---
title: Deuteronomy 31:14
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/deuteronomy-31-14/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/deuteronomy-31-14.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Deuteronomy 31:14
testament: OT
section: Law
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Deuteronomy 31:14

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, the time of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.”  So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting.

## JW Usage

The Watchtower reads leadership continuity through a Moses-and- seventy-elders lens: a single central figure with a council of helpers, continuing across generations. The Moses-figure role is functionally mapped to "the faithful and discreet slave" (the Governing Body), with elders as its congregational deputies.

## Protestant Usage

Deuteronomy 31:14 is where God directly names Moses's successor: "Call Joshua, and take your positions in the tent of meeting so that I may commission him." The pattern is precise — God names the successor by revelation, the people recognise him, and the torch passes by divine appointment, not internal selection. Numbers 27:18-20 confirms: the Spirit is in Joshua, Moses lays hands on him publicly, and the transition is divinely initiated. Hebrews 3:1-6 then reveals who the *ultimate* Moses-successor is: Christ, "faithful over all God's house… as Son." The Moses seat in the new covenant is filled by Jesus, not by a council. The plural-eldership pattern for ordinary leadership appears at Acts 14:23 (elders in *each* congregation), Titus 1:5 (elders in *every* city), and 1 Peter 5:1 (Peter calls himself "a fellow elder" — not a chief shepherd; that is Christ, verse 4). The Watchtower's hierarchy — one council above all congregations — does not match either the Joshua-by-divine-revelation pattern or the local plural-eldership pattern. It is a third pattern, without New Testament warrant.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Plural Eldership — The Bible's Distributed Leadership Model](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/plural-eldership.md) — Acts 14:23 / Titus 1:5 / 1 Timothy 5:17 — Elders, never one Elder [Authority]