1. to worship, revere God — To worship, revere, or show religious devotion, used in the NT both as a finite verb describing the act of worship and as a substantival participle designating 'God-fearers' (sebomenoi), the well-known class of Gentile sympathizers attached to synagogues. As a finite verb: Jesus quotes Isaiah that people 'worship me in vain' (Matt 15:9, Mark 7:7, sebontai); Artemis is 'worshiped' by all Asia (Acts 19:27, sebetai); Paul is accused of persuading people 'to worship' God contrary to the law (Acts 18:13, sebesthai). As a substantival participle: 'worshiping/devout' proselytes and God-fearers who attend synagogue (Acts 13:43 sebomenon, 13:50 sebomenas, 16:14 sebomene Lydia, 17:4 sebomenon Greeks, 17:17 sebomenois in the agora, 18:7 sebomenou Titius Justus). All multilingual glosses confirm a unified semantic field: Arabic ya'buduna/muta'abbida, German verehrt/anbeten, French adorer, Hebrew me'yar'im/yir'ei shamayim/'ovdim, Korean gyeongbaehada/gyeonggeonhan, Spanish venerar/adorar/temeroso. The six auto-split clusters reflect only morphological variation (present indicative 3P/3S, present participle in various cases GMP/AFP/NFS/GMS/DMP, present infinitive) with no real semantic distinction; both the verbal and participial uses denote the same act of religious devotion. 10×
AR["أَنْ-يَعْبُدُوا","الأَتقِياءِ","تَعْبُدُهَا","مُتَعَبِّداتِ","مُتَعَبِّدينَ","مُتَعَبِّدَةٌ","مُتَّقٍ","يَعْبُدُونَ"]·ben["ঈশ্বরভক্ত","উপাসক","উপাসকদের","উপাসনা-করতে","উপাসনা-করে","পূজা-করে","ভক্ত","ভক্তদের","ভক্তি-করছে"]·DE["anbeten","verehrt"]·EN["devout","they-worship","to-worship","worshiping","worshipping","worships"]·FR["adorer"]·heb["יְרֵא-אֵל","יִרְאֵי-הָ-","יִרְאֵי-הָאֵל","יִרְאֵי-שָׁמַיִם","יִרְאַת-","יִרְאוֹת-שָׁמַיִם","לַעֲבֹד","מְיַרְאִים","עוֹבְדִים","עוֹבֶדֶת"]·HI["पूजता-है","पूजनेवाली","पूजनेवाले","पोओज-करते-हैन","भक्ति-करना","भक्तिन-करने-वाली","भक्तिन-करने-वाले","भक्तिनों-से","मुझे"]·ID["menyembah","mereka-menyembah","yang-menyembah"]·IT["adorare","sebontai"]·jav["ingkang-mursid","kang-nyembah","nyembah","sami-nyembah"]·KO["경건한","경건한-자들과","경배하는","경배하도록","경배한다"]·PT["adora.","adoradoras","adoradores","adoram","que-adorava"]·RU["почитает.","почитать","почитают","чтущая","чтущего","чтущими","чтущих"]·ES["a-adorar","adora","adoradora","adoradoras","adoradores","me-veneran","temeroso","temerosos"]·SW["amchaye","inamwabudu","kuabudu","waabudu","wamchao","wananiabudu","waniabudu"]·TR["tapan","tapanlardan","tapanlarla","tapmayı","tapınıyorlar","tapıyor"]·urd["خدا-ترس","خدا-پرست","عبادت-کرتے-ہیں","عبادت-کرنے-والوں","عبادت-کرنے-والی","عبادت-کرنے-والے","پرستش-کرتی-ہے","پرستش-کرتے-ہیں","پرستش-کرنے-کو"]
Senses
BDB / Lexicon Reference
σέβομαι, mostly used in present: imperfect in Refs 5th c.BC+: future σεβήσομαι Refs 2nd c.AD+: aorist ἐσέφθην Refs 5th c.BC+:—feel awe or fear before God,feel shame, οὔ νυ σέβεσθ; Refs 8th c.BC+; σεφθεῖσα awe-stricken, Refs [same place]: rarely with infinitive, dread or fear to do a thing, σ. προσιδέσθαι.., ἀντία φάσθαι Refs 5th c.BC+: so with accusative of things, to fear to do it, Refs 5th…