---
title: Hebrews 1:5
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-1-5/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-1-5.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Hebrews 1:5
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Hebrews 1:5

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> For to which of the angels did God ever say:  “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father”?   Or again:  “I will be His Father, and He will be My Son”?

## JW Usage

"Today I have become your father" (NWT) is read as proof that Jesus had a beginning — "today" is a point in time, therefore Jesus was begotten at some point. Combined with "firstborn of all creation" (Colossians 1:15 NWT) and Proverbs 8:22, the Watchtower builds the doctrine that Jesus is the first and highest created being — Michael the Archangel before incarnation.

## Protestant Usage

Hebrews 1:5 is the knockout text against the Jesus-is-Michael doctrine. The author poses a rhetorical question — "to which of the angels did God ever say, 'You are my son'?" — and the expected answer is "none." If Jesus is Michael, the argument collapses: an archangel son would be the obvious counter-example. The "today" of Psalm 2:7 (which Hebrews 1:5 quotes) is enthronement language — the day of Messianic royal installation, applied in the New Testament to the resurrection and ascension (Acts 13:33; Romans 1:4). Not a statement about ontological origin; a statement about installed kingship. The Son is eternal; his installation as messianic king happens in time. Doorstep form: "If Jesus is Michael, name any other angel in Hebrews 1 who could have been the counter-example to 1:5. The author says there is none."

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Jesus Is Not Michael the Archangel](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jesus-not-michael.md) — Hebrews 1:5 / Jude 9 [Deity of Christ]
- [Hebrews 1:6 Quotes a Jehovah-Worship Text — And Applies It to Jesus](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/deut3243-hebrews16-worship.md) — Deuteronomy 32:43 LXX / Hebrews 1:6 / Dead Sea Scrolls [Deity of Christ]
- [Angels Do Not Share the Divine Nature](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/angels-not-divine-nature.md) — Hebrews 1:5-14 — the seven-fold contrast between the Son and angels [Deity of Christ]
- [Divine but Not God — The JW Half-Step](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/divine-but-not-god-jw-position.md) — Colossians 2:9 — fullness of the Godhead bodily forecloses the distinction [Deity of Christ]
- [Three "I"s in One Divine Mind — Why the Trinity Isn't a Body-Count Problem](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/trinity-three-centres-of-consciousness.md) — Person and being are different categories — and God is spirit [Deity of Christ]