4th century. The type of feminine character produced by Christianity in that era is indicated by such notable examples as Eramelia and Macrina, the mother and sister of Basil; Anthusa, Nonna, Monica, respectively the mothers of Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen and Augustine. Like the mothers of Jerome and Ambrose they gave luster to the womanhood of the early Christian centuries by their accomplishments and eminent piety. As defenders of the faith women stand side by side with Ignatius and Polycarp in their capacity to face death and endure the agonies of persecution. The roll of martyrs is made luminous by the unrivaled purity, undaunted heroism, unconquerable faith of such Christian maidens as Blandina, Potamiaena, Perpetua and Felicitas, who, in their loyalty to Christ, shrank not from the most fiendish tortures invented by the diabolical cruelties and hatred of pagan Rome.

In the growing darkness of subsequent centuries women, as mothers, teachers, abbesses, kept the light of Christian faith and intelligence burning in medieval Europe. The mothers of Bernard and Peter the Venerable witness to the conserving and creative power of their devotion and faith. The apotheosis of the Virgin Mother, though a grave mistake and a perversion of Christianity by substituting her for the true object of worship, nevertheless served, in opposition to pagan culture, to make the highest type of womanhood the ideal of medieval greatness. The full glory of humanity was represented in her. She became universally dominant in religion. The best royalty of Europe was converted through her influence. Poland and Russia were added to European Christendom when their rulers accepted the faith of their Christian wives. Clotilda's conversion of Clovis made France Christian. The marriage of Bertha, another Christian princess of France, to Ethelbert introduced Roman Christianity into England, which became the established religion when Edwin, in turn, was converted through the influence of his Christian wife. The process culminated, in the 19th century, in the long, prosperous, peaceful, Christian reign of Victoria, England's noblest sovereign.

3. Woman in the 20th Century:

The opening decades of the 20th century are witnessing a movement among women that is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of mankind. It is world-wide and spontaneous, and aims at nothing less than woman's universal education and enfranchisement. This new ideal, taking its rise in the teaching of Jesus regarding the value of the human soul, is permeating every layer of society and all races and religions. Woman's desire for development and serf-expression, and better still for service, has given birth to educational, social, eleemosynary, missionary organizations and institutions, international in scope and influence. In 75 years after Mary Lyon inaugurated the higher education of woman at Mt. Holyoke College, in 1837, 60,000 women were students in the universities and colleges of the United States; nearly 40,000 in the universities of Russia; and increasingly proportionate numbers in every higher institution of learning for women in the world; 30,000 were giving instruction in the primary and secondary schools of Japan. Even Moslem leaders confessed that the historic subjection of woman to ignorance, inferiority, and servitude was the fatal mistake of their religion and social system. The striking miracle occurred when Turkey and China opened to her the heretofore permanently closed doors of education and social opportunity.

This universal movement for woman's enlightenment and emancipation is significantly synchronous with the world-wide extension and success of Christian missions. The freedom wherewith Christ did set us free includes her complete liberation to equality of opportunity with man. In mental endowment, in practical ability, in all the higher ministries of life and even in statecraft, she has proved herself the equal of man. Christianity always tends to place woman side by side with man in all the great achievements of education, art, literature, the humanities, social service and missions. The entire movement of modern society toward her perfect enfranchisement is the distinct and inevitable product of the teaching of Jesus. The growing desire of woman for the right of suffrage, whether mistaken or not, is the incidental outcome of this new emancipation. The initial stages of this evolutionary. process are attended by many abnormal desires, crudities of experiment and conduct, but ultimately, under the guidance of the Spirit of God and the Christian ideal, woman will intelligently adjust herself to her new opportunity and environment, recognizing every God-ordained difference of function, and every complementary and cooperative relation between the sexes. The result of this latest evolution of Christianity will not only be a new womanhood for the race but, through her enlightenment, culture and spiritual leadership, a new humanity.

Dwight M. Pratt


WONDER; WONDERFUL

wun'-der, wun'-derful: The verb "wonder" occurs only a few times in the Old Testament; "wonder" as noun is much more frequent, and is chiefly the translation of the word mopheth, a splendid or conspicuous work, a "miracle" (Ex 4:21; 11:9, etc.), often conjoined with 'othoth, "signs" (Ex 7:3; Dt 6:22; 13:1,2; 34:11; Neh 9:10, etc.). Other frequent words are pala', pele', a "marvel," "miracle" (Ex 3:20; 15:11; Josh 3:5; Isa 9:6, margin "wonderful counselor," etc.). In the New Testament the ordinary verb is thaumazo, and the most frequent noun is teras, a "marvel," "portent," answering in its meaning to Hebrew pala'. As in the Old Testament the "wonder" is chiefly a miraculous work, so in the Gospels the feeling of wonder is chiefly drawn out by the marvelous displays of Christ's power and wisdom (Mt 15:31; Mk 6:51; Lk 4:22, etc.).

Wonderful, that which excites or calls forth wonder, is in the Old Testament chiefly the translation of pala' or pele' (2 Sam 1:26; Ps 40:3; Isa 28:29, etc.); in the New Testament of thaumasios (once, Mt 21:15).

For "wondered" in Lk 8:25; 11:14, the Revised Version (British and American) has "marvelled" (compare 9:43); in the Old Testament also "marvellous" frequently for "wondrous" etc. (1 Ch 16:9; , Job 9:10; Ps 96:3; 105:2).

W. L. Walker


WOOD

wood.

See BOTANY ;FOREST ;TREES .


WOOD OF EPHRAIM

(2 Sam 18:6).

See EPHRAIM ,FOREST OF .


WOOF

woof (`erebh, "mixture," "woof" (Lev 13:48 ff)).

See WARP .


WOOL

wool (tsemer; erion): Wool and flax were the fibers most used by the ancient weavers. Wool was used principally for the outside garments (Lev 13:48 ff; Prov 31:13; Ezek 34:3; Hos 2:5,9). Syrian wool is found on the world's markets today, but it is not rated as first quality, partly because it is so contaminated with thorns, straw and other foreign matter which become entangled with the wool while the sheep are wandering over the barren, rocky mountain sides in search of food. Extensive pastures are almost unknown.

Two kinds of wool are sold: (1) That obtained by shearing. This is removed from the animal as far as possible in one piece or fleece usually without previous washing. The fleeces are gathered in bales and carried to a washing-place, which is usually one of the stony river beds, with but a small stream flowing through it during the summer. The river bed is chosen because the rocks are clean and free from little sticks or straw which would cling to the washed wool. The purchaser of this washed wool submits it to a further washing with soap, ishnan (alkali plant), "soapwort", or other cleansing agent (see FULLER ), and then cards it before spinning and weaving. The wool thus obtained is nearly snow white. (2) The second supply of wool is from the tanneries where the wool is removed from the skins with slaked lime (see TANNER ). This is washed in many changes of water and used for stuffing mattresses, quilts, etc., but not for weaving.

Gideon used a fleece of wool to seek an omen from God (Jdg 6:37). Mesha, king of Moab, sent a large quantity of wool as a tribute to the king of Israel (2 Ki 3:4).

Wool was forbidden to be woven with linen (Dt 2:11; compare Lev 19:19). Priests could not wear woolen garments (Ezek 44:17). Wool dyed scarlet with the qermes was used in the blood-covenant ceremony (Heb 9:19; compare Lev 14; Nu 19:6).

The whiteness of wool was used for comparison (1) with snow (Ps 147:16); (2) with sins forgiven (Isa 1:18); (3) with hair (Dan 7:9; Rev 1:14).

James A. Patch


WORD

wurd: The commonest term in the Old Testament for "word" is dabhar (also "matter" "thing"); in the New Testament logos ("reason," "discourse," "speech"); but also frequently rhema. Rhema is a "word" in itself considered; logos is a spoken word, with reference generally to that which is in the speaker's mind. Some of the chief applications of the terms may thus be exhibited:

(1) We have the word of Yahweh (or God; see below) (a) as the revelation to the patriarch, prophet, or inspired person (Gen 15:1; Ex 20:1; Nu 22:38, etc.); (b) as spoken forth by the prophet (Ex 4:30; 34:1; 2 Ki 7:1; Isa 1:10, etc.). (2) The word is often a commandment, sometimes equivalent to "the Law" (Ex 32:28; Nu 20:24; Dt 6:6; Ps 105:8; 119:11,17; Isa 66:2, etc.). (3) As a promise and ground of hope (Ps 119:25,28,38, etc.; 130:5, etc.). (4) As creative, upholding, and preserving (Ps 33:6; compare Gen 1:3 ff; Ps 147:15,18; Heb 1:3; 11:3; 2 Pet 3:5,7). (5) As personified (in Apocrypha, The Wisdom of Solomon 18:15; Ecclesiasticus 1:5, the Revised Version margin "omitted by the best authorities"). (6) As personal (Jn 1:1). Logos in Philo and Greek-Jewish philosophy meant both reason or thought and its utterance, "the whole contents of the divine world of thought resting in the Nous of God, synonymous with the inner life of God Himself and corresponding to the logos endiathetos of the human soul; on the other hand, it is the externalizing of this as revelation corresponding to the logos prophorikos in which man's thought finds expression (Schultz). Compare also the references to Creation by "the word of God" and its personifications; seeLOGOS ; incarnated in Jesus Christ (Jn 1:14; 1 Jn 1:1,2; Rev 19:13, "His name is called, The Word of God," Ho Logos tou Theou). See PERSON OF CHRIST . (7) Cannot be broken, endureth forever (2 Ki 10:10; Ps 119:89; Isa 40:8, etc.). (8) A designation of the gospel of Christ: sometimes simply "the word"; with Jesus "the word of the Kingdom" (Mt 13:19; Mk 2:2; Acts 4:4,29,31, etc.). In John's Gospel Jesus frequently speaks of His "word" and "works" as containing the divine revelation and requirements made through Him, which men are asked to believe in, cherish and obey (Jn 5:24; 6:63,68, etc.); "the words of God" (Jn 3:34; 8:47; 14:10; 17:8,14, etc.); His "word" (logos and rhema) is to be distinguished from lalia, speech (compare Mt 26:73; Mk 14:70), translated "saying," Jn 4:42 (4:41, "Many more believed because of his own word" (logos); 4:42, "not because of thy saying" (lalia), the Revised Version (British and American) "speaking"); in the only other occurrence of lalia in this Gospel (Jn 8:43) Jesus uses it to distinguish the outward expression from the inner meaning, "Why do ye not understand my speech?" (lalia), "Even because ye cannot hear my word" (logos). (9) "Words" are distinguished from "power" (1 Cor 4:20; 1 Thess 1:5); are contrasted with "deed" (Mal 2:17; 1 Cor 4:20; 1 Jn 3:18). (10) Paul refers to "unspeakable words" (arrheta rhemata) which he heard in Paradise (2 Cor 12:4), and to "words (logoi) .... which the Spirit teacheth" (1 Cor 2:13).

For "word" the Revised Version (British and American) has "commandment" (Nu 4:45, etc.); for "words," "things" (Jn 7:9; 8:30; 9:22,40; 17:1), "sayings" (Jn 10:21; 12:47,48); for "enticing words," "persuasiveness of speech" (Col 2:4); conversely, "word" for "commandment" (Nu 24:13; 27:14; Josh 8:8, etc.), with numerous other changes.

W. L. Walker


WORK; WORKS

wurk, wurks: "To work" in the Old Testament is usually the translation of `asah, or of pa`al (of the works both of God and of man), and "work" (noun) is most frequently the translation of ma`aseh, or mela'khah; in the New Testament of energeo, ergazomai (and compound), with ergon (noun). The word "works" (erga) is a favorite designation in John for the wonderful works of Jesus (5:36; 10:38; 15:24, etc.; "miracles" to us, "works" to Him). "Works" is used by Paul and James, in a special sense, as denoting (with Paul) those legal performances by means of which men sought to be accepted of God, in contradistinction to that faith in Christ through which the sinner is justified apart from all legal works (Rom 3:27; 4:2,6, etc.; Gal 2:16; 3:2,5,10), "working through love" (Gal 5:6; 1 Thess 1:3), and is fruitful in all truly "good works," in which Christian believers are expected to abound (2 Cor 9:8; Eph 2:10; Col 1:10; 2 Thess 2:17, etc.). When James speaks of being justified by "works" as well as by "faith" (2:14-26), he has in view those works which show faith to be real and vital. "Dead works" avail nothing (compare Heb 9:14; 10:24). Judgment is according to "works" (Mt 16:27, the Revised Version (British and American) "deeds," margin "Greek: `doing' " praxis; Rom 2:6; 1 Pet 1:17, etc.), the new life being therein evidenced. A contrast between "faith" and "good works" is never drawn in the New Testament.

See, further, JUSTIFICATION.

W. L. Walker


WORKER; WORKFELLOW; WORKMAN

wur'-der, wurk'-fel-o, wurk'-man (charash, pa`al; ergates, sunergos): "Worker" (artificer) is the translation of charash, "to cut in" (1 Ki 7:14, "a worker in brass"), and of charash, "artificer," etc. (1 Ch 22:15); "workers of stone," rendered "workman," "workmen" (Isa 40:20; 44:11; Jer 10:3,9, "artificer"; Hos 8:6); `asah, "to work," is translated "workers" of iniquity (Ps 37:1, "them that work unrighteousness"); `asah mela'khah, "to do work" (2 Ki 12:14,15, "workmen," "them that did the work"; 1 Ch 22:15; 2 Ch 24:13, etc.; Ezr 3:9);'aneshe mela'khah, "men of work" (1 Ch 25:1, "workmen," "them that did the work"); `amel, "working," "toiling" (Jdg 5:26, "put .... her right hand to the workmen's hammer"); pa`al, "to act," "do," when translated "workers," is joined with "iniquity," "workers of iniquity" (Job 31:3; 34:8,22; Ps 5:5; 6:8; 14:4, etc.; Prov 10:29; 21:15); ergates, "worker," is translated "workman" (Mt 10:10, "laborer"; 2 Tim 2:15; Acts 19:25), "workers" (of iniquity) (Lk 13:27), "deceitful workers" (2 Cor 11:13), "evil workers" (Phil 3:2); dunamis, "power," is translated "(workers of) miracles" (1 Cor 12:29 margin, the Revised Version (British and American) "powers"); sunergeo, "to work with" (2 Cor 6:1, "working together with him").

Workfellow is the translation of sunergos, "joint or fellow-worker" (Rom 16:21; Col 4:11).

Workmaster occurs in Ecclesiasticus 38:27, as the translation of architekton.

For "of ("with") cunning work" (Ex 26:1,31; 28:6,15; 36:8,35; 39:3,8), the American Standard Revised Version has "the work of the skillful workman," the English Revised Version "of the cunning workman"; instead of "I was by him as one brought up (with him)" (Prov 8:30), the Revised Version (British and American) has "I was by him as a master workman.

W. L. Walker


WORLD (GENERAL)

1. Original Words:

In the King James Version this word represents several originals, as follows: 'erets "earth"; chedhel, "the underworld"; cheledh, "lifetime," "age"; `olam, "indefinite time," "age"; tebhel, "fertile earth"; ge, "earth"; aion, "age," "indefinite time," with frequent connotation of the contents of time, its influences and powers; oikoumene, "inhabited earth," the world of man considered in its area and distribution; last, and most frequently, kosmos, properly "order," with the suggestion of beauty; thence the material universe, as the great example of such order; then the moral universe, the total system of intelligent creatures, perhaps sometimes including angels (1 Cor 4:9), but as a rule human beings only; then, in view of the fact of universal human failure, humanity in its sinful aspect, the spirit and forces of fallen humanity regarded as antagonistic to God and to good, "all around us which does not love God."

2. Remarks:

Of the above terms, some need not detain us; 'erets, as the original to "world," occurs only thrice, chedhel, once, cheledh, twice, `olam, twice (including Eccl 3:11), ge, once. The most important of the series, looking at frequency of occurrence, are tebhel, aion, oikoumene, kosmos. On these we briefly comment in order.

(1) Tebhel.

Tebhel, as the original to "world," occurs in 35 places, of which 15 are found in Psalms and 9 in the first half of Isaiah. By derivation it has to do with produce, fertility, but this cannot be said to come out in usage. The word actually plays nearly the same part as "globe" with us, denoting man's material dwelling-place, as simply as possible, without moral suggestions.

(2) Aion.

We have indicated above the speciality of aion. It is a time, with the suggestion always of extension rather than limit (so that it lends itself to phrases denoting vast if not endless extension, such as "to the aions of aions," rendered "forever and ever," or "world without end"). In Heb 1:2; 11:13, it denotes the "aeons" of the creative process. In numerous places, notably in Matthew, it refers to the "dispensations" of redemption, the present "age"of grace and, in distinction, the "age" which is to succeed it--"that world, and the resurrection" (Lk 20:35). Then, in view of the moral contents of the present state of things, it freely passes into the thought of forces and influences tending against faith and holiness, e.g., "Be not fashioned according to this world" (Rom 12:2). In this connection the Evil Power is said to be "the god of this world" (2 Cor 4:4).

(3) Oikoumene.

The word oikoumene occasionally means the Roman empire, regarded as pre-eminently the region of settled human life. So Lk 2:1; Acts 11:28, and perhaps Rev 3:10, and other apocalyptic passages. In Hebrews it is used mystically of the Empire of the Messiah (1:6; 2:5).

(4) Kosmos.

We have remarked above on kosmos, with its curious and suggestive history of meanings. It may be enough here to add that that history prepares us to find its reference varying by subtle transitions, even in the same passage. See e.g. Jn 1:10, where "the world" appears first to denote earth and man simply as the creation of "the Word," and then mankind as sinfully alienated from their Creator. We are not surprised accordingly to read on the one hand that "God .... loved the world" (Jn 3:16), and on the other that the Christian must "not love the world" (1 Jn 2:15). The reader will find the context a sure clue in all cases, and the study will be pregnant of instruction.

Handley Dunelm


WORLD, COSMOLOGICAL

wurld, koz-mo-loj'-i-kal:

1. Terms and General Meaning

2. Hebrew Idea of the World

3. Its Extent

4. Origin of the World--Biblical and Contrasted Views

5. The Cosmogony of Genesis 1--Comparison with Babylonian and Other Cosmogonies

6. Genesis 1 and Science

LITERATURE

1. Terms and General Meaning:

The Hebrews had no proper word for "world" in its wide sense of "universe." The nearest approach to such a meaning is in the phrase "the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1, etc.). Even this, in a physical reference, does not convey the modern idea, for the earth is still the center with which heaven and the heavenly bodies are connected as adjuncts. It is here, however, to be remembered that to the Hebrew mind the physical world was not the whole. Beyond were the heavens where God's throne was, peopled by innumerable spiritual intelligences, whose hosts worshipped and obeyed Him (Gen 28:12; Ps 103:19-21, etc.). Their conception of the universe was thus enlarged, but the heavens, in this sense, would not be included in the "world." For "world," in its terrestrial meaning, several Hebrew words are used. The King James Version thus occasionally renders the word 'erets, "earth" (the rendering is retained in the Revised Version (British and American) in Isa 23:17; Jer 25:26; in Ps 22:27; Isa 62:11, it is changed to its proper meaning "earth"); `olam, "age," twice rendered "world" in the King James Version (Ps 73:12; Eccl 3:11), is changed in the Revised Version (British and American)--in the latter case into "eternity." The chief word for "world" in the sense of the habitable earth, the abode of man, with its fullness of created life, is tebhel--a poetical term (1 Sam 2:8; 2 Sam 22:16; Job 18:18; 34:13; 37:12; Ps 9:8; 18:15, etc.)--answering to the Greek oikoumene.

In the New Testament a frequent word for "world" is aion, "age" (Mt 12:32; 13:22,39,40,49; 24:3; Mk 4:19; Lk 16:8; Rom 12:2; Heb 1:2, etc.). the Revised Version (British and American) notes in these cases "age" in margin, and sometimes changes in text into "of old" (thus the American Standard Revised Version in Lk 1:70; Acts 3:21), "ages," "times," etc., according to the sense (compare 1 Cor 10:11; Heb 6:5; 9:26; 2 Tim 1:9;. Tit 1:2, etc.). Most generally the Greek word used is kosmos, the "ordered world" (e.g. Mt 4:8; 5:14; 26:13; Mk 8:36; Jn 1:9; 8:12; Acts 17:24; Rom 1:8,20, etc.). The wider sense of "all creation," or "universe" (see above on the Old Testament), is expressed by such phrases as panta, "all things" (Jn 1:3), pasa he ktisis, "the whole creation" (Rom 8:22).

2. Hebrew Idea of the World:

Two errors are to be avoided in framing a representation of the Hebrew conception of the world. (1) The attempt should not be made to find in the Biblical statements precise anticipations of modern scientific discoveries. The relations of the Biblical teaching to scientific discovery are considered below. Here it is enough to say that the view taken of the world by Biblical writers is not that of modern science, but deals with the world simply as we know it--as it lies spread out to ordinary view--and things are described in popular language as they appear to sense, not as telescope, microscope, and other appliances of modern knowledge reveal their nature, laws and relations to us. The end of the narration or description is throughout religious, not theoretic. (2) On the other hand, the error is to be avoided of forcing the language of popular, often metaphorical and poetic, description into the hard-and-fast forms of a cosmogony which it is by no means intended by the writers to yield. It is true that the Hebrews had no idea of our modern Copernican astronomy, and thought of the earth as a flat surface, surmounted by a vast expanse of heaven, in which sun, moon and stars were placed, and from whose reservoirs the rain descended. But it is an exaggeration of all this to speak, as is sometimes done, as if the Hebrews were children who thought of the sky as a solid vault (Gen 1:6-8; Job 37:18), supported on pillars (Job 26:11), and pierced with windows (Gen 7:11; Isa 24:18), through which the rains came. "The world is a solid expanse of earth, surrounded by and resting on a world-ocean, and surmounted by a rigid vault called the `firmament,' above which the waters of a heavenly ocean are spread" (Skinner). The matter is carried farther when elaborate resemblances are sought between the Hebrew and Babylonian cosmogonies (see below). Such representations, though common, are misleading. Language is not to be pressed in this prosaic, unelastic way. It is forgotten that if the "firmament" or "heaven" is sometimes spoken of as a solid vault, it is at other times compared to a "curtain" stretched out (Ps 104:2; Isa 40:22), or a "scroll" that can be rolled up (Isa 34:4); if "windows" of heaven are once or twice mentioned, in many other places there is a quite clear recognition that the rain comes from the clouds in the air (Jdg 5:4; Job 36:28; Ps 77:17, etc.); if the earth is sometimes spoken of as a "circle" (Isa 40:22), at other times it has "corners" and "ends" (Isa 11:12; Dt 33:17; Job 37:3; Ps 19:6, etc.); if sun, moon and stars are figured as if attached to the firmament--"fixed as nails," as one has put it--"from which they might be said to drop off" (Isa 14:12, etc.), far more frequently the sun is represented as pursuing his free, rejoicing course around the heavens (Ps 19:5,6, etc.), the moon as "walking" in brightness (Job 31:26), etc. The proper meaning of the word raqia` is simply "expanse" and the pellucid vault of the heavens, in which the clouds hung and through which the sun traveled, had probably for the Hebrews associations not very different from what it has to the average mind of today. The earth, itself composed of "dry land" and "seas" (Gen 1:9,10), the former with its mountains, valleys and rivers, may have been conceived of as encircled by an ocean--the circular form being naturally suggested by the outline of the horizon. A few passages convey the idea of depths within or beneath, as well as around the solid earth (Gen 7:11; Dt 33:13)--a thought again suggested by springs, wells, floods, and similar natural phenomena--but there is no fixity in these representations. One place in Job (26:7) has the bold idea of the earth as hung in free space--a near approach to the modern conception.

3. Its Extent:

The ideas formed of the extent of the world were naturally limited by the geographical knowledge of the Hebrews, and expanded as that knowledge increased. At no time, however, was it so limited as might be supposed. The TABLE OF NATIONS (which see) in Gen 10 shows a wide knowledge of the different peoples of the world, "after their tongues, in their lands, in their nations" (10:20,31). The outlook to the West was bounded by the Mediterranean ("great sea," Nu 31:6; Ezek 47:10, etc.), with its "islands" (Gen 10:5; Isa 11:11, etc.), to Tarshish (Spain?) in the extreme West. To the North was the great empire of the Hittites (Josh 1:4; 1 Ki 10:29, etc.). North and East across the desert, beyond Syria, lay the familiar region of Mesopotamia (Aram-Naharaim, Ps 60, title), with Ararat (Gen 8:4) still farther North; and, southward, in the Tigris-Euphrates valley, the ancient and powerful empires of Assyria and Babylonia (Gen 2:14; 10:10,11), with Media and Elam (Gen 10:2,22), at a later time Persia (Est 1:1), farther East To the Southeast, between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, lay the great peninsula of Arabia, and to the West of the Red Sea, Southwest of Canaan, the mighty Egypt, Israel's never-forgotten "land of bondage" (Ex 20:2, etc.). South of Egypt was Ethiopia. Of more distant peoples, India is first mentioned in Est 1:1; 8:9, but trade with it must have been as early as the days of Solomon. On the dim horizon are such peoples as Gomer (the Cimmerians, North of the Euxine Gen 10:2; Ezek 38:6) and Magog (Gen 10:2; Ezek 38:2 the Scythians (?)); probably even China is intended by "the land of Sinim" in Isa 49:12. In the apocryphal books and the New Testament the geographical area is perceptibly widened. Particularly do Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and Italy, with their islands, cities, etc., come clearly into view. A list like that in Acts 2:9-11 of the representatives of peoples present at the day of Pentecost gives a vivid glimpse of the extent of the Jewish religious connection at this period (compare Acts 8:27 ff).

4. Origin of the World--Biblical and Contrasted Views:

From the first there has been abundant speculation in religion and philosophy as to how the world came to be--whether it was eternal, or had a commencement, and, if it began to be, how it originated. Theories were, as they are still, numberless and various. Some cosmogonies were purely mythological (Babylonian, Hesiod); some were materialistic (Democritus, Epicurus--"concourse of atoms"); some were demiurgic (Plato in Timaeus--an eternal matter formed by a demiurge); some were emanational (Gnostics--result of overflowing of fullness of divine life in "aeons"); some were dualistic (Parsism, Manicheism--good and evil principles in conflict); some imagined endless "cycles"--alternate production and destruction (Stoics, Buddhist kalpas); many were pantheistic (Spinoza--an eternal "substance," its "attributes" necessarily determined in their "modes"; Hegel, "absolute spirit," evolving by logical necessity); some are pessimistic (Schopenhauer--the world the result of an irrational act of "will"; hence, necessarily evil), etc.

In contrast with these conflicting, and often foolish and irrational, theories, the Biblical doctrine of the origin of the world stands alone and unique. It is unique because the view of God on which it rests is unique. According to the teaching of the Bible, from its first page to its last, God is a free, personal Spirit, one, omnipotent, holy, and the world originates in a free act of His almighty will (Gen 1:1; Ps 33:9; Heb 11:3; Rev 4:11, etc.), is continually upheld by His power, ruled by His providence, and is the sphere of the realization of His purpose. As against theories of the eternity of the world, accordingly, it declares that the world had a beginning (Gen 1:1); as against dualism, it declares that it is the product of one almighty will (Dt 4:35; Isa 45:7; 1 Cor 8:6, etc.); as against the supposition of an eternal matter, it declares that matter as well as form takes its origin from God (Gen 1:1; Heb 11:3); as against pantheism and all theories of necessary development, it affirms the distinction of God from His world, His transcendence over it as well as His immanence in it, and His free action in creation (Eph 4:6; Rev 4:11); as against pessimism, it declares the constitution, aim and end of the world to be good (Gen 1:31; Ps 33:5; Mt 5:45, etc.). To the Old Testament doctrine of the origin of the world the New Testament adds the fuller determination that the world was created through the agency of the "Word" (Logos), or Son (Jn 1:3; Col 1:16,17; Heb 1:2,3, etc.).

5. The Cosmogony of Genesis 1--Comparison with Babylonian and Other Cosmogonies:

No stronger proof could be afforded of the truth and sublimity of the Biblical account of the origin of things than is given by the comparison of the narrative of creation in Gen 1 through 2:4, with the mythological cosmogonies and theogonies found in other religions. Of these the best known, up to the time of recent discoveries, were the Babylonian account of the creation preserved by Berosus, a priest of Babylon in the 3rd century BC, and the Theogony of the Greek Hesiod (9th century BC). Hesiod's poem is a confused story of how from Chaos came forth Earth, Tartarus (Hell), Eros (Love) and Erebus (Night). Erebus gives birth to Aether (Day). Earth produces the Heaven and the Sea. Earth and Heaven, in turn, become the parents of the elder gods and the Titans. Cronus, one of these gods, begets Zeus. Zeus makes war on his father Cronus, overthrows him, and thus becomes king of the Olympian gods. The descent of these is then traced. How far this fantastic theory, commencing with Chaos, and from it generating Nature and the gods, has itself an original affinity with Babylonian conceptions, need not here be discussed. It hardly surpasses in crudeness the late shape of the Babylonian cosmogony furnished by Berosus. Here, too, Chaos--"darkness and water"--is the beginning, and therefrom are generated strange and peculiar forms, men with wings and with two faces, or with heads and horns of goats, bulls with human heads, dogs with four bodies, etc. Over this welter a woman presides, called Omorka. Belus appears, cuts the woman in twain, of one half of her makes the heavens, and of the other the earth, sets the world in order, finally makes one of the gods cut off his head, and from the blood which flowed forth, mixed with earth, forms intelligent man. That Berosus has not essentially misrepresented the older Babylonian conceptions is now made apparent through the recovery of the Babylonian story itself.

In 1875 George Smith discovered, among the tablets in the British Museum brought from the great library of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal (7th century BC), several on which was inscribed the Chaldean story of creation, and next year published his work, The Chaldean Account of Gen. The tablets, supplemented by other fragments, have since been repeatedly translated by other hands, the most complete translation being that by L. W. King in his Seven Tablets of Creation in the Babylonian and Assyrian Legends concerning the Creation of the World. The story of these tablets, still in many parts fragmentary, is now familiar (see BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA ,RELIGION OF ). Here, too, the origin of all things is from Chaos, the presiding deities of which are Apsu and Tiamat. The gods are next called into being. Then follows a long mythological description, occupying the first four tablets, of the war of Marduk with Tiamat, the conflict issuing in the woman being cut in two, and heaven being formed of one half and earth of the other. The 5th tablet narrates the appointing of the constellations. The 6th seems to have recorded the creation of man from the blood of Marduk. This mythological epic is supposed by many scholars to be the original of the sublime, orderly, monotheistic account of the creation which stands at the commencement of our Bible. The Babylonian story is (without proof) supposed to have become naturalized in Israel, and there purified and elevated in accordance with the higher ideas of Israel's religion. We cannot subscribe to this view, which seems to us loaded with internal and historical improbabilities. Points of resemblance are indeed alleged, as in the use of the Hebrew word tehom for "deep" (Gen 1:2), cognate with Tiamat; the separation of heaven and earth (Gen 1:6-8); the appointing of the constellations (Gen 1:14-18), etc. But in the midst of the scanty resemblances, how enormous are the contrasts, which all writers acknowledge! Gunkel, e.g., says, "Anyone who compares this ancient Babylonian myth with Gen 1, will perceive at once hardly anything else than the infinite distance between them. There the heathen gods, inflamed against each other in wild warfare, here the One, who speaks and it is done" (Israel und Babylonien, 24). One can understand how these wild polytheistic legends could arise from corruption of a purer, simpler form, but not vice versa. The idea of a "deep," or chaos, must have preceded the fanciful and elaborate creation of the woman-monster, Tiamat; the distinction of sky and earth would go before the coarse idea of the cutting of the woman in two; and so with the other features of supposed resemblance. Professor Clay has recently shown reason for challenging the whole idea of the borrowing of these myths from Babylonia, and declares that "it is unreasonable to assume that the Hebrew tehom is a modification of a Babylonian pattern ..... To say, therefore, that the origin of the Marduk-Tiamat myth is to be found in a Nippurian version, originally known as Ellil-Tiamat, is utterly without foundation" (Amurru, 50). Much more reasonably may we adopt the hypothesis of Dillmann, Kittel, Hommel, Oettli, etc., that the relation between these Babylonian legends and the Biblical narratives is one of cognateness, and not of derivation. These traditions came down from a much older source and are preserved by the Hebrews in their purer form (see the writer'sPOT , 402-9).

The superiority of the Gen cosmogony to those of other peoples is generally admitted, but objection to it is taken in the name of modern science. The narrative conflicts, it is said, with both modern astronomy and modern geology; with the former, in regarding the earth as the center of the universe, and with the latter in its picture of the order and stages of creation, and the time occupied in the work (for a full statement of these alleged discrepancies, see Dr. Driver's Genesis, Introduction).

6. Genesis 1 and Science:

On the general question of the harmony of the Bible with science it is important that a right standpoint be adopted. It has already been stated that it is no part of the aim of the Biblical revelation to anticipate the discoveries of 19th-century and 20th-century science. The world is taken as it is, and set in its relations to God its Creator, without consideration of what after-light science may throw on its inner constitution, laws and methods of working. As Calvin, with his usual good sense, in his commentary on Gen 1 says, "Moses wrote in the popular style, which, without instruction, all ordinary persons endowed with common sense are able to understand. .... He does not call us up to heaven; but only proposes things that lie open before our eyes." This of itself disposes of the objection drawn from astronomy, for everywhere heaven and earth are spoken of according to their natural appearances, and not in the language of modern Copernican science. To this hour we use the same language in speaking of the sun rising and setting.

The further objection that modern knowledge discredits the Biblical view by showing how small a speck the world is in the infinitude of the universe is really without force. Whatever the extent of the universe, it remains the fact that on this little planet life has effloresced into reason, and we have as yet no ground in science for believing that anywhere else it has ever done so (compare Dr. A. R. Wallace's striking book, Man's Place in the Universe). Even supposing that there are any number of inhabited worlds, this does not detract from the soul's value in this world, or from God's love in the salvation of its sinful race. The objection drawn from geology, though so much is sometimes made of it, is hardly more formidable. It does not follow that, because the Bible does not teach modern science, we are justified in saying that it contradicts it. On the contrary, it may be affirmed, so true is the standpoint of the author in this first chapter of Gen, so divine the illumination with which he is endowed, so unerring his insight into the order of Nature, that there is little in his description that even yet, with our advanced knowledge, we need to change. To quote words used elsewhere, "The dark watery waste over which the spirit broods with vivifying power, the advent of light, the formation of an atmosphere or sky capable of sustaining the clouds above it, the settling of the great outlines of the continents and seas, the clothing of the dry land with abundant vegetation, the adjustment of the earth's relation to sun and moon as the visible rulers of its day and night, the production of the great seamonsters and reptile-like creatures and birds, the peopling of the earth with four-footed beasts and cattle, last of all, the advent of man--is there so much of all this which science requires us to cancel?" (Orr, Christian View of God and the World, 421).

Even in regard to the "days"--the duration of time involved--there is no insuperable difficulty. The writer may well have intended symbolically to represent the creation as a great week of work, ending with the Creator's Sabbath rest. In view, however, of the fact that days of 24 hours do not begin to run till the appointment of the sun on the 4th day (Gen 1:14), it seems more probable that he did not intend to fix a precise length to his creation "days." This is no new speculation. Already Augustine asks, "Of what fashion these days were it is exceeding hard or altogether impossible to think, much more to speak" (De Civ. Dei, xi.6, 7); and Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages leaves the matter an open question. Neither does this narrative, in tracing the origin of all things to the creative word of God, conflict with anything that may be discovered by science as to the actual method of creation, e.g. in evolution. Science itself is gradually coming to see the limits within which the doctrine of evolution must be received, and, kept within these limits, there is nothing in that doctrine which brings it into conflict with the Biblical representations (seeANTHROPOLOGY ;CREATION ;EVOLUTION ; also the writer's works, God's Image in Man and Sin as a Problem of Today). Whatever may be said of the outward form of the narrative, one has only to look at the great ideas which the first chapter of Genesis is intended to teach to see that it conveys those great truths on the origin and ordering of things which are necessary as the basis of a true religious view of the world, no matter to what stage knowledge or science may attain. This chapter, standing at the head of the Bible, lays the foundation for all that follows in the Biblical view of the relation of God to the world, and yields the ground for our confidence that, as all things are created by God and dependent on Him, so everything in Nature and providence is at His disposal for the execution of His purposes and the care and protection of His people. The story of creation, therefore, remains to all time of the highest religious value.

LITERATURE.

See articles "Earth" in Smith'sDB and inEB . The other works mentioned above may be consulted. A valuable extended discussion of the word "Firmament" may be seen in Essay V of the older work, Aids to Faith (London, Murray), 220-30.

James Orr


WORLD, END OF THE

See ESCHATOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ;HEAVENS ,NEW .


WORM; SCARLET-WORM

wurm, skar'-let-wurm: (1) tola`, tole`ah, tola`ath, tola`ath, from tala`; compare Arabic tala, "to stretch the neck"; usually with shani, "bright" (of Arabic sana, "a flash of lightning"), the term tola`ath shani being translated "scarlet" in English Versions of the Bible; also in the same sense the following: sheni tola`ath (Lev 14:4), tola` (Isa 1:18, English Versions of the Bible "crimson"), shanim (Prov 31:21; Isa 1:18, English Versions of the Bible "scarlet"), shani (Gen 38:28; Josh 2:18; Song 4:3); also kokkos, and kokkinos (Mt 27:23; Heb 9:19; Rev 17:3,4; 18:12,16). (2) rimmah, from ramam, "to putrefy" (Ex 16:20); compare Arab ramm, "to become carious" (of bone). (3) cac (only in Isa 51:8); compare Arabic sus, "worm"; ses, "moth" (Mt 6:19). (4) zochalim (Mic 7:17, the King James Version "worms," the Revised Version (British and American) "crawling things"), from zachal, "to crawl." (5) skolex (Mk 9:48), skolekobrotos, "eaten of worms" (Acts 12:23).

Besides the numerous passages, mostly in Ex, referring to the tabernacle, where tola`ath, with shani, is translated "scarlet," there are eight pasages in which it is translated "worm." These denote worms which occur in decaying organic matter or in sores (Ex 16:20; Isa 14:11; 66:24); or which are destructive to plants (Dt 28:39; Jon 4:7); or the word is used as a term of contempt or depreciation (Job 25:6; Ps 22:6; Isa 41:14). Rimmah is used in the same senses. It occurs with tola`ath as a synonym in Ex 16:24; Job 25:6; Isa 14:11. In Job 25:6, English Versions of the Bible, rendering both tola`ath and rimmah by "worm," 'enosh and 'adham by "man," and introducing twice "that is a," makes a painfully monotonous distich out of the concise and elegant original, in which not one word of the first part is repeated in the second. Cac (Isa 51:8), English Versions of the Bible "worm," is the larva of the clothes-moth. See MOTH . In none of the cases here considered are worms, properly so called, denoted, but various insect larvae which are commonly called "worms," e.g. "silkworm," "apple-worm," "meal-worm," etc. These larvae are principally those of Diptera or flies, Coleoptera or beetles, and Lepidoptera or butterflies and moths.

Tola`ath shani, "scarlet," is the scarlet-worm, Cermes vermilio, a scale-insect which feeds upon the oak, and which is used for producing a red dye. It is called by the Arabs dudeh, "a worm," a word also used for various insect larvae. It is also called qirmiz, whence" crimson" and the generic name Cermes. This scarlet-worm or scale-insect is one of the family Coccidae of the order Rhynchota or Hemiptera. The female is wingless and adheres to its favorite plant by its long, sucking beak, by which it extracts the sap on which it lives. After once attaching itself it remains motionless, and when dead its body shelters the eggs which have been deposited beneath it. The males, which are smaller than the females, pass through a complete metamorphosis and develop wings. The dye is made from the dried bodies of the females. Other species yielding red dyes are Porphyrophora polonica and Coccus cacti. The last named is the Mexican cochineal insect which feeds on the cactus and which largely supplanted the others after the discovery of America. Aniline dyes have in turn to a great extent superseded these natural organic colors, which, however, continue to be unsurpassed for some purposes.

See COLORS .

Alfred Ely Day


WORMWOOD

wurm'-wood (la'anah (Dt 29:18; Prov 5:4; Jer 9:15; 23:15; Lam 3:15,19; Am 5:7; 6:12, the King James Version hemlock); apsinthos (Rev 8:11)): What the Hebrew la`anah may have been is obscure; it is clear it was a bitter substance and it is usually associated with "gall"; in the Septuagint it is variously translated, but never by apsinthos, "wormwood." Nevertheless all ancient tradition supports the English Versions of the Bible translation. The genus Artemisia (Natural Order Compositae), "wormwood," has five species of shrubs or herbs found in Palestine (Post), any one of which may furnish a bitter taste. The name is derived from the property of many species acting as anthelmintics, while other varieties are used in the manufacture of absinthe.

E. W. G. Masterman


WORMWOOD, THE STAR

In Rev 8:11, the name is figurative, given to a great star which, at the sounding of the third angel's trumpet, fell from heaven upon the third part of the rivers and on the fountains of the waters, turning them to a bitterness of which many died. Wormwood is used of bitter calamities (of Lam 3:15), and may here indicate some judgment, inflicted under a noted leader, affecting chiefly the internal sources of a country's prosperity. Older expositors, applying the earlier trumpets to the downfall of the Roman empire, saw in the star a symbol of the barbarian invasions of Attila or Genseric.

See also ASTRONOMY , sec. I, 8.

James Orr


WORSHIP

wur'-ship (Anglo-Saxon: weorthscipe, wyrthscype, "honor," from weorth, wurth, "worthy," "honorable," and scipe, "ship"):

1. Terms

2. Old Testament Worship

3. New Testament Worship

4. Public Christian Worship

LITERATURE

Honor, reverence, homage, in thought, feeling, or act, paid to men, angels, or other "spiritual" beings, and figuratively to other entities, ideas, powers or qualities, but specifically and supremely to Deity.

1. Terms:

The principal Old Testament word is shachah, "depress," "bow down," "prostrate" (Hithpael), as in Ex 4:31, "bowed their heads and worshipped"; so in 94 other places. The context determines more or less clearly whether the physical act or the volitional and emotional idea is intended. The word is applied to acts of reverence to human superiors as well as supernatural. the Revised Version (British and American) renders it according to its physical aspect, as indicated by the context, "bowed himself down" (the King James Version "worshipped," Gen 24:52; compare 23:7; 27:29, etc.).

Other words are: caghadh, "prostrate," occurring in Isa 44:15,17,19; 46:6, but rendered (English Versions of the Bible) "fall down." In Dan 2:46; 3:5,6,7,10,15,18,28, it (Aramaic ceghidh) is "worship" (English Versions of the Bible), 7 times associated with "falling down" and 5 times with "serve." `abhadh, "work," "labor," "serve," is rendered "worship" by English Versions of the Bible in 2 Ki 10:19,21 ff: "the worshippers (servants) of Baal." In Isa 19:21 the Revised Version (British and American) has "worship with sacrifice and oblation" (the King James Version "do sacrifice"). Isa 19:23 the King James Version has "served," the Revised Version (British and American) "worship." `atsabh, "carve," "fabricate," "fashion," is once given "worship," i.e. "make (an object of) worship" (Jer 44:19, the American Revised Version margin "portray").

The Old Testament idea is therefore the reverential attitude of mind or body or both, combined with the more generic notions of religions adoration, obedience, service.

The principal New Testament word (59 times) is proskuneo, "kiss (the hand or the ground) toward," hence, often in the oriental fashion bowing prostrate upon the ground; accordingly, Septuagint uses it for the Hithpael of shachah (hishtachawah), "prostrate oneself." It is to render homage to men, angels, demons, the Devil, the "beast," idols, or to God. It is rendered 16 times to Jesus as a beneficent superior; at least 24 times to God or to Jesus as God. The root idea of bodily prostration is much less prominent than in the Old Testament. It is always translated "worship."

Next in frequency is sebomai, "venerate," and its various cognates, sebazomai, eusebeo, theosebes, sebasma. Its root is sebas, "fear," but this primitive meaning is completely merged into "reverence," "hold in awe": "In vain do they worship me" (Mt 15:9, etc.). latreuo, is "serve" (religiously), or "worship publicly," "perform sacred services," "offer gifts," "worship God in the observance of the rites instituted for His worship." It is translated "worship" in Acts 7:42; 24:14 the King James Version, but "serve," American Standard Revised Version: "serve the host of heaven," "serve I the God of our fathers"; but both the King James Version and the American Standard Revised Version render Phil 3:3, "worship by the Spirit of God," and Heb 10:2, "the worshippers," the context in the first two being general, in the second two specific. In 2 Tim 1:3 and many other cases both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) give "serve," the meaning not being confined to worship; but compare Lk 2:37 Revised Version: "worshipping (the King James Version "served") with fastings and supplications." Rom 1:25 gives both sebazomai and latreuo in their specific meanings: "worshipped (venerated) and served (religiously,) the creature." doxa, "glory" (Lk 14:10, King James Version: "Thou shalt have worship," is a survival of an old English use, rightly discarded in the Revised Version (British and American)). threskeia (Col 2:18), "a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels" (the American Revised Version margin "an act of reverence"), has the root idea of trembling or fear. therapeuo, "serve," "heal," "tend" (Acts 17:25, King James Version: "neither is worshipped by men's hands"), is "served" in the Revised Version (British and American), perhaps properly, but its close connection with "temples made with hands" makes this questionable. neokoros, "temple-sweepers," "temple-keeper" (Acts 19:35), has its true meaning in the Revised Version (British and American), but "worshipper" is needed to complete the idea, in our modern idiom.

In the Apocrypha the usage is the same as in the New Testament, the verbs used being, in the order of their frequency, proskuneo, sebomai, threskeuo, and latreuo.

The New Testament idea of worship is a combination of the reverential attitude of mind and body, the general ceremonial and religious service of God, the feeling of awe, veneration, adoration; with the outward and ceremonial aspects approaching, but not reaching, the vanishing point. The total idea of worship, however, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, must be built up, not from the words specifically so translated, but also, and chiefly, from the whole body of description of worshipful feeling and action, whether of individuals singly and privately, or of larger bodies engaged in the public services of sanctuary, tabernacle, temple, synagogue, upper room or meeting-place.

Space permits no discussion of the universality of worship in some form, ranging from superstitious fear or fetishism to the highest spiritual exercise of which man is capable; nor of the primary motive of worship, whether from a desire to placate, ingratiate, or propitiate some higher power, or to commune and share with him or it, or express instinctive or purposed devotion to him. On the face of the Bible narratives, the instinct of communion, praise, adoring gratitude would seem to be the earliest moving force (compare Gen 4:3,4, Cain, Abel; Rom 1:18-25, the primitive knowledge of God as perverted to creature-worship; Gen 8:20, Noah's altar; and Gen 12:7, Abram's altar). That propitiation was an early element is indicated probably by Abel's offering from the flock, certainly by the whole system of sacrifice. Whatever its origin, worship as developed in the Old Testament is the expression of the religious instinct in penitence, prostration, adoration, and the uplift of holy joy before the Creator.

2. Old Testament Worship:

In detail, Old Testament worship was individual and private, though not necessarily secret, as with Eliezer (Gen 24:26 f), the expression of personal gratitude for the success of a mission, or with Moses (Ex 34:8), seeking God's favor in intercessory prayer; it was sometimes, again, though private, in closest association with others, perhaps with a family significance (Gen 8:20, Noah; Gen 12:7; 22:5, Abraham: "I and the lad will go yonder; and .... worship"); it was in company with the "great congregation," perhaps partly an individual matter, but gaining blessing and force from the presence of others (Ps 42:4: "I went with the throng .... keeping holyday"); and it was, as the national spirit developed, the expression of the national devotion (1 Ch 29:20: "And all the assembly .... worshipped Yahweh, and the king"). In this public national worship the truly devout Jew took his greatest delight, for in it were inextricably interwoven together, his patriotism, his sense of brotherhood, his feeling of solidarity, his personal pride and his personal piety.

The general public worship, especially as developed in the Temple services, consisted of: (1) Sacrificial acts, either on extraordinary occasions, as at the dedication of the Temple, etc., when the blood of the offerings flowed in lavish profusion (2 Ch 7:5), or in the regular morning and evening sacrifices, or on the great annual days, like the Day of Atonement. (2) Ceremonial acts and posture of reverence or of adoration, or symbolizing the seeking and receiving of the divine favor, as when the high priest returned from presenting incense offering in the holy place, and the people received his benediction with bowed heads, reverently standing (2 Ch 7:6), or the worshippers prostrated themselves as the priests sounded the silver trumpets at the conclusion of each section of the Levites' chant. (3) Praise by the official ministrants of the people or both together, the second probably to a very limited extent. This service of praise was either instrumental, silver "trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music," or it might be in vocal song, the chant of the Levites (very likely the congregation took part in some of the antiphonal psalms); or it might be both vocal and instrumental, as in the magnificent dedicatory service of Solomon (2 Ch 5:13), when "the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Yahweh." Or it might be simply spoken: "And all the people said, Amen, and praised Yahweh" (1 Ch 16:36). How fully and splendidly this musical element of worship was developed among the Hebrews the Book of Ps gives witness, as well as the many notices in Chronicles (1 Ch 15; 16; 25; 2 Ch 5; 29; 30, etc.). It is a pity that our actual knowledge of Hebrew music should be so limited. (4) Public prayer, such as is described in Dt 26, at the dedication of the Temple (2 Ch 6, etc.), or like Psalms 60; 79; 80. Shorter forms, half praise, half prayer, formed a part of the service in Christ's time. (5) The annual feasts, with their characteristic ceremonies.

See PASSOVER ;TABERNACLE ; etc. Places of worship are discussed under ALTAR; HIGH PLACE; SANCTUARY; TABERNACLE; TEMPLE, etc.

3. New Testament Worship:

In the New Testament we find three sorts of public worship, the temple-worship upon Old Testament lines, the synagogue-worship, and the worship which grew up in the Christian church out of the characteristic life of the new faith. The synagogue-worship, developed by and after the exile, largely substituted the book for the symbol, and thought for the sensuous or object appeal; it was also essentially popular, homelike, familiar, escaping from the exclusiveness of the priestly service. It had four principal parts: (1) the recitation of the shema`, composed of Dt 6:4-9; 11:13-21, and Nu 15:37-41, and beginning, "Hear (shema`), O Israel: Yahweh our God is one Yahweh"; (2) prayers, possibly following some set form, perhaps repeating some psalm; (3) the reading by male individuals of extracts from the Law and the Prophets selected by the "ruler of the synagogue," in later years following the fixed order of a lectionary, as may have been the case when Jesus "found the place"; (4) the targum or condensed explanation in the vernacular of the Scriptures read.

It is questioned whether singing formed a part of the service, but, considering the place of music in Jewish religious life, and its subsequent large place in Christian worship, it is hard to think of it as absent from the synagogue.

4. Public Christian Worship:

Public Christian worship necessarily developed along the lines of the synagogue and not the temple, since the whole sacrificial and ceremonial system terminated for Christianity with the life and death of Jesus. The perception of this, however, was gradual, as was the break of Jewish Christians with both synagogue and temple. Jesus Himself held the temple in high honor, loved to frequent it as His Father's house, reverently observed the feasts, and exhibited the characteristic attitude of the devout but un-Pharisaic Israelite toward the temple and its worship. Yet by speaking of Himself as "greater than the temple" (Mt 12:6) and by quoting, Hos 6:6, "I desire goodness and not sacrifice," He indicated the relative subordinateness of the temple and its whole system of worship, and in His utterance to the woman of Samaria He intimated the abolition both of the whole idea of the central sanctuary and of the entire ceremonial worship: "Neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father"; "They that worship him must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn 4:21,24). His chief interest in the temple seems to have been as a "house of prayer" and an opportunity to reach and touch the people. We cannot help feeling that with all His love for the holy precincts, He must have turned with relief from the stately, formal, distant ceremonial of the temple, partly relieved though it was by the genuine religious passion of many worshippers, to the freer, more vital, closer heart-worship of the synagogue, loaded though that also was with form, tradition, ritual and error. Here He was a regular and reverent attendant and participant (Mk 1:21,39; 3:1; 6:2; Lk 6:6). Jesus did not Himself prescribe public worship for His disciples, no doubt assuming that instinct and practice, and His own spirit and example, would bring it about spontaneously, but He did seek to guard their worship from the merely outward and spectacular, and laid great emphasis on privacy and real "innerness" in it (Mt 6:1-18, etc.). Synagogue-worship was probably not abandoned with Pentecost, but private brotherhood meetings, like that in the upper chamber, and from house to house, were added. The young church could hardly have "grown in favor with the people," if it had completely withdrawn from the popular worship, either in temple or synagogue, although no attendance on the latter is ever mentioned. Possibly the Christians drew themselves together in a synagogue of their own, as did the different nationalities. The reference in James: "if there come unto your synagogue" (2:2), while not conclusive, since "synagogue" may have gained a Christian significance by this time, nevertheless, joined with the traditions concerning James's ascetic zeal and popular repute, argues against such a complete separation early. Necessarily with the development into clearness of the Christian ideas, and with the heightening persecution, together with the hard industrial struggle of life, the observance of the Jewish Sabbath in temple or synagogue, and of the Christian's Lord's Day, grew incompatible. Yet the full development of this must have been rather late in Paul's life. Compare his missionary tactics of beginning his work at the synagogue, and his custom of observing as far as possible the Jewish feasts (Acts 20:16; 1 Cor 16:8). Our notions of the worship of the early church must be constructed out of the scattered notices descriptive of different stages in the history, and different churches present different phases of development. The time was clearly the Lord's Day, both by the Jewish churches (Jn 20:19,26) and by the Greek (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2) The daily meeting of Acts 2:46 was probably not continued, no mention occurring later.

There are no references to yearly Christian festivals, though the wide observance in the sub-apostolic period of the Jewish Passover, with references to the death and resurrection of Jesus, and of Pentecost to commemorate the gift of the Holy Spirit, argues for their early use. The place was of course at first in private houses, and the earliest form of Christian church architecture developed from this model rather than the later one of the basilica. 1 Corinthians gives rather full data for the worship in this free and enthusiastic church. It appears that there were two meetings, a public and a private. The public worship was open, informal and missionary, as well as edificatory. The unconverted, inquirers and others, were expected to be present, and were frequently converted in the meeting (1 Cor 14:24). It resembled much more closely, an evangelical "prayer and conference meeting" of today than our own formal church services. There is no mention of official ministrants, though the meeting seems to have been under some loose guidance. Any male member was free to take part as the Spirit might prompt, especially in the line of his particular "spiritual gift" from God, although one individual might have several, as Paul himself. Largely developed on synagogue lines, but with a freedom and spirit the latter must have greatly lacked, it was composed of: (1) Prayer by several, each followed by the congregational "Amen." (2) Praise, consisting of hymns composed by one or another of the brethren, or coming down from the earlier days of Christian, perhaps Jewish, history, like the Benedictus, the Magnificat, the Nunc dimittis, etc. Portions of these newer hymns seem to be imbedded here and there in the New Testament, as at Rev 5:9-13: "Worthy art thou," etc. (compare Rev 15:3; 11:17, etc.); also: "He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory" (1 Tim 3:16). Praise also might take the form of individual testimony, not in metrical form (1 Cor 14:16). (3) Reading of the Scripture must have followed, according to the synagogue model. Paul presupposes an acquaintance with the Old Testament Scriptures and the facts of Jesus' life, death, resurrection. Instructions to read certain epistles in the churches indicate the same. (4) Instruction, as in 1 Cor 2:7; 6:5, teaching for edification. (These passages, however, may not have this specific reference.) (5) Prophesying, when men, believed by themselves and by the church to be specially taught by the Holy Spirit, gave utterance to His message. At Corinth these crowded on one another, so that Paul had to command them to speak one at a time. (6) Following this, as some believe, came the "speaking with tongues," perhaps fervent and ejaculatory prayers "so rugged and disjointed that the audience for the most part could not understand" until someone interpreted. The speaking with tongues, however, comprised praise as well as prayer (1 Cor 14:16), and the whole subject is enshrouded in mystery. See TONGUES ,GIFT OF . (7) The meeting closed with the benediction and with the "kiss of peace."

The "private service" may have followed the other, but seems more likely to have been in the evening, the other in the morning. The disciples met in one place and ate together a meal of their own providing, the agape, or love feast, symbolizing their union and fellowship, preceded or followed by prayers (Didache x), and perhaps interspersed by hymns. Then the "Lord's Supper" itself followed, according to the directions of the apostle (1 Cor 11:23-28).

How far "Christian worship" was "Christian" in the sense of being directly addressed to Christ, is not easily answered. We must not read into their mental content the fully developed Christology of later centuries, but it is hard to believe that those who had before them Thomas' adoring exclamation, "My Lord and my God!" the saying of the first martyr, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," the dictum of the great apostle, "Who, existing in the form of God," the utterances of He, "And let all the angels of God worship him," "Thy throne, O God, is forever and forever," and, later, the prologue of Jn, and the ascriptions of praise in the Apocalypse, could have failed to bow down in spirit before Jesus Christ, to make known their requests through Him, and to lift up their adoration in song to Him, as according to Pliny's witness, 112 AD, "they sing a hymn to Christ as God." The absolutely interchangeable way in which Paul, for instance, applies "Lord" in one breath to the Father, to the Old Testament Yahweh, and to Jesus Christ (Rom 10:11,13; 14:4,6,8,11,12, etc.) clearly indicates that while God the Father was, as He must be, the ultimate and principal object of worship, the heart and thought of God's New Testament people also rested with adoring love on Him who is "worthy .... to receive the power and riches and wisdom, and might, and glory, and honor and blessing." The angel of the Apocalypse would not permit the adoration of the seer (Rev 22:9), but Jesus accepts the homage of Thomas, and in the Fourth Gospel declares it the duty of all to "honor the Son, even as they honor the Father" (Jn 5:23).

The classical passages for Christian worship are Jn 4:23,24, culminating in (margin): "God is spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth," and Phil 3:3, "who worship by the Spirit of God." These define its inner essence, and bar out all ceremonial or deputed worship whatever, except as the former is, what the latter can never be, the genuine and vital expression of inner love and devotion. Anything that really stimulates and expresses the worshipful spirit is so far forth a legitimate aid to worship, but never a substitute for it, and is harmful if it displaces it. Much, perhaps most, stately public worship is as significant to God and man as the clack of a Thibetan prayer-mill. The texts cited also make of worship something far deeper than the human emotion or surrender of will; it is the response of God's Spirit in us to that Spirit in Him, whereby we answer "Abba, Father," deep calling unto deep. Its object is not ingratiation, which is unnecessary, nor propitiation, which has been made "once for all," nor in any way "serving" the God who `needeth not to be worshipped with men's hands' (Acts 17:25), but it is the loving attempt to pay our unpayable debt of love, the expression of devoted hearts, "render(ing) as bullocks the offering of our lips" (Hos 14:2). For detail it is not a physical act or material offering, but an attitude of mind: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit"; "sacrifices of praise, with which God is well pleased"; not the service of form in an outward sanctuary, the presentation of slain animals, but the service of love in a life: "Present your bodies a living sacrifice"; not material sacrifices, but spiritual: your rational "service"; not the service about an altar of stone or wood, but about the sanctuary of human life and need; for this is true religion ("service," "worship," threskeia), "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction"; not the splendor of shining robes or the sounding music of trumpets or organs, but the worshipping glory of holy lives; in real fact, "hallowing Thy name," "and keeping oneself unspotted from the world." The public worship of God in the presence of His people is a necessity of the Christian life, but in spiritual Christianity the ceremonial and outward approaches, if it does not quite reach, the vanishing point.

LITERATURE.

BDB; Thayer's New Testament Lexicon under the word; arts; on "Praise," "Worship," "Temple," "Church," "Prayer," in HDB, DB, New Sch-Herz, DCG; Commentaries on Psalms, Chronicles, Corinthians; Weizsacker, The Apostolic Age of the Church, II; Pfleiderer, Das Urchristenthum (English translation); Leoning, Gemeindeverfassung des Urchristenthums; Edersheim, The Temple, Its Ministry and Service, as They Were at the Time of Jesus Christ, and Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah; Hort, The Christian Ecclesia; Lindsay, Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries; McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age.

Philip Wendell Crannell


WORSHIP, IMAGE

See IMAGES .


WORSHIPPER

wur'-ship-er.

See TEMPLE KEEPERS ;WORSHIP .


WORTHIES

wur'-thiz ('addir, "majestic," "noble" (compare Jdg 5:13, etc.)):In Nah 2:5, the King James Version "He shall recount his worthies" (margin "gallants"), the English Revised Version "He remembereth his worthies," the American Standard Revised Version "He remembereth his nobles." As Massoretic Text stands, the Assyrian king hurriedly summons his commanders to repel the assault, but the passage is obscure and the text quite possibly in need of emendation.


WOT

See WIST ;WITTY ;WOT .



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