The Disciples Worshiped Jesus After The Resurrection

Jesus never rebuked any Angel or any of His followers for worshiping Him and yet worship of anything or anyone other than God is absolutely forbidden in the Bible.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. — Luke 4:8 KJV

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. — Matthew 4:10 KJV

Formal Equivalence (Word-For-Word)

  • Received Text (Textus Receptus)

    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.

    And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. — Matthew 28:9,17 KJV (48.83% / 66.58%)

    –

    And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.

    When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. — Matthew 28:9,17 NKJV (60.32% / 65.21%)

    –

    As they went to tell His disciples, suddenly Jesus met them, saying, “Greetings!” They came and took hold of His feet and worshipped Him.

    When they saw Him, they worshipped Him. But some doubted. — Matthew 28:9,17 MEV (Modern English Version)

  • Majority Text

    As they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” They came and took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.

    When they saw him, they bowed down to him; but some doubted. — Matthew 28:9,17 WEB (World English Bible)

  • Critical Text

    And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.

    And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. — Matthew 28:9,17 LSB (NASB ‘95 61.65% / 67.99%)

    –

    And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.

    And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. — Matthew 28:9,17 ESV (62.36% / 68.74%)

Dynamic Equivalence (Thought-For-Thought)

  • Critical Text

    And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him.

    When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted! — Matthew 28:9,17 NLT (70.08% / 39.90%)

    –

    Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.

    When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. — Matthew 28:9,17 NIV (67.20% / 53.10%)

    –

    But[a] Jesus met them, saying, “Greetings!” They[b] came to him, held on to his feet and worshiped him.

    17 When[a] they saw him, they worshiped him,[b] but some doubted.[c] — Matthew 28:9,17 NET (66.28% / 53.94%)

  • NET Bible Translator Notes

    a. Matthew 28:9 NET tn Grk “And behold.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate that the return of the women from the tomb was interrupted by this appearance of Jesus. The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

    b. Matthew 28:9 NET tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

    a. Matthew 28:17 NET tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

    b. Matthew 28:17 tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

    c. Matthew 28:17 tn The Greek text reads here οἱ δὲ ἐδίστασαν (hoi de edistasan). Some scholars argue that the article is functioning like a personal pronoun, thus “they doubted” (e.g., D. A. Hagner, Matthew [WBC], 2:884). If so, then all the disciples would be in view. The translation of the text takes οἱ as an alternative pronoun which has a partitive notion (i.e., some of the disciples doubted, but not all). The difficulty with the personal pronoun view is that there are no examples of it in Matthew in which the same subject immediately precedes with its own verb (as would be the case in “they worshiped…they doubted”). Such, in fact, would be quite awkward, for the article would be unnecessary since the pronominal referent is already embedded in the verb. The only reason for the article here would be to distinguish the subject in some way; but if the same subject is in view, no distinction is being made.

Messianic Bible translations

  • Critical Text

    And behold, Yeshua met them. “Shalom!” He said. They drew near, grasped his feet, and worshiped Him.

    When they saw Him, they worshiped; but some wavered. — Matthew 28:9,17 TLV (Tree of Life Version, Formal Equivalent)

    –

    Suddenly Yeshua met them and said, “Shalom!” They came up and took hold of his feet as they fell down in front of him.

    When they saw him, they prostrated themselves before him; but some hesitated. — Matthew 28:9,17 CJB (Complete Jewish Bible, Dynamic Equivalent)

Highly Idiomatic Translation / Paraphrase

  • Critical Text

    8-10 The women, deep in wonder and full of joy, lost no time in leaving the tomb. They ran to tell the disciples. Then Jesus met them, stopping them in their tracks. “Good morning!” he said. They fell to their knees, embraced his feet, and worshiped him. Jesus said, “You’re holding on to me for dear life! Don’t be frightened like that. Go tell my brothers that they are to go to Galilee, and that I’ll meet them there.”

    16-17 Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally. — Matthew 28:9,17 MSG (The Message)

Conclusion

Jesus receives worship! And God only is to receive worship Luke 4:8; Matthew 4:10. Jesus is God!