During our last bible study session on Friday, 8 February 2018, we studied Jesus’ letter to the church in Philadelphia and had a really good discussion. Everyone had questions and there were quite a few side conversations with participants presenting their views and weighing them in light of others’ views.

One of the sources for so many questions was Jesus’ promise to thus church. In v. 9 we read, “I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.” The questions raised concerned how we should interpret the phrase “fall down at your feet”. This is because on multiple times in the book, John says that he fell at the feet of an angel (cf. Rev. 19.10, 22.8) and on these occasions the angel tell John he should not be doing this.

How then are we to understand this promise in which Jesus says that he will make those from the “synagogue of Satan” to fall at the feet of the Christians at Philadelphia? Does this not go against the angels’ words of admonishment to John to “worship God”?

The critical word here is the Greek word προσκυνέω (proskuneó), which appears 60 times in the New Testament (Bill Mounce gives the following distribution: 13 times in Matthew, 2 times in Mark, 3 times in Luke, 11 times in John, 4 times in Acts, 1 time in 1 Corinthians, 2 times in Hebrews, and 24 times in Revelation).

In almost all these 60 instances, most translations use the word ‘worship’. There are five exceptions, however. The five exceptions are Matthew 28.9, Acts 10.25, Revelation 3.9, Revelation 19.10 and Revelation 22.8 and in only these four verse do we have a link between προσκυνέω (proskuneó) and the word πούς (pous), which means foot.

In Matthew 28.9 we read, “Suddenly Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.” This seems simple. However, if we read ahead we will see that v. 10 reads, “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.'” Why, when they worshiped him, did he tell them not to be afraid? The only logical answer is that their actions were driven by fear. Only in that case would Jesus’ response make sense.

In Acts 10.25 we read, “As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence.” Here we might cringe at Cornelius’ actions. However, remember that Cornelius was a Gentile till this episode in his life and Peter does correct him in v. 26. However, it pays to read v. 4. This is when we last heard Cornelius speak. And there we read, “Cornelius stared at him in fear. ‘What is it, Lord?’ he asked.” When faced with the angel bearing the news that his prayers had been heard, Cornelius’ response was one of fear. And he acts on this fear when Peter arrives later in v. 25.

In Revelation 22.8 we read, “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me.” We see something similar in Revelation 19.10 This is perplexing because John was a Jew. What was he doing ‘worshiping’ the angel? In both occasions, as we have seen, the angel corrects John.

It seems to me best, especially in light of Jesus’ words in Matthew 28.9, to see the link between προσκυνέω (proskuneó) and the word πούς (pous) as indicating that the person or persons involved prostrate themselves in an position of worship driven by fear.

So in Revelation 3.9, it seems that what Jesus is promising is not that the members of the synagogue of Satan will worship the Christians at Philadelphia but that they will grovel at the feet of the Christians begging for mercy while they acknowledge that they were truly the ones whom Jesus loved.