What Pose For Prayer?

[Drusilla]

I know Christians traditionally kneel and place their hands together to pray and am aware how Moslem men pray. I have watched Tv pictures of Jewish men at their sacred wall in Jerusalem, but would be interested to know how ancient peoples prayed to their Gods.
Did early Christians pray with arms outstretched to represent crucifixion?
Did Celts kneel, stand or bow heads to their deities?
Did any religious groups prostrate themselves to pray?
I would also like to know how modern Moslem and Jewish women pray today.
Thanks in advance, even if you only answer sections of my somewhat rambling question.

[princessjll]

Thought you might find this interesting. It's quite a bit, but gives a good answer to some of your questions.

Too much for one post; I'll do it in several.

Prayer and Homage. Standing. Among the Hebrews and many of the other nations mentioned in the Bible, there was no set form of posture for prayer. All the attitudes assumed were highly respectful. Standing was a common posture. Jesus spoke of this position for prayer. (Mr 11:25) Immediately after being baptized, Jesus was evidently standing and praying when the heaven was opened up and the holy spirit in bodily shape like a dove came down upon him, and God�s own voice was heard from the heavens.�Lu 3:21, 22.

Kneeling was a common attitude of prayer. Jesus himself knelt in the garden of Gethsemane. (Lu 22:41) In representing the nation of Israel in prayer Solomon knelt at the inauguration of the temple. (1Ki 8:54) While many of the instances in the Bible use the word �knees� in the plural, it may be that at times a person would kneel upon one knee, as is done sometimes by modern Orientals.�Ac 9:40; 20:36; 21:5; Eph 3:14.

[princessjll]

Bowing. The Jews, wherever they were found, when worshiping turned their faces toward the city of Jerusalem and its temple. (1Ki 8:42, 44; Da 6:10) In vision Ezekiel saw 25 men with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah, bowing with their faces toward the E. (Eze 8:16) Temples of the sun worshipers were built in such a manner that the entrance was on the W side, making the worshipers face E on entering. But the temple of Jehovah was built with the entrance in the E so that the worshipers of Jehovah there turned their backs on the place of the rising of the sun.

Extending the arms. In the postures of standing and kneeling, the palms of the hands would sometimes be spread out to the heavens, or the hands would be lifted up or extended forward as in supplication. (1Ki 8:22; 2Ch 6:13; Ne 8:6) The face would sometimes be uplifted (Job 22:26), or a person might lift up his eyes toward the heavens.�Mt 14:19; Mr 7:34; Joh 17:1.

Sitting and prostrating. Sitting was another posture employed in prayer, the petitioner evidently kneeling and then sitting back upon his heels. (1Ch 17:16) From this position he could bow his head or rest it on his bosom. Or, as Elijah did, he might crouch to the earth and put his face between his knees. (1Ki 18:42) �Falling down� or �falling on one�s face� is often the way the Scriptures express a person�s prostrating himself. This was usually done by falling on the knees and bowing forward, resting on the hands or, more often, the elbows, with the head touching the ground. (Ge 24:26, 48; Ne 8:6; Nu 16:22, 45; Mt 26:39) In great sorrow or very fervent prayer the petitioner might actually lie on his face with his body outstretched. In cases of extreme distress, the petitioner might wear sackcloth. (1Ch 21:16) False worshipers also bowed down before their idols. (Ex 20:5; Nu 25:2; 2Ki 5:18; Da 3:5-12) Additionally, false worshipers would often kiss their idols.�1Ki 19:18.

[princessjll]

Religious gestures toward an object.

Job pointed out the danger of letting one�s heart be enticed toward some object of reverence such as the sun or the moon to the point of making a worshipful gesture toward it, perhaps placing one�s hand to one�s mouth in a kiss the way pagan moon worshipers and those giving homage to idols did. Job realized that this was a denial of the true God and would require an accounting for such error.�Job 31:26-28.

Christian postures for prayer. Jesus prayed publicly, in sincerity, as did Paul and others. He also recommended private prayer. (Mt 6:5, 6) But Jesus condemned ostentatiousness in making long prayers for a pretense, a practice into which some of the scribes had fallen. (Mr 12:40; Lu 20:47) However, Christians adopted many of the customs and practices of the Jewish synagogue�ones that God did not disapprove�and the same attitudes and postures of prayer are mentioned in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Nowhere do they give support to a facial or bodily attitude of assumed piety and sanctimoniousness. They do not make any given posture, such as placing the palms together or clasping the hands when offering prayer, essential. In fact, prayers can be made silently and completely without outward manifestation, when the individual is carrying on an assigned duty or is faced with an emergency. (Compare Ne 2:4.) Christians are told to carry on prayer �with every form of prayer and supplication.��Eph 6:18. That exhausts my reference works! Hope it helps! Very interesting read!

[Drusilla]

Thank you so much princessjll. That was a fantastic answer and much appreciated.

[Insurgent]

There are no differences in the way Muslim men and Women Pray. Though women often place their hands higher that men when praying (Hands are placed right over left, palms down towards the body, between navel and chest, though some Muslims don�t place their hands anywhere on their torso and just keep them at their side during prayer), some women tend to place their hands higher up, on their lower chest. Differences in pray can occur due to which groups you belong to i.e. salafi, wahabi etc and there are many groups. Different groups follow different scholars and schools of thought (madhabs) there are four main schools of thought within Sunni Islam (who make up the majority of Muslims, around 90%) Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali, who were important scholars in Islam and had slightly different interpretations of Hadith (sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)) and Shariah (Islamic Law). Your school of thought is usually determined by what area of the world your in or brought up in, but there are no rules which say you can�t follow whichever school you wish.
Hanafi school - Both Moghul and Ottoman empires were Hanafi, that means their former subjects would normally be Hanafi: Turkey, Central Asia, the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh.
Maliki school - is followed in Algeria, Tunis, Morocco, Mauritania, Libya, Kuwait, Bahrain, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
There are Shafi'is in Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somali and North Yemen, but the main concentration of the Shafi madhab is in South East Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Muslim minorities of mainland SEA and the Philippines are exclusively Shafi.
Hanbalis are concentrated in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, North East of Oman and the rest of the Arab Emirates.

[Insurgent]

When praying in a mixed congregation women will either pray in their own area away from view of men or directly behind the men (this is not due to men having a higher place or because they are seen as more important, Which is a common misconception. But it to keep people�s concentration on praying and not on the opposite sex, which would break their namaz (prayer) and nullify their wudu (pre-prayer ablution). It�s more likely that it�s men eyeing up the women, rather than women looking at the men and due to the amount of bending and prostrating during prayers, it would give pervier (not sure that�s a word!) members of the congregation ample opportunity to perv on the opposite sex in a compromising position.

[pega]

WHEN l went to the wailing wall in Jerusalem Men and Women go through different gates and there is a wall between, most people wrote prayers and pushed the paper in the wall, its not all that prayerful really crowds moving around like a market and you had to take everything out your pockets, and go through security we were told not to take anything only our camera's which were checked, we all left money. watches. etc on the bus the tv pictures don't really give a true picture.

As far as christians kneeling in church very few do now most sit down all the time, at an early sunday mass only about 3 or 4 people kneel, and I was the only one who knelt down at a midweek service in a Cathedral.

[pugwashjw]

At Exodus 9; 29-33, Moses spread his hands 'up' to Almighty God.

Moses said to him: �As soon as I go out of the city I shall spread my hands up to Jehovah. The thunders will stop and the hail will not continue any longer, in order that you may know that the earth belongs to Jehovah. 30 As for you and your servants, I know already that YOU will not even then show fear because of Jehovah God.�

31 As it was, the flax and the barley had been struck, because the barley was in the ear and the flax had flower buds. 32 But the wheat and the spelt had not been struck, because they were seasonally late. 33 Moses now went out of the city from Phar�aoh and spread his hands up to Jehovah, and the thunders and the hail began to stop and rain did not pour down on the earth. 34 When Phar�aoh got to see that the rain and the hail and the thunders had stopped, he went sinning again and making his heart unresponsive, he as well as his servants. 35 And Phar�aoh�s heart continued obstinate, and he did not send the sons of Israel away, just as Jehovah had stated by means of Moses.