In addition to formal dance, the postures taken for the various acts of worship are an important aspect of movement in worship. Posture both reflects and shapes the attitudes that we bring to worship. One of the most important postures for many Christians in worship is that of kneeling for prayer. This article traces the history of the use of kneeling in worship and commends this practice to all Christians.
Anglicans traditionally kneel to pray, although worshipers in many parishes are now invited to “sit or kneel,” which suggests a growing uncertainty about what is appropriate. Most Protestants sit; some stand; and many of the Nonconformist traditions object to kneeling on the grounds that it is unacceptably ritualistic or Romish or both. Should we, or should we not kneel to pray, and does it matter?
Here is what Screwtape writes to his young charge in C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters: One of their poets, Coleridge, has recorded that he did not pray “with moving lips and bended knees” but merely “composed his spirit to love” and indulged “a sense of supplication.” That is exactly the sort of prayer we want.… Clever and lazy patients can be taken in by it for quite a long time. At the very least, they can be persuaded that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers; for they constantly forget, what you must always remember, that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls.
The argument here is that since we are bodily, “animal” creatures, our desires and aspirations necessarily find expression in bodily form. When we are joyful or fearful, sad or angry, we will most naturally seek to manifest this in some appropriate outward and physical fashion. For someone hungry or thirsty it is not enough merely to adopt an attitude of eating and drinking. So also the posture we adopt in prayer is an outward and visible expression of our real (and not just inward!) need for God.
For this reason, although it is of course fundamentally a matter of Christian freedom and discretion rather than of absolute right and wrong, we may be well advised to ask what Scripture and tradition have to say about the appropriate posture for prayer.
The Old Testament
The Old Testament views kneeling as a gesture of humility or of prostration before God or even Baal (1 Kings 19:18) or another figure of authority such as a prophet (2 Kings 1:13). The call to worship in Psalm 95 (the Venite of the traditional liturgy) includes the phrase: “O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (v. 6).
Other, similar forms of prostration are found. Abraham’s servant bows his head in worship after being invited to lodge with Rebekah’s family (Gen. 24:26). Joshua and the elders fall on their faces before the ark after being routed at Ai (Josh. 7:6). Elijah on Mt. Carmel bows down to the ground and puts his face between his knees (1 Kings 18:42). Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20:18) and Ezra (Neh. 8:6) each lead the people in bowing their heads to the ground in worship. The exilic hope for redemption included the trust that one day “every knee shall bow” to God, in submission and worship (Isa. 45:23); in the New Testament, Paul takes up this hope and applies it to Jesus (Rom. 11:4; 14:11; Phil. 2:10).
Despite Psalm 95, kneeling specifically for prayer or worship is in fact relatively uncommon in the Old Testament. It does, however, occur in three important stories. Solomon prays his prayer of dedication for the new Temple kneeling and with his hands spread up to heaven (1 Kings 8:54; 2 Chron. 6:13). Ezra offers a prayer of repentance on his knees and with his hands spread out to God, because of Israel’s intermarriage with pagans (Ezra 9:5). And three times a day Daniel kneels down in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem, to pray and give thanks (Dan. 6:10). There are probably just two instances of “sitting before the Lord” in prayer. After the war against the Benjamites, the children of Israel went up to Bethel, wept, fasted, and sat before the Lord all day (Judges 20:26). David went into the sanctuary and “sat before the Lord” and prayed after Nathan had announced to him God’s everlasting covenant with the house of David (2 Sam. 7:18; 1 Chron. 17:16). This shows that sitting in prayer is not entirely unthinkable for the Old Testament; but it may on the other hand be significant that the same expression (“to sit before” someone) is used elsewhere to denote the attitude of attentiveness which disciples have for their master (2 Kings 4:38; Ezek. 33:31; Zech. 3:8). Our two instances of sitting before the Lord both suggest situations of extended, attentive, listening prayer.
The normal prayer posture in Old Testament times was to stand: Hannah stands at the sanctuary to pray for a son (1 Sam. 1:26); the people of Israel stand to confess and repent of their sins, to read from the Law, and to worship God (Neh. 9:1–3, 5); and numerous other texts speak of standing before God in worship (2 Chron. 20:13, 19; Ps. 24:3, 134:1, 135:2; cf. Lev. 9:5; Jer. 7:10). The Levites stand every morning and evening to thank and praise the Lord (1 Chron. 23:30), as indeed in a wider sense they stand ministering before the Lord (e.g., Deut. 10:8, 17:12, 18:5, 7; 1 Kings 8:11; 2 Chron. 5:14; 29:11, 35:5; Ezek. 44:15; Luke 1:11; Heb. 10:11). Similarly, Elijah appeals to the authority of the God of Israel “before whom I stand” (1 Kings 17:1, 18:15; cf. 2 Kings 3:14, 5:16). To “stand before” someone was to serve and recognize that person’s authority (e.g. 1 Kings 1:2, 10:8; 2 Chron. 9:7; cf. Zech. 6:5; Luke 1:19, Rev. 20:12), although we also hear repeatedly that humans are not worthy or able to stand before God (1 Sam. 6:20; Ezra 9:15; Job 41:10, Ps. 76:7; 130:3).
Ancient Judaism
The later Jewish literature from the Second Temple period quite consistently suggests that Jews stood for prayer, facing Jerusalem. Solemn prayers for deliverance and penitential prayers, however, were offered while kneeling. In the Prayer of Manasseh, a little gem of intertestamental spirituality, the penitent king will “bend the knee of my heart,” pleading for God’s kindness and forgiveness (v. 11). Similarly, Simon the High Priest prays on his knees and with outstretched hands for help against the invading enemy, Emperor Ptolemy (3 Macc. 2:1). There are various other examples of prostration or kneeling in prayers of confession or desperate need dating from around the time of Christ.
In the emerging liturgy of the synagogue, the main prayer (the Prayer of Eighteen Petitions) was in fact also known as the Amidah, literally, the “standing prayer.” While the daily Shema (“Hear O Israel,” Deut. 6:4) could be recited while traveling or lying down, the Amidah could only be said while standing.
Rabbinic literature, written after the destruction of the Temple, reflects widely on prayer. Prayer was seen as the true service of God, and greater than sacrifice. It must be engaged in from the heart, with earnest intention and concentration; our prayer is not accepted unless we pray with our heart in our hands. Prayer should never become a mindless routine or be done absent-mindedly.
Among the rabbis, standing for prayer is assumed to be the norm. Simon the Pious (fl. c. 200 b.c.) reputedly taught that in prayer God’s very presence stands before us. Rabbi Eliezer (early second-century a.d.) taught his disciples, “When you pray, know before whom you stand!” (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot, 28b). Nevertheless, we are told about the famous Rabbi Akiba (second-century a.d.), who while in public prayer was brief but in private given to much kneeling and prostration.
The New Testament
A similar pattern holds true in the Gospels. Standing in prayer is assumed throughout. Jesus teaches, “Whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25, Mt. 6:25). Even Pharisees and tax collectors stand for prayer in the synagogue (Luke 18:11, 13). The only reference to a kneeling prayer is in Luke’s account of Jesus’ solemn, agonizing struggle with his death in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:41; in Mark 14:35, Jesus prostrates himself on the ground).
In the Acts of the Apostles, however, there are several interesting examples of praying in the kneeling position. As he is being stoned, Stephen kneels down (perhaps involuntarily?) and asks God not to “hold this sin against” his persecutors (Acts 7:60). Peter kneels to pray in the upper room for Dorcas/ Tabitha to be revived (9:40). After Paul’s farewell speech to the Ephesians elders, they all get down on their knees to pray (20:36); similarly, the disciples at Tyre kneel down on the beach to pray with Paul and his companions, having escorted them out of the city on their way to Jerusalem (21:5). One other relevant New Testament passage about kneeling is Paul’s prayer that God will powerfully strengthen his readers “through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”; for this prayer, Paul says that he bows his knees before the Father (Eph. 3:14–17). The book of Revelation envisions the angels and the saints standing before God in the heavenly worship (7:9, 11; 8:2, cf. 20:12).
In summing up the biblical and intertestamental evidence, it is probably fair to say that standing to pray was normal, although a kneeling position was assumed for particularly solemn, earnest, or penitential prayers. The function of kneeling seems to be to express humility and prostration before God.
Ancient Christianity
The early church witnessed a further refinement of this view. As the biblical precedent suggests, both standing and kneeling in prayer were practiced. There was at first no uniform custom; in fact, several different prayer postures are attested: standing upright or with the head and back bent forward, kneeling, or fully prostrating oneself face down.
In formal settings, kneeling was primarily reserved for penitential occasions, although informally and in private devotion Christians might kneel more frequently. Writing around the year a.d. 96, Clement of Rome encouraged the church at Corinth to put aside strife and disloyalty and instead to “fall down before the Master, and beseech him with tears that he may have mercy upon us” (1 Clement 48:1). Early church tradition reports of the piety of James the Just (the brother of the Lord) that he “used to enter alone into the Temple and be found kneeling and praying for forgiveness for the people”; we are told that in the course of his constant penitential kneeling on behalf of the people his knees become calloused like those of a camel … ! (Hegesippus, c. a.d. 170, quoted by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 2:23:6). The author of the Shepherd of Hermas (c. a.d. 140) repeatedly kneels to confess his sins during his visions (Vision 1:1:3; 2:1:2; 3:1:5; 4:1:7, v. 1). And Origen (c. 185–254) in fact considered kneeling to be a necessary expression of humility and submission for those wanting to confess their sins and to ask God’s forgiveness (On Prayer, 31:3). For the ancient Christian, to kneel was to give outward expression to his or her unworthiness and humility before God.
Other instances of kneeling prayer occur in the context of earnest entreaties in the face of disaster. Tertullian (c. 160–225) and Eusebius (c. 260–340) refer to efficacious kneeling prayer at times of drought, and supplication on one’s knees was also practiced at the time of death or other serious need.
As for corporate worship, the repeated references to church custom in some early writers seem to suggest that kneeling was very much the norm here, too. But although this may have been the case at certain times and places, it would be misleading to assume that kneeling was in fact universally practiced in worship. It is true that for a while the first part of the liturgy was said kneeling, followed by the rest of the service, for which the communicants stood. Catechumens and those not admitted to Communion for reasons of penance had to leave the service after the reading of the Scripture and the kneeling prayer; for this reason, penitents were sometimes referred to as “kneelers” (genuflectentes).
In time, however, an ecumenical consensus emerged that explicitly restricted the occasions on which kneeling for public prayer was permitted. If kneeling is an appropriate bodily sign of penitence and humility, then times of triumph and joy would seem to call for a different posture. Tracing such a custom to the apostles, Irenaeus (c. 130–200) insisted that kneeling is appropriate during the six weekdays as an expression of sinfulness, but on the Lord’s day not kneeling manifests our rising again by the grace of Christ and being delivered from our sins. Others who agree with Irenaeus but ban kneeling both on Sundays and from Easter to Pentecost include Tertullian, Hilary, Epiphanius, Basil, Jerome, Augustine, and numerous later church fathers and canons. In keeping with this consensus, Canon 20 of the Council of Nicaea (a.d. 325) determines that “since there are some who kneel on the Lord’s Day and even during the days of Pentecost, in order that all things should everywhere be uniformly observed it has seemed right to the Holy Synod that prayers to God should be made standing.”
Conclusion
Following biblical precedent, the ancient Christians knelt and stood for prayer. Kneeling was appropriate for confession and for solemn entreaties at times of need. Corporate public worship on Sundays and during the Easter season, however, was offered standing up. “In fact,” says an acknowledged Anglican authority on the matter, “few customs are more frequently mentioned by early Christian writers than the practice of praying in the standing posture” (V. Staley, “Position and Posture of Minister and People,” in George Harford and Morley Stevenson, eds., The Prayer Book Dictionary [London: Isaac Pitman and Sons, 1925], 596).
At the outset, I quoted C. S. Lewis on the subject of kneeling. A rather similar perspective was offered by St. Augustine. God, he says, does not of course need our outward gestures of kneeling, raising our hands, or prostration in order for our hearts to be open to him. Nevertheless, the outward gesture is of great benefit because it helps motivate us to pray more fervently. And although the decision to pray is of course inward and spiritual, the outward and physical motion curiously reinforces our heart’s commitment:
I do not understand why, although these motions of the body cannot be made without a prior act of the mind, nevertheless by performing the outward and visible motions the inward one which caused them is itself increased. Thus, the heart’s affection which caused the outward motions, is itself increased because they are made.
We may of course pray seated if we must, but in any case, the witness of Scripture and of the ancient church should encourage us to think about what we are expressing with our bodies.
Should we kneel to pray? Yes, by all means, let us kneel to ask earnestly for God’s forgiveness and to implore his help in conflict and adversity. And then let us stand, too, to praise and worship for our liberation.