λατρευω as Worship in Rom.1:9

Naw, I think "serve" is the right translation here. He talks about "in the Gospel," which could be instrumental, but any way you look at it I'm having a hard time imagining "worshipping...in the Gospel. (My two yen worth.) :type:

 

It’s 3 AM and I can’t sleep; my left shoulder’s acting up; getting old is tough.

Curiously I would have guessed that Paul would have used some form of διάκονοι rather than this word.

Re: it’s use in the LXX, TDONT notes:
“With a few unimportant exceptions λατρεύω is always used for the Hebrew עָבַד.
But this word is also very frequently rendered δουλεύειν.
It is to be noted that the books which frequently have λατρεύειν use it mostly when עבד has a religious reference, cf. Ex. 3:12; 4:23; 7:16, 26; 8:16; 9:1, 13; 10:3, 7, 8, 24, 26; 20:5; 23:24, 25; Dt. 4:19, 28; 5:9; 6:13; 7:4, 16; Jos. 22:27: 24:14–24, 31.
When the ref. is to human relations, the rendering is always δουλεύειν, cf. Ex. 14:5, 12; 21:2, 6; Dt. 15:12, 18; Ju. 3:8, 14; 9:28, 38; and consistently in Gn.
TDONT (4:60).

Rob

 

Well, gentlemen, what is needed for latreuw is an English word "worship/serve." But unfortunately we don't have such a word, so we have to make a choice. (No such word in Japanese, either, alas.)

TC, good point about Phil. 3:3, since it is a quite similar passage. However, en tw euaggeliw still solves it for me as "serve." To me, context is everything with this word.

I'm not sure how this matters. We serve God as the object and we worship God as the object of the sentence. 2 Tim. 1:3 is a similar construction, and all the translations I checked had "serve" there.

A similar phrase, ἐν πνεύματί μου, occurs in 2 Cor. 2:13 in connection with Paul's activity of searching for Titus. Also, "in the Spirit (or spirit)" occurs 26 times in the English NT in many different contexts, sometimes connected with various activities.

 

Wow fellas, you guys impress me. The only Greek I know runs a deli back in Alabama .

But, is true worship not service, or worship/serve as John puts it. If we understand that there is no worship without service does that make the matter somewaht moot since there is no perfect English word?

 

Hey, I don't want to have to agree with the Message!!! (Too late.)

In the vast majority (maybe all) of the times I've run across proskuneo, the meaning has been a physical act of bowing down. Living in an idolatrous culture makes me especially aware of this meaning of worship. I recently related in another thread how a Japanese lady once bowed down (zarei, seated bow, when we were standing) to another missionary and me and said, "You are like gods." We immediately objected of course. This was not a normal standing bow in greeting. So when I see proskuneo in Scripture I immediately have a mental picture of bowing down to an idol or to a picture of a dead person.

Amen!