God & Jesus
Did Jesus ever say “I am God, worship me”?
Christians worship Jesus as God. Muslims honour him as a messenger of God. Both agree that worship belongs to God alone. So it is fair to ask the Gospels a simple question: did Jesus ever say in plain words that he was God, or tell anyone to worship him? This topic looks at the verses Christians cite and at what Jesus says about himself, the Father and worship.
1The question
In the Gospels, does Jesus ever say that he is God, or tell people to worship him?
2What Christians believe
Christians accept that no Gospel has Jesus say the words “I am God, worship me”. They argue that he showed who he was in other ways. He forgave sins, which only God can do (Mark 2:5–7). He spoke of himself in terms no prophet used, such as “before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58) and “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). And he accepted worship from his disciples (Matthew 14:33; 28:9) and the confession of Thomas, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).
Christians add that a faithful Jewish teacher who taught that only God may be worshipped, and who still accepted worship, must have understood himself to be more than a man. They also point to the opening of John’s Gospel, “the Word was God” (John 1:1). On this view the Gospels show Jesus’s divinity step by step, his actions say what his words leave unsaid, and John states it most clearly.
3What the texts say
Verses Christians point to
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Jesus on who should be worshipped
Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
What Jesus says about himself and the Father
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
People who worshipped Jesus
Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.
And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.
Others who refused worship
And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.
Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
Why John says he wrote
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
4What scholars say
Bart D. Ehrman (How Jesus Became God, 2014) notes that in Matthew, Mark and Luke Jesus never calls himself God, and that the clearest claims appear only in John, the latest of the four Gospels. He argues that belief in Jesus’s divinity developed among his followers after his death. Michael F. Bird and others replied in How God Became Jesus (2014), arguing that the earliest Gospels already present Jesus in divine terms.
Larry W. Hurtado (One God, One Lord, 1988; Lord Jesus Christ, 2003) argues that the earliest Christians, while remaining Jewish monotheists, began very early to give Jesus devotion of a kind normally given only to God, such as prayer and hymns in his name.
James D. G. Dunn (Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?, 2010) reaches a more careful answer. He finds that the New Testament usually presents prayer and worship as offered to God through Jesus, rather than to Jesus himself.
Scholars of all views agree on the basic fact: the plain sentence “I am God, worship me” is not found in any Gospel. They disagree on whether his other words and deeds amount to that claim.
5The Islamic perspective
Muslims answer that the silence is the message. Jesus taught that worship belongs to God alone, taught his disciples to pray to “Our Father which art in heaven”, and never told anyone to pray to him. The Qur’an says that no prophet given the Scripture would ever tell people to serve him instead of God, and it records Jesus himself denying that he ever said such a thing. His message was the same as every prophet’s:
It is not (possible) for any human being unto whom Allah had given the Scripture and wisdom and the prophethood that he should afterwards have said unto mankind: Be slaves of me instead of Allah; but (what he said was): Be ye faithful servants of the Lord by virtue of your constant teaching of the Scripture and of your constant study thereof.
And when Allah saith: O Jesus, son of Mary! Didst thou say unto mankind: Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah? he saith: Be glorified! It was not mine to utter that to which I had no right. If I used to say it, then Thou knewest it. Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I know not what is in Thy Mind. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Knower of Things Hidden?
I spake unto them only that which Thou commandedst me, (saying): Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. I was a witness of them while I dwelt among them, and when Thou tookest me Thou wast the Watcher over them. Thou art Witness over all things.
Lo! Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. That is a straight path.
“Allah, my Lord and your Lord” in the Qur’an matches Jesus in John 20:17: “my God, and your God”. For Muslims the verses where Jesus speaks plainly about God and worship, such as Matthew 4:10, John 4:23 and John 17:3, are the key to reading the ones that are less clear. A prophet who said “him only shalt thou serve” is the kind of prophet the Qur’an describes in 3:79.
6Objections and responses
“‘Before Abraham was, I am’ (John 8:58) uses God’s name from Exodus 3:14.”
Response: The Greek words ego eimi (“I am”) are an ordinary phrase. In John 9:9 the man born blind uses the same words, “I am he”, and no one thinks he is claiming to be God. Being known to God before birth is said of prophets too: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee” (Jeremiah 1:5).
“Thomas calls Jesus ‘My Lord and my God’ and Jesus does not correct him.”
Response: Three verses earlier Jesus calls the Father “my God, and your God” (John 20:17), which would be strange words for God himself. And John tells us why he wrote the book: that you might believe “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). The book’s own summary of its message stops short of “God”.
“Jesus accepted worship without correcting anyone, while Peter and the angel refused it (Acts 10:26; Revelation 22:9).”
Response: The Greek word translated “worship” also means to kneel or bow before someone. The King James Version uses the same word for a servant kneeling before his master (Matthew 18:26). Whatever honour people showed Jesus, his own teaching about worship is clear: “him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10), and prayer is made to “Our Father which art in heaven” (Matthew 6:9).
7Conclusion
Both sides agree that no Gospel records Jesus saying “I am God” or “worship me”, and that he taught that worship belongs to God alone. Christians find his divinity in his deeds, his claims, the worship he received and the confessions of others. Muslims find in his plain words, “my God, and your God”, “the only true God” and “him only shalt thou serve”, the voice of a prophet who pointed every listener beyond himself to God.
Read Matthew 4:1–11 and John 20:17–31, and ask to whom Jesus says worship should be given and what John wanted his readers to believe.
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Sources
- Bible, King James Version:John 8:58John 14:9John 20:28Matthew 4:10John 4:23Matthew 6:9John 17:3John 14:28John 5:30John 20:17Matthew 14:33Matthew 28:9Acts 10:25Acts 10:26Revelation 22:9John 20:31
- Qur’an, translated by M. Pickthall:Qur’an 3:79Qur’an 5:116Qur’an 5:117Qur’an 3:51
- Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God (2014)
- Michael F. Bird and others, How God Became Jesus (2014)
- Larry W. Hurtado, One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism (1988)
- Larry W. Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (2003)
- James D. G. Dunn, Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? (2010)