---
title: Isaiah 41:4
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-41-4/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-41-4.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Isaiah 41:4
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Isaiah 41:4

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Who has performed this and carried it out, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD—the first and the last— I am He.”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "Who has been active and has done [this], calling out the generations from the start? I, Jehovah, the First One; and with the last ones I am the same."
- NWT (2013 revision): "Who has acted and done this, Summoning the generations from the beginning? I, Jehovah, am the First One; And with the last ones I am the same."

## JW Usage

"I, Jehovah, am the First One; and with the last ones I am the same" (NWT). The Watchtower reads Isaiah 41:4 as a strong assertion of Jehovah's exclusive deity — only Jehovah is the First One. Revelation 1:17, where Jesus says "I am the First and the Last," is then handled separately: Jesus is given the title in a derivative or representational sense by Jehovah's grant.

## Protestant Usage

Isaiah 41:4's "First One... the same" is one of three Isaiah texts (with 44:6 and 48:12) where Jehovah claims the unique identity-title "the First and the Last." Revelation applies the same title three times to Jesus: 1:17 ("I am the First and the Last"), 2:8 ("the First and the Last, who became dead and came to life again"), and 22:13 ("I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the beginning and the end"). The Old Testament title that Jehovah declares uniquely his is the title the resurrected Jesus declares of himself. The doorstep form: "Isaiah 44:6 says only Jehovah is the First and the Last. Then Jesus says 'I am the First and the Last.' Either Jesus is contradicting Jehovah, or Jesus *is* the Jehovah who said it."

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders the Hebrew ani-hu (literally "I am he") as "I am the same" at Isaiah 41:4 (and at 43:10, 13, 25; 46:4; 48:12; 52:6). Standard English translations render "I am he" — preserving the divine-identity formula that Jesus deliberately echoes at John 8:24 ("if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins"), 8:28, 8:58, 13:19, and 18:5-8. The NWT's "I am the same" obscures the Old Testament background to Jesus's "I am he" declarations and weakens the Christological link readers would otherwise see between Isaiah's Jehovah and John's Jesus.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Jesus as Alpha and Omega](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/alpha-omega.md) — Revelation 22:12–16 [Deity of Christ]