Matthew 23:10
Matthew 23:1010Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ.
is invoked by JW publications against denominational leadership titles — Christendom's pastors, popes, and senior clergy are read as having usurped the title "Leader" that belongs only to Christ. The NWT's rendering "your Leader is one, the Christ" with capitalised "Leader" sharpens the rhetorical point. Internally, the Governing Body's exclusive authority claim is framed not as leadership but as serving as Jehovah's appointed channel — a distinction many Witnesses feel without being able to articulate.
The verse's plain force applies to any structure in which a human body claims to be the unchallengeable channel of authoritative teaching. The Governing Body's claim to be "the faithful and discreet slave" appointed in 1919 to feed Jehovah's people doctrinally — with the requirement that Witnesses accept its teaching even when they cannot verify it from Scripture — fits the structural pattern Jesus prohibits. Pair with (Jesus on Gentile rulers who "lord it over" their people) and (the Bereans testing Paul's words against Scripture). The Bereans were praised for verifying apostolic teaching; Witnesses risk disfellowshipping for the same activity.
The NWT renders kathēgētēs as "Leader" rather than the standard "instructor" or "teacher." The choice is doctrinally loaded in JW use: "Leader" gives the verse sharper rhetorical force against any human exercising spiritual leadership over others, and the capitalisation in the NWT marks Christ alone as the legitimate bearer of the title. Standard English translations preserve "instructor" or "teacher" because kathēgētēs in koine usage is closer to "guide" or "tutor" than to "ruler." The NWT rendering is defensible but tendentious — it sharpens the anti-clergy edge of the verse in ways the Greek does not strictly require.