Early Christian Views on Worship

Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Direct teaching

...e by Him. Then you will say to me, "Why do you not worship the king?" Because he was not made to be worshipped, but to be respected with lawful honor. He is not a god, but a man appointed by God, not to be worshipped, but to judge justly. In a certain way, his rule has been entrusted to him by God. Just as God does not want those whom He has appointed under Himself to be called kings, since king is His title and it is not lawful for another to use it, so also it is not lawful for anyone to be worshipped except God alone. Therefore, O man, you are completely mistaken. So honor the king, submit to him, and pray for him with a loyal mind. For if you do this, you do the will of God. For the law of God says, "My son, fear the Lord and the king, and do not be disobedient to them; for suddenly they shall take vengeance on their enemies."

Aristides, The Apology Direct teaching

and that it is not right that any other should be worshipped except this God alone.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching

But He exhibited faith towards God. For He taught that there is but one God, and that He alone ought to be worshipped.

Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Supporting witness

so neither is it lawful for any to be worshipped but God only.

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

...acrilegious hostility those who do worship Him. You neither worship God, nor do you allow Him to be worshipped at all. And while others who honor not only those foolish idols and images made by human hands, but even signs and monsters besides, are pleasing to you, the worshipper of God alone displeases you. In your temples, the ashes of sacrifices and heaps of cattle smoke everywhere, and God's altars are either nowhere to be found or are hidden. Crocodiles and apes and stones and serpents are worshipped by you, and God alone on earth is not worshipped, or if He is worshipped, not without punishment. You drive the innocent, the just, those dear to God, from their home. You strip them of their property, load them with chains, shut them up in prison, and punish them with the sword, with wild beasts, and with fire. Indeed, you are not satisfied with making our sufferings short, or with ending our pains in a simple and quick way. You begin long tortures by tearing our bodies. You add many punishments by ripping our inward parts. Your brutality and fierceness cannot be satisfied with ordinary tortures. Your inventive cruelty devises new sufferings.

2 Kings 17:36 Background

but the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, Him you shall worship, and to Him you shall offer sacrifice.

2 Kings 17:35 Background

with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying: “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them;

Deuteronomy 6:13 Background

Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve; and thou shalt cleave to him, and by his name thou shalt swear.

Deuteronomy 12:4 Background

You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way.

Hebrews 1:6 Background

And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching

...he Samaritan woman, "The hour is coming, when neither in Jerusalem, nor in this mountain, shall you worship the Father. God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." By these words He taught that God must be worshipped not in the flesh, and with fleshly sacrifices, but in the spirit. And He will be understood to be a Spirit in proportion as the worship offered to Him is offered in spirit and with understanding. However, we are not to worship the Father with images, but in truth, which came by Jesus Christ after the giving of the law by Moses. For when we turn to the Lord (and the Lord is a Spirit), He takes away the veil that lies upon the heart when Moses is read.

Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness

However, we have already said something on the nature of God while examining into the meaning of the words, God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

John 4:23 and He thus fulfilled what He before promised, so that we who by His sanctification have received the Spirit and truth, may also by His teaching worship truly and spiritually.

Tatian, The Diatessaron Supporting witness

John 4:24 For God is a Spirit: and they that worship him 29 must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Supporting witness

For God, he says, is Spirit; wherefore, he affirms, neither in this mountain do the true worshippers worship, nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit.

Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness

and those therefore who worship, must worship in spirit and in truth.

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness

and those therefore who worship, must worship in spirit and in truth.

John 4:24 Background

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

John 4:23 Background

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.

Philippians 3:3 Background

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Romans 8:9 Background

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Direct teaching

...man. He said them to her because she thought, according to the Samaritan view, that God ought to be worshipped on Mount Gerizim. The Samaritan woman, thinking that He was a Jew, asked Him whether God ought to be worshipped in Jerusalem or on this mountain. Her words were, "Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship." Therefore, to answer the opinion of the Samaritan woman, who imagined that God was worshipped more or less rightly according to the special importance of different places, whether by the Jews in Jerusalem or by the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim, the Savior answered that anyone who would follow the Lord must put aside all preference for particular places. He spoke in this way: "The hour is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain shall the true worshippers worship the Father. God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." And notice how logically He joined together spirit and truth. He called God a Spirit in order to distinguish Him from bodies, and He called Him the truth in order to distinguish Him from a shadow or an image. For those who worshipped i

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness

Then he adds, "Worship this God not as the Greeks." He is clearly showing that the better Greeks worshiped the same God that we do, but they had not learned through full knowledge what was delivered by the Son. So he did not say, "Do not worship the God whom the Greeks worship." He said, "not as the Greeks," changing the way God is worshiped, not announcing another God. What, then, does the phrase "not as the Greeks" mean? Peter himself explains it when he adds: "Since they are carried away by ignorance and do not know God"—that is, not as we do, according to full knowledge—"but they shape the things He gave them power to use—wood and stones, bronze and iron, gold and silver, matter—and they set up the things that are slaves for use and possession, and worship them." And what God gave them for food—the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, the creeping things of the earth, and the wild animals along with the four-footed cattle of the field, weasels and mice, cats and dogs and apes, and their own proper food—they offer as sacrifices to mortals. And by offering dead things to the dead, as if to gods, they are unthankful to God, denying His existence by these actions. And that it is

Mathetes, Epistle to Diognetus Supporting witness

And next, I imagine that you are most desirous of hearing something on this point, that the Christians do not observe the same forms of divine worship as do the Jews.

Tatian, The Diatessaron Supporting witness

... you have spoken truly." The woman said to him, "My lord, I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where people must worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know, but we worship what we know, because salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father also seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming, and when he has come, he will teach us everything." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."

Tatian, The Diatessaron Supporting witness

John 4:23 But an hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: and the Father also 28 seeks such as these worshippers.

Hippolytus, Connection to John 4:21 Supporting witness

"For God," he says, "is Spirit; wherefore," he affirms, "neither in this mountain do the true worshippers worship, nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit. For the adoration of the perfect ones," he says, "is spiritual, not carnal."

John 4:21 Background

Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

John 4:20 Background

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Hebrews 9:1 Background

Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching

...king through him, says, "My house has become a hyena's den," he uses a wise allegory to condemn the worship of idols, rejecting the food that consisted of dead bodies. For truly the house of the living God ought to be pure from idols. Again, Moses also forbids eating the hare. For the hare mates at all times, and leaps, with the female sitting there, attacking her from behind. For it is one of the animals that leap on from behind. It conceives every month, and it conceives again while already pregnant. It mates and gives birth. And after it has given birth, it is at once mounted by any hare whatever, for it is not content with one mating, and it conceives again while still nursing. For it has a womb with two chambers, and not only one empty chamber of the womb. It has enough room to receive intercourse, for whatever is empty desires to be filled. But it happens that while they are carrying young, one part of the womb is seized by desire and rages with lust. Therefore they have repeated conceptions. So this prohibition urges us to abstain from violent desires, and mutual sexual encounters, and intercourse with pregnant women, and relations in turn one after another, and the corru

Aristides, The Apology Supporting witness

...ugh for them. No, they even give the name of gods to animals that have no soul at all. Some of them worship the sheep, and others the calf. Some worship the pig, and others the shad fish. Some worship the crocodile, the hawk, the fish, the ibis, the vulture, the eagle, and the raven. Some worship the cat, and others the turbot fish; some the dog, some the adder, and some the asp, and others the lion. Others worship garlic and onions and thorns, and others the tiger and other such things. And these poor people do not see that all these things are nothing, even though they see every day that their gods are eaten and consumed by men and also by their own kind. Some of them are burned, and some die and rot and become dust, yet they do not notice that they perish in many ways. So the Egyptians have not understood that things which cannot even equal their own deliverance are not gods. And if, indeed, they are weak when it comes to their own deliverance, from where do they get power to help with the deliverance of those who worship them? Great, then, is the error into which the Egyptians wandered, greater indeed than that of any people on the face of the earth.

Minucius Felix, Octavius Supporting witness

...shed. From there arises what you say you hear: that an ass's head is esteemed among us as something divine. Who is such a fool as to worship this? Who is so much more foolish as to believe that it is an object of worship? Unless perhaps you yourselves also consecrate whole asses in your stables, together with your Epona, and religiously devour those same asses with Isis. Also you offer up and worship the heads of oxen and of wethers. And you dedicate gods mingled also of a goat and a man, and gods with the faces of dogs and lions. Do you not, with the Egyptians, adore and feed Apis the ox? And you do not condemn their sacred rites instituted in honor of serpents, and crocodiles, and other beasts, and birds, and fishes. If anyone were to kill one of these gods, he is even punished with death. These same Egyptians, together with very many of you, are no more afraid of Isis than they are of the pungency of onions, nor of Serapis than they tremble at the basest noises produced by the foulness of their bodies. He also who invents fables against us about our adoration of the members of the priest tries to lay upon us what really belongs to himself. For perhaps these are the sacred rit

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

...And after he placed those who were slain in the first place, he added, saying: “And whoever had not worshipped the image of the beast, nor received his mark on their forehead or on their hand”—all these he joins together, seen by him at one time in the same place, and says, “And they lived and reigned with Christ.” He says that all live and reign with Christ, not only those who have been slain, but also all who, standing firm in the faith and in the fear of God, have not worshipped the image of the beast and have not consented to his deadly and sacrilegious commands.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

...we, on the other hand, do not insist that anyone should be forced, whether willing or unwilling, to worship our God, who is the God of all men. Nor are we angry if anyone does not worship Him. For we trust in the majesty of Him who has power to punish contempt shown toward Himself, just as He also has power to punish the troubles and injuries inflicted on His servants. And so, when we suffer such impious things, we do not resist even with a word. Instead, we leave vengeance to God. We do not act like those who want to seem to be defenders of their gods, and who rage without restraint against those who do not worship them. From this it may be understood that it is not good to worship their gods, since men should have been led to what is good by what is good, and not by evil. But because this is evil, even its service is without good. But they say that those who destroy religious systems must be punished. Have we destroyed them in a worse way than the nation of the Egyptians, who worship the most shameful images of beasts and cattle, and adore as gods some things that it is shameful even to speak of? Have we done worse than those same people who, while they say that they worship t

Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen Supporting witness

... vain in their imaginations, and changed the glory of God into the likeness of corruptible man, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator." And truly this is the God who in the beginning made the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1. But you do not know God, and worship heaven, and how shall you escape the guilt of ungodliness? Hear again the prophet speaking: "The sun shall suffer eclipse, and the heaven be darkened; but the Almighty shall shine forever: while the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and the heavens stretched out and drawn together shall be rolled up like a scroll, for these are the prophetic expressions, and the earth shall flee away from before the face of the Lord."

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

I have shown that the religious rites of the gods are vain in three ways. First, the images that are worshiped are representations of men who are dead. It is wrong and inconsistent that the image of a man should be worshiped by the image of God, because what worships is lower and weaker than what is worshiped. Then too, it is an inexpiable crime to desert the living so that you may serve memorials of the dead, who can give life or light to no one, for they themselves are without it. And there is no other God but one, to whose judgment and power every soul is subject. Second, the sacred images themselves, to which the most senseless men do service, are without all perception, since they are earth. But who cannot understand that it is unlawful for an upright living creature to bend itself so that it may adore the earth? The earth is placed beneath our feet for this purpose, that it may be trodden upon and not adored by us. For we have been raised from it, and we have received a higher position than the other living creatures, so that we may not turn ourselves downward again, nor cast this heavenly countenance to the earth. Instead, we should direct our eyes to that region to which th

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

...commonly called this. But in what way, and with what commands, He was sent by God to the earth, the Spirit of God declared through the prophet. He taught us that when He had faithfully and consistently fulfilled the will of His supreme Father, He would receive judgment and an everlasting dominion. "If," He says, "You will walk in my ways and keep my precepts, then You shall judge my house." What these ways of God were, and what His precepts were, is neither doubtful nor unclear. For when God saw that wickedness and the worship of false gods had spread so widely through the world that His name had now also been removed from the memory of men, since even the Jews, who alone had been entrusted with the secret of God, had deserted the living God and, trapped by the deceits of demons, had gone astray and turned aside to the worship of images, and when rebuked by the prophets had refused to return to God, He sent His Son as an ambassador to men. He sent Him so that He might turn them from their impious and empty worship to the knowledge and worship of the true God, and also so that He might turn their minds from foolishness to wisdom, and from wickedness to works of righteousness. The

Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness

...words themselves that people usually use when wine is offered and prayer is made: "Let the deity be worshipped with this wine that we bring." Trebatius says that the words "that we bring" are added for this purpose and used for this reason: so that all the wine stored in cupboards and storerooms, from which the poured-out wine was taken, may not begin to be sacred and be taken away from human use. So, by adding this phrase, only what is brought to the place will be sacred, and the rest will not be consecrated. What kind of honor, then, is this, when a condition is laid on the deity, as if he must not ask for more than has been given? Or what kind of greed is this in the god, who, unless he were verbally forbidden, would stretch his desires too far and rob the one praying to him of his stored supplies? "Let the deity be worshipped with this wine that we bring." This is an insult, not an honor. For what if the deity wants more and is not satisfied with what is brought? Must he not be said to be clearly wronged, when he is forced to receive honor only under conditions? For if, unless this limit were added, all the wine in every cellar would have to become consecrated, then it is cl

Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Supporting witness

...ces and hold festivals for him. But the people of Ilium cannot even bear to hear his name, and they worship Hector instead. The people of Ceos worship Aristæus, thinking him to be the same as Zeus and Apollo. The Thasians worship Theagenes, a man who committed murder at the Olympic games. The Samians worship Lysander, despite all the killings and all the crimes committed by him. Alcman and Hesiod worship Medea, and the Cilicians worship Niobe. The Sicilians worship Philip the son of Butacides. The Amathusians worship Onesilus. The Carthaginians worship Hamilcar. Time would fail me if I tried to list them all. Therefore, when they disagree among themselves about their gods, why do they accuse us of not agreeing with them? Now look at the practices among the Egyptians. Are they not completely ridiculous? In their temples, at their sacred festivals, they beat their breasts as if mourning the dead, and they offer sacrifices to those same beings as gods. And this is no wonder, since they regard animals as gods. When these animals die, they shave themselves, bury them in temples, and make public mourning. If, then, we are guilty of impiety because we do not practice a piety like their

Psalms 97:7 Background

Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.

Wisdom of Solomon 14:27 Background

For the worshiping of idols not to be named Is the beginning, the cause, and the end, of all evil.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching

As I taught in the former book, the worship of the gods does not mean wisdom. This is not only because it hands man, who is a divine living being, over to earthly and weak things, but also because it sets down nothing that can help shape character and form a person's life. It also contains no search for the truth, but only a ritual of worship. And that worship does not consist in service of the mind, but in the use of the body. Therefore, it should not be considered true religion, because it gives men no teachings of righteousness and virtue by which they may be instructed and improved. In the same way, since philosophy does not possess true religion, that is, the highest piety, it is not true wisdom. For if the divinity that governs this world upholds mankind with amazing kindness, cares for it with a father's tenderness, and truly wishes to receive gratitude and honor, then man cannot keep his piety if he proves ungrateful for heavenly benefits. And this is certainly not the part of a wise man. Since, therefore, as I have said, philosophy and the religious system of the gods are separate and far removed from each other, this is clear: some are teachers of wisdom, and through them

Novatian, On the Jewish Meats Supporting witness

...is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body." 1 Corinthians 6:13 God is not worshipped by the belly or by foods, which the Lord says will perish and are removed by the natural process into the drain. For the one who worships the Lord by foods is really like a man who has his belly as his lord. The true, holy, and pure food, I say, is true faith, an unstained conscience, and an innocent soul. Whoever is fed in this way also feeds on Christ. Such a guest belongs to God. These are the feasts that feed the angels. These are the tables the martyrs prepare. From here comes that word of the law: "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Deuteronomy 8:3 And so also that saying of Christ: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work." John 4:34 And also: "You seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you ate of my loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for the Father has sealed Him." John 6:26-27 By righteousness, I say, and by self-control, and by the rest of the virtues,

Victorinus, On the Creation of the World Supporting witness

... for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body." 1 Corinthians 6:13 God is not worshipped by the belly or by foods, which the Lord says will perish and are cleared away by natural law into the sewer. For the one who worships the Lord by foods is really like someone who has his belly as his lord. The true and holy and pure food, I say, is true faith, an unstained conscience, and an innocent soul. Whoever is fed in this way also feeds on Christ. Such a guest at the feast belongs to God. These are the feasts that feed the angels. These are the tables that the martyrs prepare. From here comes that word of the law: "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Deuteronomy 8:3 And from here also comes that saying of Christ: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work." John 4:34 And also: "You seek me, not because you saw the miracles, but because you ate of my loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for the Father has sealed Him." John 6:26-27 I say that God is worshipped by righteousnes

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

this is true worship, in which the mind of the worshipper presents itself as an undefiled offering to God.

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness

and that worship meet for God is followed by loving and being loved by God.

Romans 12:1 Background

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Jeremiah 50:19 Background

Sacrifice to God is a broken spirit: A broken and humbled heart God will not despise.