“And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord,
if You are willing, You can make me clean.”                                                                   --Matthew
8:1 (NKJV)

Those who deny the deity of Jesus
Christ claim that He was never worshiped by those around Him. When confronted
with verses like Matthew 8:1, the claim that the Greek verb Matthew uses means
to bow down to someone out of respect, or to pay homage. The example of a
king’s subject bowing down before the king is used. But they claim that the
word does not mean “worship.”
So has the New King James (among
others) have it wrong? Is this a mistranslation of the word?
Thinking I would write another
response to the critic who made this argument, I sought to do my due diligence.
For the sake of academia, I looked up the meaning of the Greek word Matthew
uses. According to Strong’s Dictionary, the word means, “to fawn or crouch to,
that is, (literally or figuratively) prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence
to, adore): - worship.”
My critic was correct in saying
that the word means to pay respect or homage to someone. However, did you
notice the last word that is part of that definition? Worship. The word means,
or at least can mean, “worship.”
My next step was to discover how
else the word is used in the New Testament. Is it ever used in relation to
people worshiping God? As I learned from my concordance, the answer is yes.
There are several places in the New Testament where the same word found in
Matthew 8:1 are translated “worship”, most of them in reference to believers
worshiping God.
The most notable example of this is
found in John 4, which describes Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman
at the well. Here, Jesus Himself uses the word as He says, “But the hour is
coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is
spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (vv.
23-24).
Here, Jesus uses the verb,
“worship”, four times. And each time, it is the same Greek word Matthew uses in
8:1—the same word that my critic said does not mean worship.
Now, as I contemplated writing
another response back to him, I thought better of it. One reason is that he had
used an argumentative tone throughout his correspondence (something I’d hoped
to avoid). But more than that, I realized that this person was not interested
in the truth. He was interested only in justifying ways he could claim Jesus is
not God. This was apparent to me as I saw his lack of intellectual integrity,
claiming that the word being discussed does not mean something that it clearly
does. For I am sure he would not say that, in John 4, Jesus is telling us that
we simply need to pay homage to God, but not that we must worship God.
As I said before, the fact that people
worshiped Jesus may be seen as circumstantial evidence. Had I written my
response to this person, I do not doubt that he would have acknowledged that
this Greek word can mean “worship” when used in reference to God, but that it
means “obeisance” when used in reference to Christ.
Therefore, in order to more solidly
establish the deity of Jesus Christ, we must turn our attention to more
concrete evidence found within the Word of God. And I will begin to present
this evidence next time.

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