θεοσεβής

From the study of John 9:31

Range of meaning

'God-revering': devout, pious, reverent toward God (from theos, God, and sebomai, to revere or stand in awe of). It names a character marked by awe of God that shows in conduct. It is close to the Hebrew idea of 'fearing God' (yere' 'elohim).

Against the English

KJV, WEB, ESV: 'worshipper of God'; BSB: 'worships Him'; NASB: 'God-fearing'; NIV: 'godly person'. To modern readers 'worship' suggests attending services or singing. The Greek describes a person's whole posture of reverence and fear toward God, which included worship but was not limited to it.

How it drifted

The Latin Vulgate's Dei cultor ('a cultivator, devotee of God') lies behind Tyndale's and the KJV's 'worshipper of God'. Over the centuries 'worship' narrowed in English toward liturgy and music.

Used elsewhere in the period

It appears only here in the New Testament (the noun theosebeia, 'godliness', is at 1 Timothy 2:10). In the Greek Old Testament: Exodus 18:21, where Jethro advises choosing 'able men, God-fearing'; Job 1:1, 1:8, 2:3, where Job is 'true, blameless, righteous, God-fearing'; and frequently in 4 Maccabees. Inscriptions from Aphrodisias and from the theatre at Miletus use theosebeis for Gentiles attached to synagogues, though that technical sense is not in view here. A later rabbinic saying (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 6b) runs closely parallel: 'Anyone who has the fear of heaven, his words are heard.'