Deuteronomy 32:39
Deuteronomy 32:3939See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
JWs cite this verse — "See now that I — I am he, and there are no gods together with me. I put to death, and I make alive" — as proof of strict monotheism excluding Jesus from deity. Only Jehovah gives life and puts to death; Jesus, as a creature, cannot share these prerogatives.
Jehovah declares "I put to death, and I make alive" — identifying the authority to give life as a uniquely divine prerogative (confirmed in ). Yet Jesus claims exactly this authority: "just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whomever he wishes" (). Paul calls Jesus "a life-giving spirit" () — the "last Adam" title JWs use to make Jesus merely human actually demonstrates his deity, because only God has authority to give life to the dead. The Hebrew ani hu ("I am he") is rendered ego eimi in the LXX — the same phrase Jesus uses in , 8:28, and 13:19, echoing where Jehovah applies it to himself. Jesus does what only Jehovah does and says what only Jehovah says.