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Is Jesus Michael the Archangel?

1 Thessalonians 4:16 says that Jesus “will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet.” So, if Jesus has the voice of an archangel, he must be the archangel Michael. After all, Michael is the only archangel there is, since the term archangel is never used in the plural. Thus the evidence indicates that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15) and was known as Michael before he came to earth, and he is again known by the name Michael since his return to heaven.1

Perhaps the most peculiar Watchtower doctrine is the idea that Jesus is really Michael the archangel. This teaching is not typically mentioned when introducing the faith to a new recruit, as can be seen in the official overview of beliefs published by the Watchtower. If Witnesses have difficulty explaining any particular doctrine, it is this one.

They openly admit that if one were to walk up to any of the twelve apostles and ask who Jesus was, none would have said, “But of course, he’s Michael the archangel!”

The clearest contradiction of such an idea can be found in the book of Hebrews (RSV:CE), where the sacred author asks, “For to what angel did God ever say, ‘Thou art my Son’”? (1:5, citing Ps. 2:7,) and “When he brings the first-born into the world, he says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship him’” (1:6, citing Deut. 32:43). “Of the angels he says, ‘Who makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire.’ But of the Son he says, ‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever . . .’ and, ‘Thou, Lord, didst found the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of thy hands’” (1:7–8, citing Ps.

104:4, 45:6, and 102:25).

Here the author of Hebrews not only separates Jesus from angels, he even commands the angels to worship him (Heb. 1:6; cf. Rev. 5:13–14, 14:7). The first issue of Zion’s Watch Tower magazine agreed: “‘Let all the angels of God worship him’ [that must include Michael] and ‘Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.’”2 The obvious problem, though, is this: Archangels are creatures, but the Bible forbids the worship of any created being. Thus, either the Bible is in error by commanding the angels to worship an archangel, or Jesus is uncreated, deserving of worship, and cannot be an archangel.

In Revelation 22:8–9 an angel refuses to be worshiped, but God the Father commands that the same worship (Greek, proskuneō) be given to Jesus (Heb. 1:6). Since this proved to be a stumbling block for Watchtower theology, the NWT had to be altered to eliminate the references to Christ’s being worshiped. The translation of proskuneō was therefore changed to read “do obeisance” when in reference to Christ, but it was left as “worship”

when speaking of Jehovah. So Hebrews 1:6, 8 in the NWT now reads, “‘And let all of God’s angels do obeisance to him.’ . . . ‘God is your throne forever.’”3

Michael the archangel’s name is mentioned only five times in Scripture: in Daniel

10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9; and Revelation 12:7. He is described as “one of the foremost princes,” who “did not dare to bring a judgment against him [Satan] in abusive terms, but said: ‘May Jehovah rebuke you.’” Jesus, like Jehovah, never seemed to have any qualms about rebuking Satan, since he did this dozens of times in the Gospels.4 More importantly, Jesus has the power to forgive sins and give eternal life, but no angel has this capacity.

Since Michael is called “the archangel” in Jude 9 (emphasis added), is one to conclude that he is the only archangel, as the Watchtower asserts? Such reasoning would lead one to believe that the title “Felix the cat” implies that there are no other cats but Felix. Such a use of the definite article the obviously does not at all mean that there are no others. In addition, Michael is only considered to be “one of the foremost princes” (Dan. 10:13, emphasis added). This implies that there are more princes like him. In contrast to Michael, Jesus is called “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:13, 16). He is not simply one among many princes.

The Watchtower not only attempts to equate Jesus with Michael; it also tries to buttress its argument that Jesus is a creature (an archangel, no matter how exalted, is still merely a creature) by appealing to Colossians 1:15, where he is called “the firstborn of creation.” What about this argument? Does the phrase “firstborn of creation” imply that Jesus was created? In the case of Colossians 1:15, the Greek word for “firstborn” is prōtotokos, which can mean either a firstborn in chronological birth order or one who is preeminent. To see this difference in meaning, compare Genesis 41:51–52 (“Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh . . . the name of the second he called Ephraim”) with Jeremiah 31:9 (“I have become to Israel a Father; and as for Ephraim, he is my firstborn”).

In these verses, firstborn has two different meanings, since Ephraim is considered firstborn, although he was not first to leave the womb. Therefore, the use of the term firstborn in reference to Jesus does not at all mean that he is a created being but rather that he is preeminent over creation. There is also something to say about the of in the phrase “firstborn of all creation.” The of is present in the English because in Greek the words all creation (pasēs ktiseōs) are in the genitive case.5 When translators encounter something in the genitive case in Greek, a standard way to translate it into English is to stick the word of in front of it. Of is an English preposition that has a very broad range of meaning. It can show possession (the genitive’s best-known function), as in “That is the house of John,” but it can also show other things, such as relationship, as in “That is the brother of John.” And it can show many other things as well.

In Colossians 1:15, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are taking the genitive phrase “of all creation” to indicate a larger whole (the created world) of which the Son is a part.6 However, there are other kinds of genitives. One shows primacy over something.7 This seems to be the kind of genitive used here. The passage is stressing Jesus’ primacy over all things, which verses 16 and 17 say were created through and for the Son and that he is what holds them together, putting him in a category different from and superior to the

created world).8 This makes it more plausible to translate the phrase “the firstborn over all creation.”

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