Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/255

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iiiiciint

Adoption Adoration

THE JEWISH EXCYCLOPEDIA

209 Israel is

shown

l)y the

nX

expression

H^Jn

n 'JD ("to implore God's irracc"), which. aecording to Marti ("(icsLliiclite dcr JUdisehcn Ui-lijiion." p. 34), originally meant "to propitiate the god" by stroking the face of the idol (eorn[iare Ps. xlv. 13; Toa])pear barefooted in thesimeProv. xix. G, llili. tiiary wasanotheraneient Semitic mode of ailoration, md also as may be seen from Ev. iii 5aud .losh. v. lo from the fact that the heathen Arabs ])erfornied their sacred pilgrimage barefoot (Wcllhausen, l.r. 110). ).



form of the root ^^p ("to bend the knee"); for the full n'lnncn (" prostration ") was preceded by a bending of tlic knee. The Old Testament mentions the Semitic practise of setting one's foot upon the neck of the coni|iiered foe (Josh. X. '^4. Ps. ex. 1), a custom also mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions (see the plate in Kiehm, " Haiulbuch d. liiblischeii Altertlnims," p. SH!t). It was a sign of complete subjugation, and was expressed syndiolically by the ceremony of prunA-yiiinis ("lying down"), as shown, for

WORSHIPEKS OY THE STARS. (From

Mfiiiiiil,

" Ulyptlquu

Ortental.-.")

In could nipt remain unchanged, and were Prophetical therefore, liki' so many other ancient Times. customs, adapteil to the newer relig-

instance, by the tribute-bearing legates on the Assyrian bas-reliefs, and was commonly jiractised among the Hebrews toward jieojile of rank, or in the presence of the idol to whom one wished to express comjilete subjection. That the prophets have no words so inapproof reproach for this fiprm of adoration priate to the invisible (lod whom no jilace could contain shows oidy how deeply this religious form of reverence had taken root in the habits of the peo-

ious views. Thus. the various gestures and positions of the body at jirayer especially in

The standing posture at prayer was ple. reproved by them, although this was. as the

The underlying

idea seems to have been to avoid polluting the deity residing in the shrine by bringing into that shrine the dust of the street. With the spiritual developnient of Jewish worship in other words, with the triumph of the prophetic idea the ancient Forms of Adoration

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betray (piite distinctly their the preexilic ])eriod origin in the old places of worship. The spreading of the hands at pniyer. fn^quently mentioned in the older portions of Scripture (Isa. i. I.'). Ex. ix. 2!l). is, as the Assyrian bas-relief of Jews before Scmiaclierib indicates, the gesture of one staniling before a superior and spreading his hanils in petitii>n toward liiin (liabelon, "Manual of Oriental Anliciuities," Hipresenting, as this As.syrian picp. KKi, i)late 1). ture does, aclmdly theattiludi- of entreaty toward a human king, ther<' is no doubt that the nligious mode of this same gesture was originally identical with it; hence the represenlal ions liy Stade, ovviick, liinzingir, and most mode rns. which depict it lis similar to that of tin' Kgyplian priests, with hands extended towanl an altar, must he rejected. The ndoratioii proper of the IJible, namely, lying prone with the face touching the ground, is a survival from tln' older saniluaries. The Hebrew word for this gesture is mnnL'TI ("to prosliate oneself"), usually coinbiniil with ^23 (" to fall down in surpris(> "; Josh. V, II; Job. i. '.'»)(at other times preccdeil by some

I.-I4

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alsi>

not

Talmud

the attitude of the slave before his mas-

(h'clares it," ter "(.Sliab. KV/).

to interpret the posture described iu where Elijah at i)rayer is reprt^sente<l as having "cast himself ilown upon t hi' earth, and i)Ut his face bet ween his knees " (com|)are Ta'an. This probably refers to the custom prevailiii. H). ing among the Arabs of sitting solemnly, during a portion of the prayer, in an atlitudi' in which the That this was no iiea<l can easily touch the ground. inusual postureat prayer may be seen from the fact thatit was pnicliscd among the Jews about the year Proliably tln' pas(10 of the common era (Her. 'MI'^i. vii. IS where it is statiil that King sjiire. II Sam I)a id went into the house of the Lord and sjit thea' is to be similarly explained as referring to ii peculiar and solemn mode of sitting. Intlueiiced by the As,syrians. among whom the act of kneeling in token of submission was inutc as shown in the Assyrian delineations geni'ral of the kneeling envoys from tributary nations the Jews adopted this form of religious adoration It is (liflicilt

I

Kings,

xviii. 42,

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