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Protestant Apologetics

Isaiah 63:3

OT Prophets
Isaiah 63:3
3“I have trodden the winepress alone, and no one from the nations was with Me. I trampled them in My anger and trod them down in My fury; their blood spattered My garments, and all My clothes were stained.
Read in NWT ↗
JW Usage

JWs rarely cite Isaiah 63 directly. When comes up, where the rider "treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty," they read the verse as proof that Jesus is distinct from, and subordinate to, God Almighty: he carries out Jehovah's anger as Jehovah's appointed agent.

Protestant Usage

This is the background to . The warrior coming from Edom with stained garments says, "I have trodden the wine trough alone. No one from the peoples was with me" (NWT), and verse 5 adds that there was "no one to help", so his own arm brought salvation. The speaker is Jehovah, and the stress falls on his acting alone. Revelation 19 gives this same work of judgement, in the same winepress imagery, to the rider called "The Word of God". The Son is distinguished from the Father in , but the act he performs is one Jehovah says he did by himself with no helper, which places the Son inside the identity of the God who judges rather than alongside him as an assistant.