---
title: Exodus 24:9
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/exodus-24-9/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/exodus-24-9.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Exodus 24:9
testament: OT
section: Law
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Exodus 24:9

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,

## JW Usage

"Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up" (NWT) sets up the scene that follows. JWs read Exodus 24:9-11 compatibly with the JW framework: whatever was seen was a representation or vision, never the full presence of the transcendent Jehovah. The scene is not treated as ontologically significant for Christology.

## Protestant Usage

The scene's weight is in who ascended and what happened next. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and *seventy elders* — a named, documented, public delegation — went up the mountain. This is not one mystic's private vision. It is Israel's civic leadership gathered for a covenant meal. Verse 10 will say they "got to see the God of Israel," and verse 11 will record that they "ate and drank" in God's presence without being struck down. Seventy-four named witnesses constitute a legal record. The event is the public foundation of Israel's covenant relationship with the God who then cannot logically be the invisible Father of John 1:18 — he must be the Son who would later "pitch his tent among us" and be seen.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Who Appeared to Abraham?](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/ot-christophany.md) — If no one has seen the Father, the OT appearances were Christ [Deity of Christ]