QUICK FACTS: WAS JESUS WORSHIPPED — AND IF SO, DOES THAT PROVE JESUS IS GOD?
Does the Greek Word Translated “Worship” Always Mean Worship Given Only to God?
Research by Simon Brown
One of the most common arguments for the deity of Jesus goes something like this:
JESUS WAS WORSHIPPED.
ONLY GOD MAY BE WORSHIPPED.
THEREFORE JESUS MUST BE GOD.
At first sight, this sounds like a very powerful argument.
The New Testament certainly contains passages where people bow before Jesus, honour Him, and—in many English translations—are said to “worship” Him.
But there is an important question that must be answered before drawing a conclusion:
DOES THE BIBLICAL WORD TRANSLATED “WORSHIP” ALWAYS MEAN THAT THE PERSON RECEIVING IT IS GOD?
Because if the same biblical language can also describe honour, homage or bowing before human kings and other authorized figures, then the mere presence of the English word “worship” cannot by itself prove that Jesus is the One True God.
Let's examine the evidence.
QUICK FACT 1 — THE IMPORTANT GREEK WORD IS PROSKYNEŌ
One of the principal Greek words translated “worship” in the New Testament is:
προσκυνέω — PROSKYNEŌ
Depending upon context, it can describe:
bowing down
prostrating oneself
paying homage
showing reverence
and, when God is the object:
worship
This distinction is crucial.
The word itself does not automatically answer the theological question:
IS THE PERSON RECEIVING THIS HOMAGE GOD?
Context helps determine what kind of reverence is intended.
QUICK FACT 2 — JESUS CERTAINLY RECEIVED PROSKYNEŌ
We should not deny what the New Testament actually says.
For example:
MATTHEW 14:33
After Jesus walked upon the water:
“Those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘You are truly the Son of God!’”
The Greek verb is proskyneō.
Again, after the resurrection:
MATTHEW 28:9
The women:
“…took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.”
And:
MATTHEW 28:17
“When they saw him, they bowed down to him…”
So there is no need to argue that nobody ever performed proskyneō toward Jesus.
THEY DID.
The real question is:
WHAT DOES THAT PROVE ABOUT HIS IDENTITY?
QUICK FACT 3 — PROSKYNEŌ IS ALSO USED TOWARD HUMAN BEINGS
This is where the argument becomes more complicated.
The biblical concept of bowing down or paying homage is not restricted exclusively to God.
The Greek Old Testament uses proskyneō for people bowing before human beings.
One particularly important example concerns David.
1 CHRONICLES 29:20
The people:
“…bowed down and paid homage to Yahweh and to the king.”
The ancient Greek Septuagint uses proskyneō in this passage.
Yet King David was obviously not Yahweh.
The people could honour God's appointed king without believing that the king was the God of Israel.
Therefore:
RECEIVING PROSKYNEŌ DOES NOT, BY ITSELF, PROVE THAT THE RECIPIENT IS GOD.
Context is essential.
QUICK FACT 4 — JESUS HIMSELF SAID WHO MUST BE WORSHIPPED AS GOD
Now we come to one of the most important passages.
Satan tempted Jesus:
MATTHEW 4:9
“I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Jesus answered:
MATTHEW 4:10
“Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’”
Jesus quotes Deuteronomy.
Notice where Jesus directs worship:
“THE LORD YOUR GOD.”
And service:
“HIM ONLY.”
Jesus does not tell Satan:
“Worship me because I am your God.”
But we must be careful not to make an argument from silence do more than it can.
A Trinitarian would respond that Jesus is quoting Scripture to reject Satan's demand for worship and that this does not necessarily exclude Jesus from sharing the divine identity.
That response deserves to be acknowledged.
Therefore Matthew 4:10 is important evidence, but the strongest case comes from examining it alongside Jesus' other teachings concerning God and worship.
QUICK FACT 5 — SATAN CALLED JESUS “THE SON OF GOD”
Immediately before this, Satan says:
MATTHEW 4:3
“If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
Again:
MATTHEW 4:6
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down…”
The title used is:
SON OF GOD.
Of course, Satan's words do not establish Christian doctrine.
But Matthew's narrative consistently identifies Jesus as God's Son.
The important point is that Scripture gives Jesus the title:
THE SON OF GOD
rather than requiring us to replace it with the later theological expression:
GOD THE SON.
QUICK FACT 6 — JESUS SAID TRUE WORSHIPPERS WOULD WORSHIP THE FATHER
Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman gives us even clearer evidence.
JOHN 4:23
Jesus says:
“But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.”
Then:
JOHN 4:24
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Notice Jesus' language:
THE TRUE WORSHIPPERS WILL WORSHIP THE FATHER.
This is a remarkable statement.
Jesus does not say:
“True worshippers will worship the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as three persons of the one God.”
Nor does He say here:
“True worshippers will worship me as God.”
He specifically identifies:
THE FATHER
as the object of the true worship He is discussing.
QUICK FACT 7 — DOES JOHN 4:23 BY ITSELF PROVE JESUS CANNOT BE DIVINE?
Again, we need to be fair.
NO — NOT BY ITSELF.
A Trinitarian can say that worshipping the Father does not logically exclude worshipping the Son.
That is true as a matter of logic.
John 4:23 does not contain the sentence:
“The Father alone is divine and the Son is not.”
But Jesus' statement remains highly significant when combined with His other teachings.
Who does Jesus call:
“THE ONLY TRUE GOD”?
JOHN 17:3
Jesus prays to His Father:
“This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”
Jesus distinguishes:
“YOU, THE ONLY TRUE GOD”
from:
“JESUS CHRIST, WHOM YOU SENT.”
That distinction must form part of our investigation.
QUICK FACT 8 — JESUS ALSO HAS A GOD
After His resurrection, Jesus tells Mary Magdalene:
JOHN 20:17
“I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
Notice that these words are spoken by the resurrected Jesus.
He still calls the Father:
“MY GOD.”
The same language appears in Revelation.
REVELATION 3:12
The exalted Jesus repeatedly speaks of:
“MY GOD.”
So whatever honour and glory Jesus receives, the New Testament continues to distinguish Him from the One whom Jesus Himself calls:
MY GOD.
QUICK FACT 9 — GOD HAS HIGHLY EXALTED JESUS
There is another important reason why Jesus deserves extraordinary honour.
PHILIPPIANS 2:9
“Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name…”
Who exalted Jesus?
GOD DID.
Who received the exaltation?
JESUS DID.
The passage continues:
PHILIPPIANS 2:10–11
“…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus receives extraordinary universal honour.
But notice where this ultimately leads:
“TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER.”
Therefore, honouring God's appointed and exalted Messiah does not automatically require us to identify the Messiah as the God who exalted Him.
QUICK FACT 10 — GOD COMMANDS HONOUR FOR HIS SON
Jesus deserves tremendous honour.
Jesus Himself says:
JOHN 5:22–23
“For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.”
This is one of the strongest passages concerning the honour given to Jesus.
It should not be minimized.
But notice again why the Son possesses this authority.
THE FATHER HAS GIVEN IT TO HIM.
The Son is God's authorized judge and Messiah.
Therefore Christians should not dishonour Jesus in an attempt to defend the uniqueness of God.
HONOURING THE SON HONOURS THE FATHER WHO SENT HIM.
The real question is whether such honour means that the Son is the same One God who sent Him.
That conclusion requires more than the fact that Jesus receives homage.
QUICK FACT 11 — REVELATION SHOWS GOD AND THE LAMB RECEIVING PRAISE
Another important passage appears in Revelation.
REVELATION 5:13
Creation gives blessing, honour, glory and dominion:
“…to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
This is extremely exalted language concerning Jesus.
Any serious investigation must acknowledge it.
But Revelation still distinguishes:
THE ONE SITTING ON THE THRONE
from:
THE LAMB.
Revelation 5:7 even describes the Lamb approaching the One seated upon the throne and receiving the scroll from His hand.
Trinitarians understand this as distinction of persons within the one God.
Biblical Unitarians understand it as distinction between God and His exalted Messiah.
The worship language alone does not settle which theological explanation is correct.
QUICK FACT 12 — WHY DID PEOPLE BOW BEFORE JESUS?
Jesus was no ordinary man.
He was:
THE CHRIST
THE SON OF GOD
THE KING OF ISRAEL
THE LORD AND MESSIAH
THE ONE APPOINTED BY GOD
and:
THE ONE GOD RAISED AND EXALTED.
It should therefore not surprise us that people bowed before Him and paid Him extraordinary homage.
Kings received homage.
God's appointed representatives received honour.
And Jesus is greater than every ordinary human king because God has made Him Lord and Messiah and placed all things under His authority.
The question remains:
DOES RECEIVING HOMAGE AUTOMATICALLY TURN GOD'S MESSIAH INTO GOD HIMSELF?
The vocabulary alone cannot establish that conclusion.
QUICK FACT 13 — WHAT ABOUT PASSAGES WHERE WORSHIP OF OTHERS IS REFUSED?
There are passages where proskyneō is refused.
When Cornelius falls before Peter:
ACTS 10:25–26
Peter raises him and says:
“Stand up! I myself am also a man.”
Likewise, when John falls before an angel:
REVELATION 22:8–9
the angel tells him:
“See you don’t do it! … Worship God.”
These passages show that certain forms of religious worship must not be given to God's servants.
So they cannot simply be ignored.
But neither do they change the fact that proskyneō can be used elsewhere for legitimate homage to human rulers.
Again:
CONTEXT DETERMINES THE NATURE OF THE ACT.
The question is not merely:
Was proskyneō performed?
The question is:
What did that act mean in that particular passage?
QUICK FACT 14 — DAVID PROVIDES AN IMPORTANT BIBLICAL COMPARISON
Return to:
1 CHRONICLES 29:20
The people bowed before:
YAHWEH
and:
THE KING.
Nobody should conclude:
“Therefore David was Yahweh.”
The same outward action can be directed toward two different recipients without making those recipients ontologically identical.
That does not prove that every instance of homage toward Jesus is merely ordinary human respect.
Jesus clearly receives a uniquely exalted degree of honour.
But it does prove that the act of bowing or proskyneō cannot by itself establish deity.
QUICK FACT 15 — THE ONE GOD REMAINS THE FATHER
Paul gives us a remarkably concise statement:
1 CORINTHIANS 8:6
“Yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.”
Paul identifies:
ONE GOD — THE FATHER
and:
ONE LORD — JESUS CHRIST.
Trinitarian scholars often argue that Paul is incorporating Jesus into the language of Israel's Shema and therefore including Jesus within the divine identity.
That interpretation deserves to be considered.
But the grammar itself still explicitly identifies:
“ONE GOD, THE FATHER.”
Jesus is then identified as:
“ONE LORD, JESUS CHRIST.”
This distinction is central to my understanding of biblical worship.
SO, WAS JESUS WORSHIPPED?
If by “worshipped” we mean:
Did people perform proskyneō toward Jesus?
YES.
The New Testament clearly records this.
If we mean:
Did Jesus receive extraordinary honour, reverence, allegiance and homage?
ABSOLUTELY.
He is God's Christ and His uniquely exalted Son.
But if the question is:
DOES THE WORD PROSKYNEŌ BY ITSELF PROVE THAT JESUS IS THE ONE TRUE GOD?
The answer is:
NO.
The biblical use of the word does not permit that conclusion from the vocabulary alone.
People could bow before kings without believing those kings were God.
David provides a particularly important example.
JESUS HIMSELF DIRECTED WORSHIP TO GOD
Jesus said:
MATTHEW 4:10
“You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.”
Jesus said:
JOHN 4:23
“The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…”
Jesus prayed to the Father:
JOHN 17:3
“…you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”
And after His resurrection Jesus called the Father:
JOHN 20:17
“MY GOD AND YOUR GOD.”
For me, these passages provide the interpretive framework.
MY CONCLUSION
Jesus deserves the highest honour God has commanded us to give His Son.
He is the Messiah.
He is the Lord.
He is God's appointed King.
He is the Son of God.
He has been raised from the dead and exalted to God's right hand.
Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ as Lord:
“TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER.”
Philippians 2:11
Therefore the question should never be reduced to:
“JESUS WAS WORSHIPPED, THEREFORE JESUS MUST BE GOD.”
The biblical evidence is more nuanced than that.
The word translated “worship” can describe homage given to someone who is not God, while other passages reserve ultimate worship and service for God.
So we must ask not merely whether someone bowed before Jesus, but:
WHO DOES JESUS HIMSELF IDENTIFY AS HIS GOD?
His answer after His resurrection could hardly be clearer:
“MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER, AND MY GOD AND YOUR GOD.”
JOHN 20:17
And who did Jesus identify as the only true God?
THE FATHER.
JOHN 17:1–3
That is why I believe the New Testament can give Jesus extraordinary honour and homage as God's uniquely appointed and exalted Son without requiring us to conclude from the word “worship” alone that Jesus is the One True God.
Research by Simon Brown
wwwrealdiscoveriesorg-simon.blogspot.com
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