About “Worship in Spirit and Truth” in John 4

Q: In John 4:24, what did Jesus mean when he talked about “worship in spirit and in truth”?

A time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24 NASB)

TRW: Modern churches of virtually every denomination have built their Christian gatherings around the concept of “worship,” which is how English Bibles have translated προσκυνέω in this passage. Yet, the word προσκυνέω, in fact, has nothing to do with Christian assembly activities of the first century, and it does not mean “worship.”

Most commentators of John 4:23-24 focus on deciphering the meaning of “in spirit and truth” (ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ). But I think “in spirit and truth” is the easy part. The hard part is: What does προσκυνέω mean?

Today, we commonly assume that “worship in spirit and truth” refers to Christian assembly activity. Our assumption is wrong but understandable. After all, προσκυνεῖν ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ is almost universally translated as “worship in spirit and truth,” and our modern church culture profusely refers to our assemblies as “worship services.” Therefore, we assume that John 4:23-24 must be referring to Christian assemblies!

Προσκυνέω Means Prostration

My research indicates that our assumptions here are all wrong. In my doctoral dissertation, I closely examined the 265 times that προσκυνέω is found in the LXX and NT. As I also revealed in this paper, προσκυνέω refers to prostration—regardless of whether it is done before humans or whether it is done before deity in a temple, as it depicts here in John 4.

Let me try to summarize dozens of pages of my research. Throughout the LXX and NT, more than two dozen examples of προσκυνέω in a temple include additional terminology that clearly indicates that προσκυνέω refers to prostration. The additional descriptive terms include “stooping” or “bowing” (1 Chr. 29:20; 2 Chr. 20:18; 29:29; 2 Esd. 18:6 [Neh. 8:6]) or “falling down” prior to prostration (2 Chr. 7:3; 20:18; 29:30: Ps. 94:6), falling on their “face” (2 Chr. 7:3; 20:18; cf. 1 Chr. 16:29) or “knees” (1 Chr. 29:20; 2 Esd. 18:6 [Neh. 8:6]), and performing the act “before” the deity (2 Chr 20:18; 32:12; Ps 5:8; 94:6; 137:2; Is 66:23; Ez 46:3, 9). In other words, the context of a large number of passages makes it clear that a reference to προσκυνέω in a temple is a reference to ritual prostration performed in front of the deity’s presence.

These additional terms (e.g., falling, on the face, on the ground, on the knees, etc.) are also frequently used when προσκυνέω happens before a king or some esteemed person. Yet, modern English versions translate as “bowing” when it happens to a human, but they translate προσκυνέω as “worshiping” when it happens to a god. Yet, in both situations, the context includes the same “prostration indicators” of “falling,” “stooping,” “on the face,” “on the ground,” etc.

English Bible Inconsistency

For example, at the dedication of the temple in 2 Chr 7:3, when the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they fell (ἔπεσον) on their face (πρόσωπον) on the ground (γῆν) on the pavement (λιθόστρωτον) and prostrated (προσεκύνησαν) to the Lord (τῷ κυρίῳ). Yet, even though the act of prostration is clearly in mind, English versions commonly translate προσεκύνησαν τῷ κυρίῳ as “worshiped the Lord.”

English translations have a major problem in 1 Chr. 29:20, where all the people bent their knees and performed προσκυνέω to the Lord and the king (κάμψαντες τὰ γόνατα προσεκύνησαν τῷ κυρίῳ καὶ τῷ βασιλεῖ). Here, the text clearly says that the people performed προσκυνέω both to the Lord and to the king. Many translators dodge the problem by changing the translation to “paid homage to the Lord and the king.” But the problem would’ve been resolved if the English Bible correctly translated προσκυνέω as “prostrated” and retained the force of the dative (τῷ κυρίῳ καὶ τῷ βασιλεῖ): “bending their knees, they prostrated to the Lord and to the king.”

Ezekiel’s vision of the temple (Ezek. 46:2-9) contains helpful information that identifies the specific gate where one was to perform his prostration before proceeding on to exit the temple. Ezekiel also speaks of the abominations taking place in the temple, and the greatest abomination is the act of twenty-five men who come into the temple and prostrate with their backs to the temple and their faces toward the east, prostrating to the sun (τῷ ἡλίῳ, Ezek. 8:16-18). It would be a great insult if a man came into the presence of a king and prostrated with his back to the king. The offense was magnified in Ezek. 8 because the act was blatant idolatry.

For a fuller list of verses that include prostration indicators with προσκυνέω in a temple, see 2 Kgs. 5:18; 18:22; 1 Chr. 16:29-30; 29:20; 2 Chr. 7:3; 20:18; 29:29-30; 32:12; 2 Esd. 18:6 (Neh. 8:6); Ps. 5:8; 94:6; 95:8-9; 131:7; 137:2 (all in LXX); Isa. 27:13; 66:23; Jer. 33:2 LXX; Ezek. 8:16; 46:2, 3, 9; Jdt. 16:18; 1 Macc. 4:55; Zec. 14:16-17.

Do Christians προσκυνέω?

Furthermore, προσκυνέω is never used in Scripture to describe what Christians do in assembly. Yet, even scholars assume that “προσκυνέω in spirit and truth” refers to Christian assembly activity. For some examples of this assumption by noted scholars of the last half-century, see Rudolf Bultmann (1971), Barnabas Lindars (1972), C. K. Barrett (1978), Ernst Haenchen (1980), Rudolf Schnackenburg (1980), F. F. Bruce (1983), D. A. Carson (1991), Gary Burge (2000), Craig Keener (2003), Andreas Köstenberger (2009), Murray Harris (2015).

When someone “went to the temple to προσκυνέω,” what did they go there to do?

• For example, when Naaman’s master went to the temple of Rimmon “to worship there” (προσκυνέω, 2 Kgs. 5:18), what was he doing there?

• When the Ethiopian eunuch “had come to Jerusalem to worship” (προσκυνέω, Acts 8:27), what did he go there to do?

• When Paul “went up to Jerusalem to worship” (προσκυνέω, Acts 24:11), what was he going to do?

• When some Greeks “were going up (to Jerusalem) to worship at the feast,” (προσκυνέω, John 12:20), what were they going to do?

The evidence, throughout the Septuagint and the New Testament, is conclusive that when someone went to the temple to do προσκυνέω, they went there to perform their obligatory ritual act of prostrating before their God. It’s noteworthy that pagans did the same thing in their temples as well. For example, see 2 Kgs. 5:18; 19:37; Isa. 37:38; Acts 7:43.

“Worship”?

Look at it this way. If “worship in spirit and truth” is accepted as the proper translation in John 4, what action does it connote? Today’s reader may envision this “worship” as rows of “worshipers” sitting in church pews, singing hymns, or praying. None of the actions of pew-sitting, praying, or singing defines biblical προσκυνέω anywhere in the LXX or the NT.

• As David Peterson says, “The fundamental teaching of this fascinating passage (John 4) is lost when we rush too quickly to apply it to our congregational activities” (Peterson, Engaging With God (1992), 100).

• Howard Marshall’s comment also rings true: “The remarkable fact is that Christian meetings are not said to take place specifically in order to worship God, and the language of worship is not used as a means of referring to them or describing them” (Marshall, “How Far Did the Early Christians Worship God,” Churchman 99:3 (1985), 220.)

So, let’s go back to the question. What is Jesus saying when he calls for προσκυνέω “in spirit and truth”?

A Dispute about “Place”

The John 4 passage is a discussion about the proper place where it was necessary for one to offer ritual prostration (τόπος ὅπου προσκυνεῖν δεῖ, 4:20). The Samaritan woman wanted to know: Is that place at the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim or at the Jewish temple in Jerusalem?

The phrase προσκυνεῖν δεῖ, uttered by the woman and by Jesus (v. 20, 24), indicates that temple prostration was a required act. Prostration was necessary because Jews were to regard the temple as “the dwelling place of God,” and all male Jews were required to “appear before the Lord” at His temple three times a year (Deut. 16:16). The only proper way to “appear before the Lord” was by prostrating oneself. As noted earlier, Ezek. 46:3 even indicates that there was a specific gate within the temple where a Jew would prostrate himself and then, having done his duty, he would proceed out of the temple (46:9).

Jesus uses the woman’s question as an opportunity to announce that “an hour is coming” when one’s obligatory prostration to God will take place “neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” The parallel structure of v. 21 and v. 23 draws attention to the fact that the two external places of prostration (neither “in this mountain” or “in Jerusalem”) are being replaced by the two internal attitudes of prostration (“in spirit and truth”).

Spiritual Sincerity

Since “God is spirit” (πνεῦμα ὁ θεός, v. 24), a new era is coming when sacred places are obsolete. Since a spirit cannot be confined to a specific location, the physical building and the physical gesture of proskynesis will become irrelevant and obsolete. Only the spiritual sincerity (ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ) of the believer will remain.

These ideas were not new. Jews knew that God is not actually confined to a temple and that one’s devotion should be sincere. The book of Isaiah presented the same concept centuries earlier: “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? … But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isa. 66:1; cf. Isa. 57:15; Micah 6:6-8).

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also denounced outward displays of piety in giving, praying, and fasting. He instead called for sincerity and humility, which the Father prefers (Matt. 6:1-18).

For the Samaritan woman, the real shocker was that the glorious temple would become irrelevant. Earlier in John’s gospel, Jesus had already launched revolutionary ideas about the destruction of the temple (2:19-21; cf. 1:14). Now, in John 4:20-24, Jesus expands on those ideas.

No More “Place”

Andreas Köstenberger says that John’s gospel was written in response to the A.D. 70 destruction of the temple, in an effort to calm fears and to show that Jesus fulfills all that the temple was meant to be (Köstenberger, A Theology of John’s Gospel and Letters (2009), 61-67). Marshall concludes that John 4:24 implies “that the church is not dependent upon buildings, consecrated or otherwise, and that the development of the building as a sanctuary, as holy space, is alien to the trend in the NT which has spiritualized the temple” (I. Howard Marshall, “Church and Temple in the New Testament,” Tyndale Bulletin 40:2 (1989): 219.)

So, even though προσκυνέω “in spirit and truth” has often been applied to church meetings, the message of John 4:20-24 has nothing to do with Christian gatherings. The context of this passage contains no references or allusions to the topic of Christian meetings.

Our Flawed Presuppositions

Modern readers assume that John 4 deals with “church worship” because modern Christianity has wrongly rebuilt a religion structured around sacred places where we perform obligatory activities for God. In other words, even though Jesus summarily dismantled the entire temple system, we have summarily rebuilt it. See my ETS conference paper for the evidence on how we essentially rebuilt the temple.

As the evidence reveals, this modern belief is flawed. The NT, in fact, does not describe Christian meetings as “worship.” Furthermore, προσκυνέω does not refer to singing or praying or performing liturgy in any of its 265 occurrences in the LXX and NT. John 4:20-24 is discussing a Jew’s obligation to perform prostration before God in a temple.

NT Teaching about “Temple”

But in the NT, Christians did not construct temple buildings or holy places. In the NT, Christians did not go to holy places to perform sacred rituals before a God that resided there. In the NT, Christians did not regard prostration as an obligatory assembly activity.

It is noteworthy that Jesus’s point about προσκυνέω in spirit and truth is not mentioned anywhere else in the NT. It appears that the NT writers perceived no significant teaching here about προσκυνέω or prostration.

However, Jesus’s radical statements about the temple reverberate throughout the NT. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each devote a significant section to the destruction of the temple (Matt. 24:1-51, Mark 13:1-37, Luke 21:10-38). Many other NT documents also contain similar revolutionary statements about the temple (Acts 7:48-50; 17:24-25; cf. 21:28; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19-20; 2 Cor. 5:1-5; 6:16; Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:4-10; Heb. 10:1-25; Rev. 3:12; 11:2; 11:19; 21:1-4, 10-14, 22).

How Church Fathers Viewed John 4

When early church fathers reflected on John 4:20-24, they commonly recognized that the primary issue is “place,” not “prostration.” For example, Origen (ca. 230 A.D.) said, “To this opinion of the Samaritan woman, … the Savior answered that he who would follow the Lord must lay aside all preference for particular places” (On First Principles, 1.1.4-5).

Hilary of Poitiers (ca. 350 A.D.) said, “The prejudices of both (Jews and Samaritans) confined the all-embracing and illimitable God to the crest of a hill or the vault of a building. … For Spirit cannot be cabined or confined; it is omnipresent in space and time, and under all conditions present in its fullness” (On the Trinity, 2.31).

Theodore of Mopsuestia (ca. 400 A.D.) and Cyril of Alexandria (ca. 425 A.D.) made similar statements, recognizing that the key issue is “place.” The powerful implication of Jesus’s statement in John 4:24 is that holy places will soon become obsolete and irrelevant.

Is Prostration Irrelevant?

Is Jesus saying that prostration to God will soon become irrelevant? Heinrich Greeven noted the “astonishing fact” that προσκυνέω virtually disappears from apostolic writings after the Gospels and Acts. Greeven asserted that the gesture essentially loses its significance in a world where God is no longer physically present, whether in the temple or in the physical body of Jesus (Greeven, “προσκυνέω,” TDNT, 6:765).

The term προσκυνέω appears 30 times in the Gospels and is then found only four times in Acts, where it never describes the activities of Christian gatherings. Later, it is found 24 times in Revelation. But in all the epistles except Revelation, the word is found only three times: twice in OT quotations in Hebrews (1:6 and 11:21) and once in 1 Cor. 14:25.

Greeven concluded: “Proskynesis demands visible majesty before which the worshipper bows. The Son of God was visible to all on earth (the Gospels), and the exalted Lord will again be visible to His own when faith gives way to sight (Revelation).” (See Greeven, “προσκυνέω,” TDNT, 6:765.)

Prostration Has Lost Its “Place”

In the NT epistles, it appears that the religious ritual of prostration was obsolete, having lost its venue. Since the sacrificial services of the temple were no longer needed, and since God now lives within the hearts of His people (Jer. 31:31-34; Matt. 1:23; Acts 2:38; Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 3:16; et al.), Christians have no need of a temple.

In Acts 10:25, Cornelius performed proskynesis (prostration) to Peter. But Peter abruptly corrected him, saying, “Stand up; I too am just a man.” Similarly, in Rev. 19:10 and 22:8-9, John prostrated to the angel, but the angel abruptly corrected John, saying, “Do not do that … Prostrate (only) to God.” Prostration belongs only in the very presence of God, as is depicted in the heavenly temple: “And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and prostrated to God” (Rev. 11:1, 16).

Ironically, 1 Cor. 14:25 presents the only time when προσκυνέω is used in the context of a Christian assembly. But it is not a Christian who performs the act, and the act is not “worship” in our modern sense. It is an unbeliever who falls (πεσὼν) on his face (ἐπὶ πρόσωπον) and prostrates (προσκυνήσει) to God (τῷ θεῷ). This God does not dwell in a sacred building. Rather, He is “certainly among you” (ὄντως ὁ θεὸς ἐν ὑμῖν ἐστιν), dwelling within God’s people through His Spirit.

The Message of John 4

So, in John 4:20-24, Jesus is pointing to the day when the Father’s true devotees (προσκυνηταὶ) will follow Him truly and sincerely. In his statement, Jesus is also foreshadowing the destruction of the temple, which would effectively put an end to ritual prostration as well as the need for sacrificing.

The enduring message of John 4:20-24—and the enduring message of the Gospel—is that Jesus has come and radically changed our approach to God. With Jesus, there is no need for temples. Since “God is Spirit,” He cannot be confined to the walls of any building.

Consequently, there is no need to go to a holy place to perform prostration or other sacred rituals. Further, there is no need for a priestly caste that mediates between God and people (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; Heb. 10:11). Thanks to Jesus’s once-for-all sacrifice (Heb. 9:26), there is no need for a “place” of offering sacrifices to God, “neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21). Since God is now “with us” (Matt. 1:23), His followers lead lives of true inner devotion (ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ, John 4:23-24).