---
title: Isaiah 43:10
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-43-10/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-43-10.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Isaiah 43:10
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Isaiah 43:10

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> “You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may consider and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, and after Me none will come.

## JW Usage

This is the Watchtower's signature self-designation text. JW.org takes its name from the verse — "You are my witnesses, declares Jehovah." JWs cite the second half ("before me no god was formed, and after me there has been none") as the proof that Jehovah is the only God and that Jesus must therefore be a created being subordinate to him. The verse is treated as the keystone of strict unitarian monotheism and the charter for Jehovah's Witnesses as Jehovah's exclusive earthly organisation.

## Protestant Usage

The verse is one of the cleanest deity-of-Christ texts in the OT once read in concert with the NT. The Hebrew ani hu ("I am he") is rendered egō eimi in the LXX — the same unpredicated phrase Jesus uses in John 8:24, 8:58, 13:19, and 18:5-6. By picking up Isaiah 43:10's divine self-identification formula and applying it to himself in contexts where eternal destiny hangs on the hearer's response ("unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins" — John 8:24), Jesus identifies himself with the speaker of Isaiah 43. The verse also undercuts Watchtower Christology directly: if "before me no god was formed and after me there has been none," then Jesus cannot be a "mighty god" formed before all other creatures (the Arian/Watchtower position) without contradicting Isaiah outright. Either Jesus is uncreated and shares Jehovah's identity, or Isaiah 43:10 is false. The witnesses Jehovah claims in v.10 are ultimately the apostles, who testify that Jesus is the one of whom Isaiah spoke.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- ['A God' = Polytheism](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john1-polytheism.md) — John 1:1 + Exodus 20:3 + Isaiah 43:10 [Deity of Christ]
- [One Flock / Great Crowd in Heaven](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/one-flock.md) — John 10:16 / Revelation 7:9 [Eschatology]
- [Monogenes — 'Only Begotten' Means Unique](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john3-16-monogenes.md) — John 3:16 [Deity of Christ]
- [Jehovah Created Alone — So Jesus Must Be Jehovah](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/isaiah44-creator.md) — Isaiah 44:24 [Deity of Christ]
- [Jehovah Alone Is Saviour — Yet Jesus Saves](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/isaiah43-saviour.md) — Isaiah 43:11 / Acts 4:12 / Titus 2:13 [Deity of Christ]
- [JW Claim to the Early Church — A Traceable, Recent Origin](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jw-early-church-claim.md) — Acts 11:26 / Isaiah 43:10 / Matthew 16:18 [Authority]
- [Unless You Believe That I AM — Christology as a Salvation Issue](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john824-believe-i-am.md) — John 8:24 / Isaiah 43:10 / John 13:19 [Deity of Christ]
- [Name the Channel — Necessity Without a Referent](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/name-the-channel.md) — If the Bible requires a unified channel, the Bible must identify it [Authority]
- [The Prologue Has Two Bookends — Read John 1:18 Before You Argue About John 1:1](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john1-1-and-1-18-inclusio.md) — John 1:1 and 1:18 — the opening and closing of John's prologue say the same three things [Deity of Christ]