There is a debate in some circles as to whether λατρευω, the highest form of cultic worship, is given to Jesus in the Bible. Here, I shall add a few brief notes on this issue.
The main text of the Old Testament that is appealed to is Dan 7:14. Speaking of the Son of Man, we read:
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a
kingdom that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: and his
dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed.
Aquila’s text of the LXX uses λατρευω to render the Aramaic פלח. As Jesus is identified with this eschatological figure in the New Testament (e.g. Matt 20:28), some have argued that the NT authors viewed it proper that Jesus would be the recipient of such cultic worship, and therefore, is numerically identical to the One God (both Trinitarians and Oneness apologists have used such an argument). However, Theodotion’s corrected master text of the LXX does not use λατρευω but δουλευω which is a much more ambiguous term (both God and other figures, including angels, exalted figures, and even earthly kings are given such in both canonical and non-canonical sources). While it is true that some Unitarians and others will argue that any appeal to the underlying Aramaic will not clarify the issue, as the verb can be understood as within varying degrees of “service," such is not the case. The Aramaic verb פלח is used exclusively for religious service in biblical Aramaic, adding to Dan 7:14 being Old Testament support for the worship of Jesus, who identifies himself as the eschatological Son of Man in the Gospels. In the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, we read the following:
III. Religious Use. Since Aramaic also designates God as “lord” beginning in the earliest sources, a religious use of the verb plḥ to mean “to serve God” is obvious. This service finds expression primarily in cultic worship and personal piety, while plḥ has the nuance here of “to revere, to worship.” Thus, it occurs in Imperial Aramiac in a grave inscription from Egypt in the wish that the deceased may serve Osiris in the afterlife: hwy plḥh, thus an imperative with a verbal participle “be serving” or, more likely, with a substantival participle “be a servant/worshiper.” In any case, the participle functions substantivally in the construct. In the phrase plḥ ʾlhʾ “worshiper of the gods” it occurs in memorial inscriptions from Hatra.
Biblical Aramaic employs plḥ exclusively with a religious connotation: in Dnl. 3:12, 14, 18, 28 for idol worship that Daniel and his companions avoid, in 6:17, 21 for the worship of the true God, and, finally, in 7:14, 27 for the defining relationship of the whole world—all nations and especially all powers—with God at the dawn of his eschatological kingdom. Ezra 7:24 employs the participle plḥy byt ʾlhʾ in a more restricted, probably summary, sense for the other cultic personnel in addition to various functions previously mentioned explicitly.
The few pertinent instances from Qumran reflect the same semantic spectrum: in 4Q550 7+7a:1, plḥ denotes the worship among the Jews; in a vision of Noah in 1QapGen 15:18, in contrast, perhaps pagan idol worship (although in a very fragmentary context). The two small fragments 4Q570 16:4 (C-stem?) and 17:2 are preserved with insufficient contexts. (Holger Gzella, “פלח,” in Holger Gzella ed., Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, Volume 16: Aramaic Dictionary [trans. Mark E. Biddle; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2018], 607)
Notwithstanding, if one wishes to allow early Christian evidence, Justin Martyr, in chapter 31 of his Dialogue with Trypho, when quoting Daniel 7:14, uses λατρεύουσα:
The text of Dan 7:14 notwithstanding, it seems clear that the early Christians (or at least, some of them) had a Greek text that used λατρευω.
Two well-known biblical texts that use λατρευω are Rev 7:15 and 22:3:
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve (λατρευω) him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. (Rev 7:15)
And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve (λατρευω) him. (Rev 22:3)
Some may be tempted to claim that the recipient of λατρευω is Jesus. However, in Rev 7, Jesus is not on the throne of God, but the Father is, but instead is “in the midst of the throne” (7:17), therefore, differentiating between the recipient of λατρευω and Jesus. As for 22:3, the pronoun “him” is αυτω, a singular masculine dative; it is not predicated upon plural persons, but a single person, viz. God (the Father). Again, nothing in this text allows for one to predicate λατρευω upon Jesus.
Interestingly, however, is that in various texts contemporary with the New Testament, a person other than God is given λατρευω based on the proximity of their relationship with God. In the Sibylline Oracles 8:442-444, God commands creation to give λατρευω to Adam due to his being made in God's image (cf. Gen 1:26-27):
Behold, let us make man in a form altogether like our own, and let us give him life-sustaining breath; Him being yet mortal all things of the world will serve (λατρευω).
