--- title: 1 Samuel 3:10 url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-samuel-3-10/ markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-samuel-3-10.md type: verse perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching reference: 1 Samuel 3:10 testament: OT section: History index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt --- # 1 Samuel 3:10 ## Text (Berean Standard Bible) > Then the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.” ## JW Usage 1 Samuel 3:10 is generally read in Watchtower literature as a simple account of divine calling — Jehovah speaks to young Samuel and Samuel responds. The verse is not pressed for its physical language ("then Jehovah came and stood") because acknowledging that the Old Testament Yahweh routinely "came and stood" visibly would open the theophany/Christophany argument that identifies these visible appearances of Yahweh with the pre-incarnate Son — which the Watchtower's created-angel Christology cannot accommodate. ## Protestant Usage Note what the text actually says: "Jehovah came and stood and called as on the previous occasions." This is not disembodied speech from heaven; Yahweh is standing in the room. Combine with verse 21, "Jehovah appeared again in Shiloh ... by the word of Jehovah." The Lord revealed himself as, or via, the Word of the Lord. Then turn to John 1:1, 14 — "the Word was God" and "the Word became flesh." John is not inventing the category; he is naming who the visible Word of the Lord of 1 Samuel 3 (and Genesis 15, and Jeremiah 1) had always been. The no-one-has-seen-God principle (John 1:18; 1 John 4:12) means the Yahweh who physically stood before Samuel cannot be the Father in his unmediated essence. The Old Testament shows a visible Yahweh; the New Testament names him Jesus. Keep the conversation gentle — the argument is cumulative, not single-verse — and let the Witness watch the category form across a few texts before asking the question: "who was that visible Word?" ## Arguments Using This Verse - [The Word of the Lord — Yahweh's Visible Person](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/word-of-the-lord.md) — The OT "Word of the Lord" appeared physically as God [Deity of Christ]