WORSHIP, both as subst. and verb, was formerly used of reverence or honour done to men as well as to God, and so occurs in Lk 14'° ' then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee' (o6Ja, KV 'glory'). The word is a contraction of worthship (from Anglo-Sax. weorth ' worth,' with the suffix scipe, Eng. ship, Ger. sr.haft, akin to sliape). It is used of men in earlier versions frequently. See Driver, Par. Psalt. s.v. for the Pr. Bk. Psalms. Cf. also for the subst., W3'tlif, n'orks, iii. loG, ' Men abstenen in werre, with myche fastyng and peyne, to wynne worechip of the worlde and to anoye hir enmyes' ; Nu 24" Tind. ' I thouglite that I wolde promote the unto honoure, but the Lorde hath kepte tlie backe from worshepe'; Job 14-' Gov. 'Whether iiis children come to worshipe or no, he can not tell.' And for the verb, Jn 12* Wj-c. ' If ony man serue me, my fadir schal worschip hym'; Pr. Bk. Marriage Service, 'With my body I thee worsliip.'
J. Hastings.
WORSHIP (IN OT).— See Praise (in OT) and Temple.
WORSHIP (in NT). — Christian worship grew out of the .Jewisli synagogue worsliip, to which, in its early forms, it bore considerable resemblance. Our Lord with His disciples visited the synagogues at Capernaum (Mk P' 3') and Nazareth (Mk 6») ; and, as He preached in the synagogues of Galilee generally (Mk P", Lk 6'), He must have taken part in the public worship. Wlien St. Paul was on his missionary tours he invariably sought out the synagogue, or, if that were wanting, the proseuclU (Ac 16"), no doubt joining in tlie Jewish worship. See Synaoooue. It was only by de- glees that Christian worship came to supersede synarjogue worship in the Church. At first the meetings of the Christian brotherhood, which of course were held in private, were quite distinct from the Sabbath worship, and Jewish Christians would go to the synagogue on the Saturday and to their o^vn meeting on the Sunday. The fipistle of St. James seems to imply that the community there addressed consisted of the worshippers in some synagogue who had accepted Christianity as a body, and who then continued to meet in the building, but as a Christian Church, so that the writer, referring to the place of worship where the Church assembled, could call it 'your synagogue' (Ja 2' ; but von Soden understands the word crwo- yuyri here to mean 'as-sembly,' see Ildcom. in loc; Bennett allows that it may mean the Jewish place of worship ' if the Epistle is very early,' though preferring 'assembly' as KVm, see Century liihle, »n loc.). The separation of Christian from Jewish
worship was brought about under various influ- ences, viz. (I) Jewish antagonism, leading to the expulsion of the Christians from the synagogue ; (2) Church development, giving more importance to the worship carried on in the Christian assembly and stamping it with an individual character, thus rendering attendance at the Jewish synagogue superfluous and incon<;ruous ; (3) the conversion of the heathen on the lines of Pauline liberalism, dispensing with circumcision, so that the Gentile Christians could not be regarded as prosel3'tes to Judaism. As these free Hellenistic (Christians in- creased in number, and before long became the majority of the Apostolic Church, the necessity for maintaining Christian worship quite apart from the synagogue would be apparent to all but the narrow Judaizers.
L Teaching and Practice of Jesus Christ. — The only worship that our Lord expressly required was private worship, as when He warned His dis- ciples against the Pharisaic ostentation of piajing 'in the synagogues [private prayers] and in tlie corners of the streets,' and bade them enter their 'inner chamber' and pray to their 'Father which is in secret ' (Mt 6"). His teaching about prayer deals with the subject of personal prayer, encourag- ing individual faith with regard to specific petitions (e.(f. Lk 11'"'^). In one place He commends the united prayer of two persons for a common end (Mt 18'"); but this refers to a special emergency, and has no bearing on public worship. On the other hand. He assuraea that His disciples took part in public worship ; He did not need to com- mand a universal practice which He sanctioned by Himself following it. Whenever our Lord's own praying is referred to, this is not connected with public worship. Most frequently it is associated with mountain solitude. In this worship He was either entirely alone or praying by Himself in the presence of disciples rather than praying with them. Still, is it quite accurate to say that He never prayed together with other men ? Must He not have done this in the synagogue? The inci- dent of the woman of Sam.aria contains His most significant utterance on the subject of worship, in which He denies the peculiar eflicacy of sacred places (Jerusalem claimed by the Jews, Gerizim claimed by the Samaritans), and affirms that, for the future, worship must be ' in spirit,' i.e. in- ternal, not merely in external functions, and ' in truth,' i.e. in accordance with the nature of God and our true relations with Him as at once ' Sjilrit ' and ' Father ' (Jn i'"- -*). That this teach- ing influenced the Church, remleriiig the dedica- tion of sacred buildings superfluous, is apparent from Justin Martyr's answer to I{usticus(c. le.^j a.d. ) who had inqiilred, ' Where do you assemble ? ' Justin said, 'Where each one chooses . . . because the God of the Christians is not circumscribed by place ; but, bein^j; invisible, fills heaven and earth, and everywhere is worshipped and glorified by the faithful ' [Martyrdom, 2).