---
title: Hebrews 1:3
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-1-3/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-1-3.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Hebrews 1:3
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Hebrews 1:3

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

## JW Usage

JWs read the verse as Jesus reflecting God's glory the way a mirror reflects light or the way a perfect representative reflects the will and character of his sender. The "exact representation" language is treated as a metaphor for accurate moral and missional resemblance — Jesus perfectly represents God to humanity, but he is the highest creature, not God himself. The Watchtower bracketed the Greek apaugasma into the safer category of "reflection" rather than "radiance" in earlier publications.

## Protestant Usage

The Greek is uncompromising. Apaugasma tēs doxēs autou — "the radiance of his glory" — denotes the light streaming out of the source, not a mirror reflecting an external beam. Charaktēr tēs hypostaseōs autou — "the exact imprint of his very being" — uses the metaphor of a signet pressed into wax, where the impression bears the exact form of the seal. Hypostasis is not "character" or "will" but substance, essential being, actual nature. Then read alongside Psalm 89:6 in the NWT itself: "Who in the skies can compare to Jehovah? Who among the sons of God is like Jehovah?" — answer, nobody. And Psalm 86:10: "you alone are God." If no creature can even resemble Jehovah, and Jesus is the exact imprint of Jehovah's very being, then Jesus is not a creature. The verse also opens with the upholding of "all things by the word of his power" — sustained creation is a divine prerogative that no creature can perform.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Jesus' Eternality](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/psalm102-hebrews1.md) — Psalm 102 → Hebrews 1 [Deity of Christ]
- [Colossians 1 — Inserted 'Other'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/colossians1-other.md) — The NWT adds a word that changes everything [NWT Translation]
- [The Exact Representation Problem](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/heb1-3-psalm89-contradiction.md) — Hebrews 1:3 vs Psalm 89:6 [Deity of Christ]
- ["It Is Finished" — The Completed Atonement](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/tetelestai-finished.md) — John 19:30 / Hebrews 10:11-14 [Salvation]
- [Seeing the Father in Jesus](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john14-9-seen-the-father.md) — John 14:9 / Hebrews 1:3 / Colossians 2:9 [Deity of Christ]
- [No Man Can Redeem — But Jesus Did](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/ransom-who-can-redeem.md) — Psalm 49:7-9, 15 / Hebrews 9:12-14 / Acts 20:28 [Salvation]
- [Images Are Not the Problem — Worship Is](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/images-in-worship-protestant-response.md) — Numbers 21:8 / 2 Kings 18:4 / Exodus 25:18 [Practice]
- [Theotokos Is About Jesus, Not About Mary](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/mary-theotokos-christological-fence.md) — Luke 1:43 / John 1:14 / Colossians 2:9 [Deity of Christ]
- [If Jesus Is God, Who Raised Him?](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/god-cannot-die-jw-closing.md) — Acts 20:28 / 1 Corinthians 2:8 — the two natures of the one Person [Deity of Christ]
- [Two Verbs, Two Categories](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/en-vs-egeneto-john-1-tense.md) — John 1 — the Word 'was' (ēn), creation 'came to be' (egeneto) [Deity of Christ]
- [The Incarnation Is Addition, Not Compression](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/word-became-flesh-not-michael.md) — Why the Logos-to-Michael-to-Jesus-to-Michael cycle does not match the New Testament [Deity of Christ]
- [Always the Father, Always a Son](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/eternal-father-eternal-son.md) — Malachi 3:6 / John 17:24 — if Jehovah never changes and has always been Father, he has always had a Son [Deity of Christ]