Religion in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE
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 1:26,27 (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 I Macc 1:43; 2:19,22. Otherwise
"Jews' religion" (or "religion of the Jews") appears in 2 Macc
8:1; 14:38 (the Revised Version (British and American) bis);
Gal 1:13,14 (Ioudaismos, "Judaism"); and "an alien religion"
in 2 Macc 6:24 (allophulismos, "that belonging to another
tribe"). The neglect of the external force of "religion" has
led to much reckless misquoting of Jas 1:26,27. Compare Acts
17:22.
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