1 Corinthians 10:9
1 Corinthians 10:99We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes.
The NWT renders 10:9 "neither let us put Jehovah to the test," where the majority Greek text reads "Christ" (ton Christon). This is one of the 237 "Jehovah" insertions in the NWT New Testament. JW commentary treats the verse as straightforward instruction not to test Jehovah during the wilderness episode (cf. Numbers 21, ), fitting cleanly within JW theology where every NT-era act of divine agency in the OT is attributed to Jehovah through his created agents.
The majority Greek manuscripts — including early papyri and the United Bible Societies / Nestle-Aland critical text — read "Christ," not "Lord" or "God." Paul is explicitly identifying the one Israel tested in the wilderness as the pre-incarnate Christ. This connects directly to ("the spiritual rock that followed them was Christ" — which even the NWT translates "that rock meant the Christ") and to Jude 5 ("Jesus delivered Israel" on the best manuscript reading). At the door: "Paul at 10:4 tells you the rock was Christ. At 10:9 the best Greek text says they tested Christ. If Christ is the one Israel tested in the wilderness, and says Jehovah ALONE led Israel, Christ is Jehovah. The NWT's 'Jehovah' at 10:9 is not in the Greek manuscripts — it is an insertion that erases exactly what Paul was saying."
The majority Greek text of 10:9 reads "Christ" (ton Christon); the NWT substitutes "Jehovah." Part of the NWT's systematic Tetragrammaton-insertion programme in the NT (237 occurrences of "Jehovah" where no Greek manuscript of the NT contains the Tetragrammaton). The pastoral effect at 10:9 is acute: Paul is explicitly identifying the pre-incarnate Christ as the one Israel tested in the wilderness — a direct claim that Christ shares divine identity and divine action in the Old Testament. The NWT's substitution erases that identification. Use alongside (where the NWT keeps "Christ" because the passage cannot be Jehovah-substituted) and Jude 5 (where the best manuscripts read "Jesus" but the NWT substitutes "Jehovah" there as well).