 The Jehovah's Witnesses and Hebrews 1:8 and Psalm 45:6
"But with reference to
the Son: 'God is your throne forever and ever, and [the] scepter of your kingdom is the
scepter of uprightness'" The New World Translation.
In
this particularly interesting verse, God is addressing the Son. The Greek construction of
Hebrews 1:8 allows the text to be translated in two legitimate ways:
"God is your throne forever and ever....
and
"Thy Throne O God, is forever and ever..."
But because of
the Watchtower presupposition that Jesus is not God, they choose the first version,
otherwise, the Father would be calling Jesus God. Yet, most Bibles do not translate
it the way the NWT does. They choose the other way. Why? Two reasons.
First, Heb. 1:8 is a quote from Psalm 45:6, which says,
"Thy
Throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Thy Kingdom"
(All Bible quotes are from the NASB).
The natural translation of the
verse in Hebrew is rendered by the NASB above. But when we look at the Hebrew, we
see that there is no grammatical requirement for this translation, though
it is considered to be the best translation by most translators. In and of itself,
this is not conclusive because the context of this verse in Psalm 45 is dealing with a
king which would make one wonder why he would be addressed as God. But, it is not
uncommon for NT writers to take a verse in the OT that seemingly deals with one subject
and apply it to another. They knew something we didn't. In fact, in Ezekiel
28:12-17 is a section that deals with the fall of the devil. Verse 13 says describes
how he was in the garden of Eden. Verse 14 says he was the anointed cherub, (v. 15),
etc. But the context of this section begins with an address to the king of Tyre (v.
12). Yet, right after Ezekiel is told to write to the King of Tyre he then goes on
to describe what the great majority of theologians agree with is a description of the
devil's fall. So, we need to look at the context that the writer of Hebrews put
Psalm 45:6 into. He addressed it to Jesus. Therefore, Psalm 45 is a Messianic
Psalm and must in interpreted in light of the NT, not the other way around.
Nevertheless, the context of this verse follows:
"For to which of the angels did He
ever say, "Thou are My son, Today I have begotten Thee"? And again, "I will
be a Father to Him, and He shall be a Son to Me"? 6And
when he again brings the first-born into the world, He says, "And let all the angels
of God worship Him." 7And of the angels He says
"Who makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire." 8But
of the Son He says, "Thy Throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous
scepter is the scepter of His kingdom, 9Thou hast loved
righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the
oil of gladness above Thy companions. 10And, "Thou,
Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the
works of Thy hands; 11They will perish, but though
remainest...." (Heb. 1:5-11).
To say "God is
your throne" doesn't make sense. What does it mean to say, "But to
which of the angels did he say, God is your throne." What would that
mean? Is God, Jesus' throne? Hardly.
Also worth noting here is verse 10: "Thou, Lord,
in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the works of
Thy hands..." This is a quote from Psalm 102:24-25 which says, "I
say, 'O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days, Thy years are throughout all
generations. 25Of old Thou didst found the earth; And the
heavens are the work of Thy hands.'" Clearly, God is the one being
addressed in Psalm 102. It is God who laid the foundations of the earth. Yet,
in Heb. 1:10, Jesus is called 'Lord' and is said to be the one who laid the foundation of
the earth. This becomes even more interesting when we note that in Isaiah 44:24 it
says, "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the
womb, "I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself,
And spreading out the earth all alone." If God was laying the foundations
of the earth alone, that would mean that either Jesus has to be God, second person of the
trinity, who laid the foundation the same as YHWH did, or we have a contradiction in the
Bible. Clearly this section of Hebrews is proclaiming that Jesus is God.
Therefore, contextually, it is best to translate Heb. 1:8 as, "Thy Throne, O God. .
." and the Father call Jesus God.
The Watchtower
organization denies that Jesus is God. Therefore, it cannot permit any verses in
the Bible to even hint that Jesus is God. That is why they choose a translation
that does not best fit the context or overall theology of the Bible. |
