Meaning
Religion re-lij'-un: "Religion" and "religious" in Elizabethan English were used frequently to denote the outward expression of worship. This is the force of threskeia, translated "religion" in Acts 26:5, Jas 1:26, Jas 1:27 (with adjective threskos, "religious"), while the same noun in Col 2:18 is rendered "worshipping" ("cult" would give the exact meaning). And in the same external sense "religion" is used by the King James Version for latreia, "worship" (so the Revised Version (British and American)), in Macc 1:43, 2:19,22. Otherwise "Jews' religion" (or "religion of the Jews") appears in 2Macc 8:1, 14:38; (the Revised Version (British and American) bis); Gal 1:13, Gal 1:14 (Ioudaismos, "Judaism"); and "an alien religion" in 2Macc 6:24 (allophulismos, "that belonging to another tribe"). The neglect of the external force of "religion" has led to much reckless misquoting of Jas 1:26, Jas 1:27. Compare Ac 17:22.
See SUPERSTITION.
Burton Scott Easton
