The Anglo-Irish clergyman and scholar Richard Frederick Littledale (1833-1890) wrote a book called Plain Reasons Against Joining the Church of Rome (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1881), which I will critique. His words will be in blue. I use RSV for biblical citations.
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We have only four examples in the New Testament of acts of reverence being done to Saints, and in all these cases they were promptly rejected and forbidden, showing that they were offensive to the Saints, as savouring of disloyalty to that God Whom they love and serve.
Having mentioned only “Saints” being the subjects of possible “acts of reverence” he proceeds to give two examples of attempted (and rejected) worship of men, and two acts of attempted (and rejected) worship of angels. But he doesn’t cover every example in the Bible (nor even in the New Testament) as I will show below. Those “thorough” Protestant Bible students, huh? . . .
“And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up, I myself also am a man” (Acts x. 25, 26).
“Then the priest of Jupiter …. would have done sacrifice with the people; which when the Apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, 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 to serve the living God” (Acts xiv. 13-15).
“And I [John] fell at his feet [the angel’s] to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not. I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God” (Rev. xix. 10).
“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow-servant . . . worship God” (Rev. xxii. 8, 9).
Note that none of these are examples Catholics would bring up in order to defend the veneration of saints or angels. And we don’t because they all involve worship or adoration, and not veneration (which is essentially honor). Three of the four have the word “worship”. The Acts 14 passage doesn’t, but it was essentially the same scenario. The people at Lystra thought Paul and Barnabas were “gods” (14:11) and Luke reports that “Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, because he was the chief speaker, they called Hermes” (14:12) and that “the priest of Zeus . . . wanted to offer sacrifice with the people” (14:13). This was polytheism and idolatry, so of course Paul and Barnabas couldn’t accept that. But again, this is not the Catholic argument for veneration anyway. Littledale in his infinite wisdom doesn’t even seem to know what those might be.
Paul and his second companion, Silas, were in fact, venerated in the New Testament, and they did not rebuke the Philippian jailer who did it:
Acts 16:25-31 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, [26] and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and every one’s fetters were unfastened. [27] When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. [28] But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” [29] And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, [30] and brought them out and said, “Men, what must I do to be saved?” [31] And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
The Greek for “fell down before” in Acts 16:29 is prospipto (Strong’s word # 4363). It is also used of worship towards Jesus in five passages (Mk 3:11; 5:33; 7:25; Lk 8:28, 47). So why didn’t Paul and Silas rebuke the jailer? I submit that it was because they perceived his act as one of veneration (which is permitted) as opposed to adoration or worship, which is not permitted to be directed towards creatures. Prospipto can be used for either thing. The word “worship” doesn’t appear here. When it does appear (in English) in connection with a man or angel, it isn’t permitted.
Angels (called “men” in this passage, as angels sometimes are) are also bowed to in the New Testament, with no rebuke at all:
Luke 24:4-5 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; [5] and as they were frightened and bowed [klino] their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
The women were not told to get up, as if they had done anything improper. This is (arguably, plausibly) because they were venerating the angel and not adoring or worshiping, which would be impermissible. Daniel also venerated an angel (seemingly Gabriel) without rebuke:
Daniel 8:15-17 When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it; and behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. [16] And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the U’lai, and it called, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.” [17] So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was frightened and fell upon my face. But he said to me, “Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end.”
So did Lot:
Genesis 19:1 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening; and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and bowed himself with his face to the earth,
They distinguish themselves from the LORD in Genesis 19:13 (“the LORD has sent us to destroy it” [Sodom]). In other words, neither was the “angel of the Lord”: often equated with God. King David was venerated in the Old Testament, too:
1 Chronicles 29:20 Then David said to all the assembly, “Bless the LORD your God.” And all the assembly blessed the LORD, the God of their fathers, and bowed their heads, and worshiped [shachah] the LORD, and did obeisance [shachah] to the king. [KJV: “worshipped the LORD, and the king”]
Once again, one word in Hebrew (as in Greek) can mean either worship or veneration / obeisance. Context determines which, and in this instance the English translation made the distinction clear. Daniel was also venerated (without rebuke from him):
Daniel 2:46-48 Then King Nebuchadnez’zar fell upon his face, and did homage to [cegid] Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him.[47] The king said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.” [48] Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts,
David venerated King Saul:
1 Samuel 24:8 Afterward David also arose, and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and did obeisance [shachah].
Bathsheba venerated King David:
1 Kings 1:16, 31 Bathshe’ba bowed and did obeisance [shachah] to the king, . . . [31] Then Bathshe’ba bowed with her face to the ground, and did obeisance [KJV: “did reverence] [shachah] to the king,
Joseph’s brothers venerated him:
Genesis 42:6 Now Joseph was governor over the land; he it was who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came, and bowed themselves [shachah] before him with their faces to the ground.
Genesis 43:26-28 When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present which they had with them, and bowed down [shachah] to him to the ground. [27] And he inquired about their welfare, and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?” [28] They said, “Your servant our father is well, he is still alive.” And they bowed their heads and made obeisance [shachah].
Did Joseph tell them not to do that? Nope. King Saul venerated the prophet Samuel after his death (and Samuel didn’t object):
1 Samuel 28:14 . . . And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed [qadad] with his face to the ground, and did obeisance [shachah].
This is almost the most explicit conceivable biblical evidence (from Hebrew words and what is described in the passage) for veneration of creatures that can be imagined. He is venerating a dead prophet and the two Hebrew words used to describe what he did are both applied many times to adoration of God (because they can be used in different ways).
So, in summary, Rev. Littledale provided four passages that are all non sequiturs (i.e., irrelevant) in this particular discussion. I provide eleven that are perfectly relevant, and that show the truthfulness of Catholic claims regarding veneration of men and angels. And that’s how it so often sadly goes in Catholic-Protestant discussions on the Bible and Catholic doctrines. We can easily explain the passages they bring up, and they ignore and/or cannot explain the ones we produce. We’re much more thoroughly biblical.
We conclude (as Catholics always have) that worship / adoration is reserved for God alone, while veneration / honor is encouraged to be offered to worthy, saintly men and the holy angels. All this is plainly seen in the Bible, in my eleven examples above.
We also can rightly conclude, in light of all these fascinating passages, that God (unlike far too many Protestants) doesn’t seem to think that human beings are so breathtakingly stupid and ignorant that they can’t (or very often cannot) tell the difference between creatures and God, or between veneration and adoration / worship.
Therefore, He didn’t see fit (in inspiring those who wrote his revelation to man) to even bother to use a different word for the two in Hebrew or Greek; and even in the New Testament, the gesture (falling down) was no different for veneration than it was for adoration. According to the Protestant retort, this causes confusion and idolatry, but according to Catholicism and the Bible, people generally have enough discernment to know the difference between the two.
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Photo credit: Joseph recognized by his brothers (1863), by Léon Pierre Urbain Bourgeois (1842-1911) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]
Summary: Anglican apologist Richard Frederick Littledale (1833-1890) claimed there were no biblical indications of veneration of saints or angels. I happily provide eleven explicit passages.
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