What Does Acts 10:25 Mean in the King James?
And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The bow reveals how easily reverence can land on the messenger instead of the source.
THE MEANING
This scene exposes a live confusion: reverence can settle on the person carrying the message as though he were its source. The next verse restores shared ground by naming Peter as a man, bringing the reader back to the distinction between messenger and God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a person who carries a divine message becomes divine or stands above other human beings.
THE ROOT
προσεκύνησεν
prosekynēsen
GROWS FROM
προσκυν-
proskyn-
To bow down, prostrate oneself, or render homage.
“worshipped” in this verse is prosekynēsen. The Greek verb names the bowing gesture itself; its force comes from whom the bow is directed toward. Here Cornelius’s posture makes the question of where reverence lands visible, and the next verse puts both men on shared human ground.
ALSO GROWS
proskynēsis: Bowing or an act of homage.
προσκύνησις
This noun names the posture enacted when Cornelius falls at Peter’s feet.
proskynētēs: One who bows in worship.
προσκυνητής
This related word names the person performing the posture, keeping the focus on who receives the bow.
THE PATTERN
When reverence lands on a creature, the scene redirects it toward God.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.THE THREAD
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.The same Greek verb appears when John falls at an angel’s feet to worship him, and the angel rejects the bow and redirects it to God. That repetition makes the next movement in Acts legible: a messenger remains a fellow servant, never the source.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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