Evidence · Case 12 · Jehovah’s Witnesses
The Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 6
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
God says of the Son, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” The fair Witness reading is that this is a lower honor, not true worship.
Sources
Objections & responses
- The NWT translates proskuneo in Hebrews 1:6 as “do obeisance,” and the word can mean that. Witnesses say angels give the Son obeisance as God’s chief agent, not worship as God.
The word does have that range, and the reply is contextual. Hebrews 1 is an argument for the Son’s superiority to angels, and the psalm the author quotes (97:7 in the Septuagint) commands the worship of God himself; he applies it to the Son. The Revelation 22 contrast, where an angel refuses proskuneo from John, shows the word being used for the worship creatures may not receive. The NWT’s inconsistency is itself the issue: it renders proskuneo as worship when directed to God and obeisance when directed to Jesus, and the choice is driven by doctrine, not by the Greek.