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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 and that
goes against Jehovah's Witness theology. Yet, most Bibles do not
translate it the way the New World Translation 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).
In fact, the ASV, KJV,
NIV, and NKJV all translated it as "Your throne, O God..."
The RSV translates it as "Your divine throne
endures for ever and ever," "but this is a highly unlikely
translation because it requires understanding the Hebrew noun for
"thrown" in construct state, something extremely unusual whenn a
noun has a pronomial suffix, as this one does...The KJV, NIV, and NASB all
take the verse in its plain, straightforward sense, as do the ancient
translations..."1
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? God alone is
on His throne and He isn't a throne for anyone else.
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.
________________
1. Grudem, Wayne, Systematic Theology, Intervarsity
Press, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1994, page 227.
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