A common argument for evidence of the divinity of Jesus in the New Testament is the offering to Jesus of worship by both human beings and angels. After all, it was Jesus himself who said, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only” (Matt 4:10). Since Jesus did not prevent people from worshiping him, it is argued, that is at the very least a tacit admission of his divine nature.

In the Gospels, Jesus is worshiped by a demon-possessed man (Mark 5:6), by some far-eastern astrologers (Matt 2:11), by a leper (Matt 8:2), by the father of a recently deceased little girl (Matt 9:18), by some of his disciples after he calmed a storm (Matt 14:33), by a Canaanite woman with a troubled child (Matt 15:25), by the mother of James and John (Matt 20:20), by a former blind man (John 9:38), by his disciples after his resurrection (Matt 28:9, 17) and ascension (Luke 24:52).

Wow. A lot of people recognized that Jesus was the second person of the Trinity.

What is going on here? Let’s get something straight. The Greek word translated “worship” is proskynesis, or in its verb form, proskyneō. Proskyneō can carry the sense of worship, and often does, but what it actually refers to is the act of bowing down, of prostrating oneself. Whether it is translated as bowing down or as worshiping is usually determined by the context, or rather, by what the translator assumes must be its meaning. For instance, translators who are Christians and who believe that Jesus is God will often translate proskyneō as worship whenever it is performed before Jesus. How do we tell the difference? Let’s look at the above texts again.

A demon-possessed man comes to Jesus, bows down, and pleads for mercy (Mark 5:6). Far-eastern astrologers come to the middle-east seeking a new king, whose birth they saw written in the stars. They bring him gifts and bow down to him (Matt 2:11). A leper who has heard of Jesus’ power to heal approaches him and prostrates himself before the man of God, begging for help (Matt 8:2). Jairus, a godly Jewish man who worships the one true God, has heard that God is with the man Jesus. Jairus’ daughter has just died of an illness, so he finds Jesus and gets on his knees, pleading with Jesus to help him get his daughter back (Matt 9:18). Jesus’ disciples are on a boat in the middle of a violent storm. Jesus comes to them walking on the water. After Jesus enters the boat, the wind stops and the storm is suddenly calmed. Those in the boat prostrated themselves before him, half in fear, half in amazement, and confess that he is truly the “Son of God.” In other words, they confess that Jesus is the long-awaited agent of God upon whom God has granted special power and presence (Matt 14:33). A Canaanite woman, who has heard of Jesus’ power, comes to Jesus and begs on her knees for Jesus to exorcise the demons from her son (Matt 15:25). Mrs. Zebedee, the mother of James and John, believes that Jesus is about to overthrow the Roman empire and establish Israel’s hegemony over the nations. Selflessly, she gets on her knees before this future king and asks only that her two sons be given the two most powerful political positions in the empire of Israel (Matt 20:20). A man who was blind was healed by Jesus. Recognizing the power of God in Jesus, and out of immense gratitude, the man bows down to Jesus (John 9:38). After Jesus has been raised from the dead and thus validated to his disciples as truly sent from God, they prostrate themselves before him out of devotion and allegiance to God’s chosen king (Matt 28:9, 17).

Oh. I forgot one more. At Jesus’ crucifixion, Roman soldiers mockingly bow down to him, saying, “Hail, Second Person of the Trinity!” No. They mock him saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!”

In 1 Sam 24:8, when David performs proskynesis before Saul, David is not worshiping Saul as God. He is worshiping Saul as Yahweh’s anointed king. In 1 Sam 28:14, when Saul performs proskynesis before Samuel, Saul is not worshiping Samuel as God, or as some divine being. Saul is recognizing Samuel’s rightful authority as Yahweh’s prophet. When Shimei falls prostrate before David, he is begging for mercy (2 Sam 19:18). When the prophet Nathan and David’s own wife Bathsheba perform proskynesis before him, they are showing him the proper deference (1 Kgs 1:16, 23, 31). When the company of prophets recognized that the mantle of Elijah’s ministry had been conferred upon Elisha, they rightly bowed down to the ground before him (2 Kgs 2:15). When Elisha brought the son of the Shunammite woman back from the dead, the Shunammite woman fell at Elisha’s feet and worshiped (2 Kgs 4:37). When Balaam performed proskynesis before Yahweh’s celestial messenger, he recognized the authority of the one who sent him. As with God’s angelic representatives, so it is with those whom God has chosen to mediate between God and humanity. “What is appropriate to God is also appropriate to His elect. Thus the Egyptians are to fall at Moses’ feet to ask for pardon and nations and kings lie in the dust before redeemed Zion.”¹ (See Exod 11:8; Isa 45:14; 49:23.) Thus:

Then David said to the whole assembly, “Bless Yahweh your God.” And all the assembly blessed Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before Yahweh and the king. (1 Chron 29:20 )

In bowing before Yahweh and David, the Israelites were not making a statement about David’s divinity, or his equality with Yahweh, or his inclusion in the unique divine identity of Yahweh. The Israelites were recognizing that David was Yahweh’s anointed, the one appointed to mediate between them. David was Yahweh’s viceroy, his chief representative. Thus, worship directed toward David is understood to be worship directed toward Yahweh. See here:

Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.” (Daniel 2:46-47)

Here is precisely the logic that Christian apologists of Jesus’ divinity are missing. Nebudchadnezzar did not just perform proskynesis before Daniel. He even gave an offering and incense in Daniel’s honor. But Nebudchadnezzar did not think for a moment that in doing so he was worshiping Daniel. The logic is explicit here: in honoring Daniel, Nebudchadnezzar was honoring Daniel’s God.

Some Objections

Some of you may be wondering, if all this is the case, why then is it sometimes said to be wrong to bow down to figures other than God? For instance, some of you may cite Matthew 4:8-10:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

Apart from the fact that Jesus is misquoting Deuteronomy 6:13 (the actual text says “fear,” not “worship”), what is actually being said here? What is going on? Is Satan asking Shimei to bow to King David? No. Jesus’ response does not mean that it is only appropriate to bow to Yahweh, and to no one else. Jesus is being asked to offer his allegiance to Satan. Jesus is being asked to recognize Satan’s authority over the kingdoms of the earth. Jesus refuses to do this. But when it comes to performing the same act of proskynesis before God’s anointed representative, there is no problem. To do that is still to serve God, because it is a recognition of precisely that which God wants you to recognize: that he has conferred his authority upon this individual, or group.

But what about Acts 14:11-15? Paul and Barnabas are in Lystra. Paul heals a man, and the crowd immediately concludes that Paul and Barnabas are the gods Hermes and Zeus in human form. (Gods in human form you say? Preposterous! Those people were so superstitious!) They begin to worship Paul and Barnabas. Not just bowing down to them, mind you. They got out their garlands and brought in the oxen. They were getting ready to offer an all out sacrifice. To which Paul and Barnabas freak out. “Dudes, we’re just dudes.” A more literal translation, “We are men, just like you.” Doesn’t “we are men” imply that worship should only be offered to God? Well, the crowd did happen to mistake Paul and Barnabas for gods, so a correction was certainly in order. Moreover, they were about to offer a sacrifice. That is something no Jewish monotheist could stand for. While it was often appropriate to worship a human agent in the form of prostration and blessing, the form of worship that was strictly reserved for the one true God was sacrifice.² (I challenge you to find one text in which it is said that a sacrifice is offered to Jesus!)

Worshiping Humans

Jesus is said to be “worshiped” in the New Testament, not because he is God, but because he is God’s preeminent agent. The idea of worshiping God’s preeminent man is not one that is unique to Christianity in this second temple period.

In a Jewish play written sometime in the first century BCE, Moses is depicted as the object of angelic worship:

I [Moses] had a vision on the top of Sinai of a high throne
that reached the fold of heaven.
On it was sitting a certain noble man,
with a crown and with a large scepter in his
left hand, while with the right
he beckoned me, and I stood before the throne.
He handed me the scepter and told me
to sit on the great throne, and gave me the royal
crown, and he departed from the throne.
I beheld the whole earth around
and the things underneath the earth and those above the heaven.
Then a multitude of stars fell on their knees before me,
and I counted them all,
and they paraded by me as in a march of mortals.
(Ezekiel the Tragedian, Exagoge, lines 68-81)

The “multitude of stars” represent angels who recognize the authority given to Moses by prostrating themselves before him in worship. We see this phenomenon again in another Jewish work, this time from the first century CE:

And when she heard this, Eve understood that it was the devil who had persuaded her to go out of the river; and she fell on her face on the earth and her sorrow and groaning and wailing was redoubled. And she cried out and said: “Woe unto thee, thou devil. Why dost thou attack us for no cause? What hast thou to do with us? What have we done to thee? for thou pursuest us with craft? Or why doth thy malice assail us? Have we taken away thy glory and caused thee to be without honor? Why dost thou harry us, thou enemy, and persecute us to the death in wickedness and envy?”

And with a heavy sigh, the devil spake: “O Adam! all my hostility, envy, and sorrow is for thee, since it is for thee that I have been expelled from my glory, which I possessed in the heavens in the midst of the angels and for thee was I cast out in the earth.” Adam answered, “What dost thou tell me? What have I done to thee or what is my fault against thee? Seeing thou hast received no harm or injury from us, why dost thou pursue us?”

The devil replied, “Adam, what dost thou tell me? It is for thy sake that I have been hurled from that place. When thou wast formed, I was hurled out of the presence of God and banished from the company of the angels. When God blew into thee the breath of life and thy face and likeness was made in the image of God, Michael also brought thee and made us worship thee in the sight of God; and God the Lord spake: ‘Here is Adam. I have made thee in our image and likeness.’

“And Michael went out and called all the angels saying: ‘Worship the image of God as the Lord God hath commanded.’ And Michael himself worshipped first; then he called me and said: ‘Worship the image of God the Lord.’ And I answered, ‘I have no need to worship Adam.’ And since Michael kept urging me to worship, I said to him, ‘Why dost thou urge me? I will not worship an inferior and younger being than I. I am his senior in the Creation, before he was made was I already made. It is his duty to worship me.’

“When the angels, who were under me, heard this, they refused to worship him. And Michael saith, ‘Worship the image of God, but if thou wilt not worship him, the Lord God will be wrath with thee.’ And I said, ‘If He be wrath with me, I will set my seat above the stars of heaven and will be like the Highest.’

“And God the Lord was wrath with me and banished me and my angels from our glory; and on thy account were we expelled from our abodes into this world and hurled on the earth. And straightway we were overcome with grief, since we had been spoiled of so great glory. And we were grieved when we saw thee in such joy and luxury. And with guile I cheated thy wife and caused thee to be expelled through her doing from thy joy and luxury, as I have been driven out of my glory.” (The Life of Adam and Eve, 11-16)

Again, the logic here is that worship of the human who represents God (in this case, by bearing God’s image) is worship that honors God. Although the angels preceded Adam chronologically in creation, Adam was considered the preeminent being after God—worthy of worship even by the archangels of God. Is Adam here depicted as divine? Is Adam the second person of the Trinity? No. Adam is to be worshiped because he reflects God’s image. Such worship honors God.

Worshiping the Son of Man

Just as Adam could be worshiped by the rest of God’s creation at the beginning, just as David could be worshiped alongside Yahweh with the rise of the monarchy in Jerusalem, so too is the ultimate representative man worshiped alongside Yahweh at the end of days, as we see in the Similitudes of Enoch:

And at that hour that Son of Man was named
In the presence of the Lord of Spirits,
And his name before the Head of Days.
. . .
All who dwell on earth shall fall down and worship before him,
And will praise and bless and celebrate with song the Lord of Spirits.
And for this reason hath he been chosen and hidden before Him,
Before the creation of the world and forevermore.
(1 Enoch 48:2, 5-6)

For what reason was the Son of Man chosen? In order to be worshiped alongside God. Again:

And one portion of them shall look on the other,
And they shall be terrified,
And they shall be downcast of countenance,
And pain shall seize them,
When they see that Son of Man sitting on the throne of His glory.
And the kings and the mighty and all who possess the earth
Shall bless and glorify and extol him who rules over all . . .
And the congregation of the elect and holy shall be sown,
And all the elect shall stand before him on that day.
And all the kings and the mighty and the exalted and those who rule the earth
Shall fall down before him on their faces,
And worship and set their hope upon that Son of Man,
And petition him and supplicate for mercy at his hands.
(1 Enoch 62:5-6, 8-9)

And all who dwell above in the heaven received a command and power and one voice and one light like unto fire.
And that Elect One with their first words they blessed,
And extolled and lauded with wisdom,
And they were wise in utterance and in the spirit of life.
And the Lord of Spirits placed the Elect One on the throne of glory . . .
Then shall they all with one voice speak and bless,
And glorify and extol and sanctify the name of the Lord of Spirits.
(1 Enoch 61:6-9)

Notice that the same language used to describe the worship of the exalted human is also used to describe the worship of God, i.e., “bless,” “glorify,” “extol.”

Similar eschatological worship is depicted in another apocalyptic book from later in the same century:

When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They sing a new song:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;
you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God,
and they will reign on earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,

“To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might
forever and ever!”

And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the elders fell down and worshipped.
(Rev 5:8-14)

Note that here in the book of Revelation, whenever the Lamb is singled out for praise, he is praised for being worthy, worthy precisely on account of his having suffered. Notice also that the Lamb is clearly distinguished from God. Through his sacrifice, the Lamb has ransomed for God saints, saints who serve “our God.” Moreover, since the Lamb is directly addressed here, the “our” of “our God” would seem to be inclusive of the Lamb.

The Lamb is worthy because it was slaughtered, and thus the blessing and honor and glory and might that is rightfully God’s is shared also with the Lamb.

However, some readers see an exchange between the visionary and an angel in 19:10 and 20:8-9 to be an indication that Jesus is to be identified as God.

Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow-servant with you and your comrades who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship [proskyneō] God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me; but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow-servant with you and your comrades the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship [proskyneō] God!”

But as we have already noted several times over, to give special honor to God’s unique agent is in fact to honor God, but that does not mean thereby that the agent is God. We should note also that the first time the word proskyneō is used in the book of Revelation is in chapter 3, verses 8 and 9:

I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but are lying—I will make them come and worship [proskyneō] at your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.

Why is it not all right for the visionary to bow down to an angel, but it is all right for a group of Jews to bow down to a bunch of human beings (Christians no less!)? There are two reasons why: (1) the church in Philadelphia has faithfully represented God, and therefore God wants them to be honored for their service to him. (2) Angels are no longer superior to human beings. (This is also the point in Hebrews 2, where it is not just Jesus who is superior to the angels, but all the human beings whom Jesus, as the representative human, brings with him.) It is not appropriate for John to bow down to the angel, because the angel is John’s fellow servant, not a superior being. Human dignity has been restored.³ “The worship offered to Christ also would have reinforced this point: In heaven, seated on the throne, a throne which Christians who overcome will share [Rev 2:26-28], the recipient of the worship of all creation (both human and angelic) is a human being, Jesus Christ.”⁴

1. Greeven, TDNT 6:761 [BACK]
2. For a detailed display of this now well-established understanding of second temple Jewish monotheism, see James F. McGrath, The Only True God, 23-38. [BACK]
3. Moreover, in both instances, the angel identifies John and the other apostles as prophets, indicating that they have a special place of honor in God’s design, making John’s obeisance to the angel all the more “out of order.” [BACK]
4. McGrath, The Only True God, 80. [BACK]