Hebrews 13:8
Hebrews 13:88Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Read as describing the constancy of Jesus' character and his reliability as Jehovah's appointed king — his qualities do not change. The Watchtower's published Christology has the Son known as Michael before his earthly life, as Jesus on earth, and as Michael again afterwards, so the sameness has to attach to character rather than to identity or nature.
Put the verse beside that sequence and ask whether it fits. Michael, then Jesus, then Michael again is three states, with the human body described in Watchtower publications as disposed of at the resurrection. "The same yesterday and today and forever" is a strange thing to say about a being who has changed what he is twice. The reply will be that the sameness is about character. So check the level the letter operates at elsewhere. calls the Son the exact representation of God's very being — charakter, a term about essence, not conduct. A letter that opens at the level of being does not close at the level of temperament. The wider point is about verbs. The New Testament's incarnation language is addition: Philippians 2 has Jesus existing in God's form and taking a slave's form; has the Word become flesh; says the fullness of the divine quality dwells in him bodily — present tense, after the resurrection. Those are verbs of assumption, not of replacement. Compare , , .