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ADORATION.—The word is not found in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] or RV [Note: Revised Version.] , and even for the verb RV [Note: Revised Version.] substitutes ‘worship’ in Bel 4; but both the idea and its expression in act are frequent.
Amongst the Hebrews the postures and gestures expressive of adoration underwent slight change in the course of time. Kissing the statue of a god (1Ki_19:18, Hos_13:2; cf. Job_31:27) was an early Arab. [Note: Arabic.] custom, and became a technical meaning of adoratio amongst the Romans; but in this usage the sense is identical with that of worship. Adoration proper was expressed by prostration to the ground, or even by lying prone with the face touching the ground (Gen_17:3, Jos_5:14, Job_1:20, Psa_95:6; Psa_99:5, Dan_3:5). As elsewhere, this posture was not at first confined to intercourse with God. As an act of special courtesy it was adopted towards kings (2Sa_14:4), towards strangers of mysterious quality (Gen_18:2), as an expression of close and respectful attachment (1Sa_20:41), or with the design to conciliate (Gen_33:3, 1Sa_25:23, Est_8:3, Mat_18:26), or to honour (2Ki_4:37). ‘Sat before the Lord’ (2Sa_7:18) may refer to a special and solemn mode of sitting, as in 1Ki_18:42; the Arabs are said to have sat during a part of their worship in such a way that the head could easily be bent forward and made to touch the ground.
Outside the Christian sphere, prostration continued in the East to be a mark of submission and homage, rendered to such men as were for any reason or even by convention invested in thought with Divine qualities or powers. The NT, by example and less frequently by precept, confines this fullest mode of worship to God, and protests against its use towards men. Jairus’ act (Mar_5:22, Luk_8:41) was prompted by intense yearning, a father’s self-abandonment in the sore sickness of his child, and must not be taken as implying a full recognition of Christ’s Divinity. Like Mary’s posture at Bethany (Joh_11:32), it was a preparation for the attitude of the disciples after their visit to the empty tomb (Mat_28:9). Whatever Cornelius intended (Act_10:25 f.), Peter found an opportunity to lay down the rule that no man under any circumstances is an appropriate object of adoration; and John repeats that rule twice not far from the end of Scripture (Rev_19:10; Rev_22:8 f.). The attempt to alienate from God His peculiar honours is a work of Satan (Mat_4:9); and adoration naturally follows a conviction of the presence of God (1Co_14:25).
R. W. Moss.