texts were heard (and intended to be heard) by their first recipients, without that initial voice being drowned out by the way the same texts often came to be heard in the controversies of the second to fourth centuries. The way forward will be as follows: 1 We need to consider whether ‘worship’ was given only to God (or gods). We must attempt to define what worship is and whether it is the fact that worship is offered to God (or a god) that in effect defines him (or her) as ‘God’/‘god’. 2 We need