This adjective describes someone who fears God in the sense of reverent worship and obedient devotion. Classical usage applied it to the religiously devout and pious. In John's Gospel, it appears in the formerly blind man's theological argument: God listens to the godly, not to sinners. The term suggests practical piety and reverence expressed in worship and obedience. In Jewish contexts it could describe both Jews and God-fearing Gentiles who worshiped the God of Israel without full conversion to Judaism.