Lookahead:   I am reminded of one of my favorite movies (Risen, sorry I keep pitching it), in which the Roman tribune, before he goes out on a mission, stops by a small cubbyhole/recess in the limestone-block walls of the barracks.  It is a shrine to Mars.  In the cubbyhole is a small, patina-layered bronze statue of a menacing Mars, a burning clay lamp, and stacks of coins from other worshippers.  The tribune puts down three gold coins after he spontaneously prays to the God of Jews…instead of Mars; in effect, he tries to make a deal with God – if He helps him solve the “Where did the King of the Jews go?” mystery, the tribune will “erect temples to Him and initiate games in His honor.” (Eventually he hears the truth personally from the Resurrected Yeshua. He also learns the meaning of life from Yeshua–Who is Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life–and the tribune becomes a follower of the Way and an evangelist for Christ :-)).  Of course, the movie producers probably read the same Google source material as I did.  But the fact that Roman worshippers may have been fickle in their loyalty to a single god might be considered true, as the gods were perceived as being extremely fickle/mercurial themselves.

In Matthew 4, we are provided a major clue about how Jesus would have worshipped during his earth walk.  And the clue actually was provided during an unpleasant demonic encounter: 

8Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

10Then Jesus said to him, [b]“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

Interlinear Translation says, “if falling down, You will worship me.”

There are two important aspects of these verses:

(1)  Jesus quotes a scripture about proper worship…to the devil.  

(2) The devil defines what he thinks worship is.  (This is a good indication of how the heathens were worshipping him or his designates.) 

Regarding (1): 

I went back to the Old Testament, to find the scripture Jesus had referred to when He said, “It is written.”  It turns out that the exact wording was not used. Nevertheless, the commentators quote similar verses like Deut 6:13, 14 and 10:20.   

Was He quoting Deut 10:20? I don’t think so…nothing about oaths in Matthew 4. 🙂

tî·rā – תִּירָ֖א -You shall fear

’ō·ṯōw – אֹת֣וֹ – Him

ṯa·‘ă·ḇōḏ – תַעֲבֹ֑ד – you shall serve

ū·ḇōw – וּב֣וֹ – and to Him

ṯiḏ·bāq – תִדְבָּ֔ק – you shall hold fast

ū·ḇiš·mōw – וּבִשְׁמ֖וֹ – and in His name

tiš·šā·ḇê·a‘ – תִּשָּׁבֵֽעַ׃ – take oaths

In Deut 6:13 and 14 the intent of serving God and only God is captured, but the command to worship was not in these verses. 

However,  the implied meaning “You shall worship the Lord you God…and Him only…” is in Ex 34:14: “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” When Jesus told the devil, “It is written,” He did not say where it was written or what the exact words were.  Basically, the Word interpreted the Torah for the devil.  

Side Note: 

Jesus had two verbs in His interpretation:  

You shall worship – Proskynēseis – Προσκυνήσεις 

you shall serve – latreuseis – λατρεύσεις.  

So He differentiated between worship and serving. 

If Jesus used Greek on satan, Proskynēseis means “properly, to kiss the ground when prostrating before a superior; to worship, ready ‘to fall down/prostrate oneself to adore on one’s knees.'” (Bible Hub).

Or if Jesus used Aramaic on satan, the Peshitta word is ܣܓܕ , and means:  

to put on a pedestal, to adulate; to bow down , to kneel down , to genuflect , to make an obeisance to / swearing allegiance;

The second word that Jesus used for serving is ܦܠܚ , and means:

to work diligently / to strive / to strike , to sweat / to shed sweat , to get a move on, to work hard , to pound away / to bust a gut / to break one’s back , to work , to operate / to act , to labour , to labor , to do a job , to apply oneself to work / to ply , to engage in a work.  (Dukhrana and Sureth)

In a sense, Jesus told us what the devil’s expectations were and what he would have demanded of Jesus if the latter had bowed to him (i.e., become a slave to your leader).   

But before we continue and go onto (2), I thought we’d park here and delve into how Jesus worshipped in the days when He walked the earth.  Hopefully this won’t be considered irreverent, however, the first question that came to my mind was, “Did Jesus actually worship back then? We know that He was and is God, so would He have worshipped…Himself?” Believe it or not, I ironically had asked a similar question when I saw a parallel reference in scripture that implied that Jesus feared God. Would He have feared…Himself?  I ran that to ground for a Bible Study and I think what I discovered might be relevant to today’s case.  

A number of years ago, I was teaching a study on the Book of Isaiah and researched the (characterization of the) seven spirits of God, as presented–in a Messianic prophecy.  

There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse (i.e., Jesus),

And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 

The Spirit of (prophesy before) the Lord shall rest upon Him,

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The Spirit of counsel and might,

The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Isaiah 11:2-3 (My underlines)

Bible Study excerpt follows:  

Is. 11:2-3 does indeed list seven spirits or influences of God—but particularly seven aspects of the Messiah. No one could prophecy like Jesus (Yeshua)…But what does the “Spirit of the Knowledge and Fear of the LORD” mean? Why would God fear God? After years of searching, I finally got it that Isaiah 11:2-3 is so much about Jesus Christ and Who He was during His earthly walk. Jesus “feared” the Father. (The yireh Hebrew word is used for fear, and it can also mean phobic fear or terror, but it primarily means being in absolute awe of God coupled with respect and reverence.) The human, anthropomorphic Jesus had complete reverence for His Father and did everything that the latter told Him to do. Jesus and the Father had uninterrupted, better than WiGig 802.11ay, communication. But Jesus, for all intents and purposes, was a human being endued with power from on high. The Holy Spirit came to rest on Him in the permanent sense (as had happened intermittently with the prophets, but significantly amplified—Jesus was given the spirit without measure on earth). After He rose, Jesus’ divinity was restored and He was back to being part of the triune God. I like to think of Him as the visible image of the invisible Father–a tangible, recognizable, human-like interface, basically someone Whose eyes of love we can stare into or Whose nail-scarred feet we can clasp like the women who knelt before Him at the tomb.:)  He gave up his divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. Phil 2:7 As a slave on earth, Jesus didn’t make a move without His Father.   

Therefore, in human form, Jesus may well have paid private and public homage to His father.  A few scriptural examples came to mind.  For example, 

At the conclusion of the Last Supper drink offering, the next verse says that Jesus and the apostles “sang a hymn and then went out to the Mount of Olives.” Matt 26:30  

In this setting, I can say with certainty that Jesus and the apostles didn’t carry around Baptist Hymnals with Fanny Crosby songs.  The “hymn” they sang would have probably been a psalm(s) set to music which was sung in the synagogues, and during the Jewish holiday celebrations. 

According to Bible Hub, the Greek for  “hymn” is:

hymnēsantes

ὑμνήσαντες  ,

having sung a hymn

from humneó:

1. to hymn, i.e. sing a religious ode

2. (by implication) to celebrate (God) in song

Plus I found another rare lexicon reference:  

Ὑμνήσαντες ] namely, the second portion of the Hallel (Psalms 115-118). See Buxtorf, Lex. Talm . p. 613 f. 

So Jesus, as an observant Jew, probably sang worshipful psalms and I’m sure it was from the heart.  (And if we agree that He sang the Hallel, any of the psalms that glorified God the Father are “fair game.”)  We also know that He “blessed God.”  How? He said Grace at meals, e.g., before He broke bread, some translations use the expression, He “spoke a blessing.”  And some commentators have theorized that He said the same worshipful blessing or grace over the meals that Jews use today: 

בָּרוּך אַתָּה אַדָנָי אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶך הָעוֹלָם הָמוֹציא לֶחם מן הַארץ

Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has brought forth bread from the earth. And now…

Regarding (2)

In the Greek translation, the devil is seen using the same “proskynēseis face plant” word here that Jesus said was reserved for His Father.  

In the devil’s case, we know what he was after here–basically a definition of the pecking order, or the supernatural hierarchy.  He wanted ‘whoever this Jesus was’ to be lower than the devil in the chain of command.  That is, he wanted to be in complete charge, and he wasn’t looking for relationship.  He planned to (and does) beat down anyone who was below him hierarchically.  So how did his unwitting human subjects worship the devil back the in the day?

We know that Israel was a province of Rome, at the time when Jesus walked the earth.  I asked Google AI, “What was the average day like in the life of a Roman worshipper?”  The resulting AI “digest” was: 

In terms of human sacrifice as a worship offering to the fake gods, per wiki: 

According to Pliny the Elder, human sacrifice was banned by law during the consulship of Publius Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus in 97 BCE, although by this time it was so rare that the decree was largely symbolic. Sulla’s Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis in 82 BC also included punishments for human sacrifice. The Romans also had traditions that centered around ritual murder, but which they did not consider to be sacrifice. Such practices included burying unchaste Vestal Virgins alive (but this was seen as punishment, not a worship offering). 

In terms of temple prostitutes who were employed during fertility/worship rituals:

In the Roman Empire, while prostitution was a legal and accepted practice, the concept of “temple prostitution” or “sacred prostitution” is debated by scholars. Some believe that certain fertility cults, particularly those associated with goddesses like Venus and Flora, may have incorporated rituals involving sexual acts, possibly as a form of worship or to ensure fertility. However, the extent and nature of these practices are unclear, with some scholars arguing that the term “sacred prostitution” is a misnomer and that activities within temples were distinct from commercial prostitution.  (source is AI Response – which sums up differing opinions I saw  during Google Search.)  

I am reminded of one of my favorite movies (Risen, sorry I keep pitching it), in which the Roman tribune, before he goes out on a mission, stops by a small cubbyhole/recess in the limestone-block walls of the barracks.  It is a shrine to Mars.  In the cubbyhole is a small, patina-layered bronze statue of a menacing Mars, a burning clay lamp, and stacks of coins from other worshippers.  The tribune puts down three gold coins after he spontaneously prays to the God of Jews…instead of Mars; in effect, he tries to make a deal with God – if He helps him solve the “Where did the King of the Jews go?” mystery, the tribune will “erect temples to Him and initiate games in His honor.” (Eventually he hears the truth personally from the Resurrected Yeshua. He also learns the meaning of life from Yeshua–Who is Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life–and the tribune becomes a follower of the Way and an evangelist for Christ :-)).  Of course, the movie producers probably read the same Google source material as I did.  But the fact that Roman worshippers may have been fickle in their loyalty to a single god might be considered true, as the gods were perceived as being extremely fickle/mercurial themselves.  

Another question:  Did the Roman worshippers fear the gods and/or retribution? According to wiki: Religious law centered on the ritualised system of honours and sacrifice that brought divine blessings, according to the principle do ut des (“I give, that you might give”). Proper, respectful religio brought social harmony and prosperity. Religious neglect was a form of atheism: impure sacrifice and incorrect ritual were vitia (impious errors). Excessive devotion, fearful grovelling to deities and the improper use or seeking of divine knowledge were superstitio. Any of these moral deviations could cause divine anger (ira deorum)

Here’s an interesting Google AI Response – Consequences of angering the gods: Divine anger, or ira deorum, was seen as a potential blockage of the gods’ favor and could lead to negative consequences like natural disasters, plagues, or defeat in war, according to one Quora contributor.

In sum, evidently there was a proper way to worship, and an improper way.  And more was less, in this case. Nevertheless, it was fear-based worship.  

God had His own definition of the “proper way” to worship, which Jesus demonstrated.  In His earthly role of the Only Begotten Son of Our Father, Jesus obeyed Him, revered Him and paid homage to Him.  But Jesus was and is God.  So should He have expected that the people in His sphere of influence would worship Him?  There is no indication that this was Jesus’ expectation, neither did He in any way try to solicit worship.  

Our Church is featuring a Wednesday night Apologetics Study.  Last night our teacher provided a lot of scriptural ammunition that we can use to answer one of the most frequently asked questions:  Where, in the Bible, did Jesus say that He was God?  The answer, I believe, is that Jesus said that He was God multiple times (as recorded in the Gospels, etc.), but He used encryption. Examples are:

Before Abraham was, I am.  John 8:58

I am the resurrection and the life.   John 14:6

I and the Father are one.  John 10:30

I am the First and the Last (said by Jesus, and it’s God’s official title in Is 44:6).  Rev 1:17

So these were riveting, powerful words that Jesus Himself spoke, and yet He was not seeking the people’s worship as God.   I believe the reason that He did this was that the “God Rep” had been put aside, as part of the redemption plan.  Phil 2:7 in fact says that Jesus made Himself of no reputation.  Very few even recognised Jesus as the Messiah back then, let alone God; plus the apostles, God bless ’em, were still confounded about what Jesus meant when He said He would rise on the third day–right up until the very second that He transported Himself into their midst.  Consequently they never really had a worshipful response to anything He said or did prior to the crucifixion.  They were too busy asking,”What manner of man is this?” or “Let’s get You and the other prophets into shelters for the night.”  

I further believe that this ambiguity was  part of God’s plan.  Therefore, although Jesus was definitely worthy of worship when He walked the earth, God did not want humans to worship Jesus at that time.  As previously said, I believe that the human side of Jesus worshipped the Father.  One could say that the Word obediently sang or recited the word that God had given to His children–and did so out of respect and love.