Summary: The Watchtower Society claims that Jesus Christ is Jehovah God’s first and only direct creation, citing several biblical proof texts in support (especially Proverbs 8:22; Colossians 1:15-16; and Revelation 3:14). However, none of these proof texts actually teach that God created Jesus Christ, and the New Testament in many other places teaches that Christ is God’s eternal, uncreated Son.

This article is part of a series that explains the doctrines of Jehovah’s Witnesses in detail and shows why those teachings are not in harmony with the facts and teachings of the Bible. For an overview, see our article on “What Jehovah’s Witnesses Believe.”

WHAT THE WATCHTOWER TEACHES

Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught and believe that Jehovah God, the Father, created the Word (Greek, Logos, mentioned in John 1:1, 14) as His “firstborn spirit Son” ¹ in heaven before anything else was made. Then God directed and empowered His Son to make everything else:

Jehovah’s first creation was his “only-begotten Son” (Joh 3:16), “the beginning of the creation by God.” (Rev. 3:14) This one, “the firstborn of all creation,” was used by Jehovah in creating all other things, those in the heavens and those upon the earth, “the things visible and the things invisible.” (Col 1:15-17) …As wisdom personified, this One is represented as saying, “Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way,” and he tells of his association with God the Creator as Jehovah’s “master worker.” (Pro. 8:12, 22-31) ²

The Watchtower compares the relationship between Jehovah and his Son in the work of creation to that of an architect and the contractor he hires to construct a building:

So Jehovah, the Creator, worked through his Son, the Master Worker, to bring every other creation into existence…. In some respects, we might liken this cooperation between Father and Son to that of an architect working with a builder, or contractor, who specializes in bringing the architect’s ingenious designs to reality. ³

Elsewhere, the Society has described the Son’s role in creation as like that of a “junior partner”:

So it was by means of this master worker, his junior partner, as it were, that Almighty God created all other things. ⁴

BIBLICAL RESPONSE

To support their teaching that Christ was God’s first creature, the Watchtower cites several proof texts, especially Proverbs 8:22, Colossians 1:15-16, and Revelation 3:14. We will examine each of these three proof texts in turn. ⁵

Proverbs 8:22

There is ongoing debate today about how to translate Proverbs 8:22. Does it quote wisdom as saying that the LORD “possessed me” (ESV, NASB, NRSV), or should the verb be translated as “acquired” (CSB), “begot” (NAB), “brought forth” (NIV), or “created” (NET)? All of these translations have been proposed for the Hebrew text.

The controversial Hebrew verb here is qānāh. A fair, if somewhat ambiguous, translation in English would be “got”: “The LORD got me.” In the vast majority of occurrences in the Old Testament, qānāh means “buy” or “acquire.” ⁶ This is true for all of the other 13 occurrences in Proverbs. Furthermore, in all but one of those 13 occurrences, what a person is said to buy, acquire, or get is wisdom or another intellectual virtue such as understanding or knowledge (Pro.1:5; 4:5, 7; 15:32; 16:16; 17:16; 18:15; 19:8; 23:23). Since Proverbs repeatedly instructs its readers to “acquire wisdom” (Pro. 4:5, 7; 16:16), when we find the same language used for wisdom in Proverbs 8:22 it makes sense to translate it the same way: “The LORD acquired me” (CSB).

No matter which precise translation we choose, the verse seems to be saying that the Lord “got” wisdom. The Watchtower asserts that this means the passage must be referring to Christ. They argue that because the character trait of wisdom “never began to exist because Jehovah has always existed and he has always been wise,” Proverbs 8:22 cannot be talking about God’s attribute of wisdom. Since the New Testament describes Christ as “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24), they conclude that Proverbs is referencing Christ. ⁷

The main issue with this argument is that it assumes Proverbs 8:22 should be understood literally as saying God “got” wisdom that he previously lacked. This assumption overlooks the context. In Proverbs 1-9, Solomon depicts wisdom through the literary device of personification, where something that is not literally a person is described as if it were. Personification was a common rhetorical device in the Old Testament. ⁸ Jehovah’s Witnesses should take this seriously: the Watchtower’s own publications have recognized this point when they were not focused on using Proverbs 8:22 as a proof text about Christ:

Personification is another figure of speech. We use this when we speak of something inanimate as if it were alive. For example, the Bible tells us, “Death ruled as king from Adam down to Moses”; “grief and sighing must flee away”; “true wisdom itself keeps crying aloud in the very street.” (Romans 5:14; Isaiah 35:10; Proverbs 1:20) Death, grief, sighing and wisdom cannot really rule, flee or cry out. But speaking as if they did, the Bible paints vivid mental pictures, easily visualized and remembered. ⁹

This statement is exactly right. Wisdom is personified not just in a verse here or there (like Proverbs 1:20), but in a sustained way in three passages: Proverbs 1:20-33, 8:1-36, and 9:1-12. In all three passages, Wisdom speaks in the first-person singular, as in the following examples:

• “I have called and you refuse to listen” (Pro. 1:24).
• “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence” (Pro. 8:12).
• “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed” (Pro. 9:5).

Jehovah’s Witnesses interpret Proverbs 8:22-31 as a speech where the speaker is actually Jesus Christ before His incarnation, while the surrounding passages (Prov. 8:1-21, 32-36) are seen as a metaphorical personification of wisdom as a character trait. Breaking the passage into parts like this is simply unjustifiable. Proverbs 8 personifies other mental virtues besides wisdom. For example, it personifies understanding in the opening lines: “Does not wisdom call, and understanding lift up her voice?” (Prov. 8:1). If wisdom is a person here, then “understanding” must also be a person. Anyone who views this passage as referring to “Wisdom” as a person will also need to explain who “Prudence” is in 8:12, since that verse states that Wisdom dwells with Prudence!

If we read Proverbs 8:22-31 in the broader context of Proverbs 1-9 as a whole, we find that Solomon was extolling wisdom as something God “had” and showed or demonstrated in all of His created works. Wisdom’s poetic statement, “The LORD acquired me at the beginning of his way,” is a creatively poetic way of saying that God made wisdom the foundation of His work of creation (see the clear parallel statement in Prov. 3:19-20). It does not mean that God created an angel before creating anything else and then sat back while the angel did the rest of the work of creation.

There is nothing wrong with reading Proverbs 8 as a lesson that shows wisdom, which the New Testament says is perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ (Col. 2:2-3). However, it is a mistake to interpret Proverbs 8:22 literally and straightforwardly when applying it to Christ. Proverbs 8 was not meant to describe who Christ is, but to teach us that wisdom is fundamental to all of God’s works.

Colossians 1:15

In Colossians 1:15, the apostle Paul describes God’s Son as “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Jehovah’s Witnesses argue that the phrase “the firstborn of all creation” suggests that Christ was the first being God created. This might seem like the straightforward or obvious interpretation of the verse until we consider one point: Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves cannot interpret this statement literally. That is, they do not believe that the preexistent Christ (whom they consider to be a great angel, the archangel Michael) was actually born at any time. Therefore, they must assume that Paul was speaking figuratively. The question then becomes: what did Paul mean by it? Here is Paul’s statement in its previous context:

¹² giving thanks to the Father,
who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
¹³ He has delivered us from the domain of darkness
and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation. (Col. 1:12-15 ESV)

The idea here is that the “beloved Son” is the main heir of the “inheritance” from “the Father,” yet those redeemed in Christ are graciously invited “to share” in that inheritance. In this context of Father, Son, and inheritance, we should understand the meaning of the word ‘firstborn.’ In ancient Israel and the broader ancient Mediterranean world, the firstborn son in a family was typically the father’s primary heir, inheriting the largest or best part of his estate (sometimes all of it). Given the explicit reference to an “inheritance” and the use of the titles Father and Son, the importance of the firstborn as the main heir is the clear focus of the term “firstborn.”

This understanding of Paul’s meaning is amply confirmed by what immediately follows:

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
¹⁶ For by him all things were created,
in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—
all things were created through him and for him.
¹⁷ And he is before all things,
and in him all things hold together. (Col. 1:15-17 ESV)

Immediately after calling the Son “the firstborn of all creation,” Paul states that by the Son (literally “in him”) “all things were created.” Here, Paul distinguishes the Son from “all creation” by saying that “all things were created” in the Son, meaning he was not one of those created things. Instead, Paul clarifies, “all things were created through him and for him.” Paul uses three similar phrases to separate the Son from the created things: all things were created “in him…through him and for him.” The last part of this statement about the Son closely parallels what Paul says about God in another epistle:

“…all things through him and for him were created” (Col. 1:16b).
“…through him and for him [are] all things” (Rom. 11:36).

If all things were created in, through, and for the Son, then the Son is not one of the created things. It’s that simple. ¹⁰

In verse 17, Paul adds two statements that distinguish the Son from the created order, stating that the Son “is before all things” and that “in him all things hold together.” Here, Paul emphasizes that the Son exists before all created things and that everything is held together in the Son.

To avoid the clear message of verses 16-17 that the Son, Jesus Christ, is not part of the created world, the New World Translation adds the word “other” four times in these two verses.

…because by means of him all other things were created in the heavens and on the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All other things have been created through him and for him. Also, he is before all other things, and by means of him all other things were made to exist. (Col. 1:16-17 NWT, emphasis added)

Jehovah’s Witnesses defend these insertions by pointing to other places in the Bible, such as Luke 13:2, 4, where modern English versions commonly add the word “other” where it seems to be required by the context. ¹¹ It is true that the word “other” can sometimes be implied or even added to a translation to make for more idiomatic or smoother English, as in Luke 13:2, 4. However, the issue is whether it is proper to add the word in order to make a text say the opposite of what it would mean without it. That is what the NWT does in Colossians 1:16-17. Where Paul says that all things were created in, through, and for the Son, the NWT attempts to convey the idea that the Son is one of the things that were created.

In Colossians 1:16-17, Paul uses the specific expression ta panta, the neuter plural form with the definite article (“the all [things]”). Although this expression can be used in other contexts, when it is used in the context of creation (as is explicitly the case here), it is a standard Jewish expression referring to the totality of God’s creation (Gen. 1:31; Neh. 9:6; Jer. 10:16; [see below for Wisdom c. 1 vs. 7 and 14; c. 9 v. 1; Sirach c. 18 v. 1; c. 23 v. 20; c. 43 v. 26]; Acts 17:25; Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 3:9; Heb. 1:3; Rev. 4:11). ¹² By placing the Son outside the category of “the all” that was created, Paul excludes the notion that Christ was the chronologically first of all creatures.

• Wisdom 1:7, 14 – For the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world: and that which containeth all things hath knowledge of the voice…. For he created all things, that they might have their being: and the generations of the world were healthful; and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of death upon the earth:
• Wisdom 9:1 – O God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things with thy word,
• Sirach 18:1 – He that liveth for ever Hath created all things in general.
• Sirach 23:20 – He knew all things ere ever they were created; so also after they were perfected he looked upon them all.
• Sirach 43:26 – By him the end of them hath prosperous success, and by his word all things consist.

Revelation 3:14

In John’s seven letters to the churches in Asia Minor, he states that the angel of the church in Laodicea told him to write the following:

“Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the archē of the creation of God” (Rev. 3:14).

English versions render the word archē—to which the Watchtower appeals to prove that Christ was a created being—in what may seem like surprisingly different ways:

• beginning (ESV, KJV, NASB, NKJV, NLT)
• head (BBE, WEB)
• source (NAB)
• origin (GNT, NRSV)
• originator (CSB, LEB, NET)
• ruler (CEB, CJB, NIV)

All of these renderings are linguistically and contextually plausible. Moreover, none of them suggests or implies that Christ was the first creature God created. The only phrase that might seem to imply that is “the beginning of the creation of God,” but even this phrase does not clearly convey that idea. Three considerations make it almost certain that John did not mean that Christ was the first being chronologically created by God.

First, in the New Testament, the noun archē when used of a person or persons outside the Book of Revelation generally means something like “ruler” (Rom. 8:38; Eph. 1:21; 2:2; 3:10; 6:12; Col. 1:16; 2:10, 15; Titus 3:1; see also Luke 12:11; 1 Peter 3:22). This includes one other reference to Christ (Col. 1:18). This serves as the basis for translating “ruler” in the NIV and other versions, as well as the similar term “head.”

Second, the meaning of “ruler” easily fits the context of the Book of Revelation. In the immediate setting, Christ promises a place on his throne to those who conquer through their faith in him (Rev. 3:21). The titles of Revelation 3:14 clearly overlap with the titles of Christ at the beginning of the book.

• “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler [archōn] of the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5).
• “the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler [archē] of the creation of God” (Rev. 3:14)

Since archōn definitely means “ruler” and archē commonly has this meaning in the New Testament, the similarities between these two texts (both containing three titles for Christ) strongly support interpreting archē as meaning something like “ruler.”

Third, the word archē in the Book of Revelation is used only two other times, and in both cases it refers to God:

“I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 21:6).
“I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:13).

It cannot be a mere coincidence that Christ is also called “the first and the last” (Rev. 1:17; 2:8). The three expressions found in Revelation 22:13 are synonymous (alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and omega is the last letter). Indeed, there is a strong case to be made that in Revelation 22:13, Christ is speaking. ¹³ Clearly, then, these synonymous titles as applied to God in Revelation 21:6 do not imply that God was created or had a beginning in time. Nor should Revelation 3:14 be interpreted with that meaning.

Although Revelation 3:14 does not imply that Christ was the first creature God created, it may be referring to Christ as part of creation, albeit in a very special sense. Specifically, it may be designating Christ as the “head” or ruling member of creation by virtue of his redemptive work. In New Testament teaching, Christ is the divine Son who humbled himself to become a man, thereby joining himself permanently with his own creation (John 1:9-14; Phil. 2:5-11; Heb. 2:14-18). As the resurrected and glorified Son exalted in heaven, Christ is still a man (Acts 17:31; 1 Cor. 15:47; 1 Tim. 2:5; see also Luke 24:36-43; Acts 2:24-32). ¹⁴ As such, Christ is not the first creature made but the preeminent member of the new creation. There are several reasons to believe that this interpretation is the most plausible explanation of Revelation 3:14.

• The context of the similar titles in Revelation 1:5-6 focuses on Christ’s redemptive work (“the firstborn of the dead…has freed us from our sins by his blood”).
• In the letter to the Laodicean church, Christ states that he sat on the throne with his Father after he “conquered” by his death and resurrection (Rev. 3:21).
• In Colossians 1:18, the parallel use of archē refers to Christ’s headship in the new creation, especially because it is immediately followed by the title “the firstborn from the dead” (a clear parallel to Rev. 1:5).
• The primary background to the three titles in Revelation 3:14 is most likely Isaiah 65:16-17, which twice refers to the Lord in Hebrew as “the God of ’amēn” (usually translated “the God of truth”). Not only is the Greek word amēn in Revelation 3:14 a direct transliteration of the Hebrew word in Isaiah 65:16, that Hebrew word can mean both “faithful” and “true”—the two descriptions in the second title in Revelation 3:14. The “blessing” that this faithful or true God promises is that he will “create new heavens and a new earth” (Isa. 65:17). This expression referring to the new creation also is used in that sense in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 21:1, 2). It is also anticipated in the immediately preceding context of Revelation 3:14, where Christ speaks of “the new Jerusalem” that will come down from God (Rev. 3:12). Thus, the reference to “the creation of God” in Revelation 3:14 in context is likely focused on the new creation that God is making. ¹⁵

Let’s summarize the main points of this explanation of Revelation 3:14. “The creation of God” refers to the renewal of creation as God transforms it into “the new heavens and the new earth.” Christ is its “beginning” (archē) because he is the head, the ruling authority of the new creation, due to his death and resurrection to eternal, glorious life and his exaltation to God’s throne. The text does not imply that Christ was created at or as the beginning of the original universe.

Did God Contract Out the Work of Creation to an Angel?

The Watchtower’s doctrine that Jesus Christ was the first creature God made cannot be separated from its teaching about how all creation came into existence. As we saw earlier in this article, in Watchtower theology, Jehovah God made Jesus directly but did not create anything else himself. Instead, after creating Christ, God appointed Christ to make everything else. This idea contradicts the consistent teaching of the Bible that God created and made all things (Gen. 1:1; 2:7; Neh. 9:6; Ps. 95:5-7; 102:25; 104:24-30; Isa. 44:24; Jer. 10:16; 51:19; Acts 4:24; 14:15; 17:25, 28; Rom. 11:36; Heb. 2:10; Rev. 4:11). In Isaiah 44:24, Jehovah even emphasizes that He made the world by himself, meaning without any help.

In their eagerness to avoid attributing the status of God to the Lord Jesus Christ, ironically, Jehovah’s Witnesses credit the preincarnate Christ with doing the work that the Bible repeatedly and emphatically credits to Jehovah God alone. The idea that Christ acts as God’s “agent” in creation—and in almost everything else—ends up with the notion of a distant Supreme Being who is like a business owner who never does any work. The “junior partner” or “contractor” is the only deity who actually gets involved in making, redeeming, and ruling the creation. Such an idea is a radical departure from biblical theology.

The traditional Christian position remains the only doctrine faithful to Scripture: the Son, who created the world, who made redemption possible through His death, and who is bringing all things to their consummation, is Himself no less than God. As such, He was not God’s first created being, but God’s eternal Son (John 1:1-18; Col. 1:12-20; 2:9; Heb. 1:1-13).

NOTES

1. “Working Together With God—A Cause for Rejoicing,” Watchtower (Jan. 2016): 29.

2. “Creation,” in Insight on the Scriptures (1988, 2015 printing), 1:527.

3. “Come Be My Follower” (2007, 2012 printing), 130–31.

4. Should You Believe in the Trinity? (1989, 2006 printing), 14.

5. On these verses, see also Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 104–109.

6. The verb occurs 85 times in the Hebrew OT, and other than Proverbs 8:22 the meaning “buy” or “acquire” clearly fits all but two places (Gen. 4:1; Ps. 139:13).

7. “Come Be My Follower” (2007, 2012 printing), 131; “Questions from Readers,” Watchtower (Aug. 1, 2006): 31.

8. Ernest C. Lucas, Proverbs, Two Horizons OT Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 262.

9. “The Bible’s Vivid Figures of Speech,” Watchtower (June 1, 1984), 19, boldface emphasis added. See also Insight on the Scriptures (1988), 2:1019, 1161.

10. On these prepositional phrases, see further Bowman and Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place, 190–91.

11. “Trinity,” in Reasoning from the Scriptures (1995), 408.

12. See Richard Bauckham, God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 31–32.

13. Bowman and Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place, 179–80.

14. Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught that Jesus Christ ceased to be a man when he was put to death and that he was resurrected as an angel. For a detailed critique of the Watchtower’s arguments for this false doctrine, see Robert M. Bowman Jr., Jehovah’s Witnesses, Zondervan Guide to Cults and Religious Movements (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 38–49.

15. See G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster, 1999), 297–301.

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