Revelation 1:17
Revelation 1:1717When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last,
JWs acknowledge that Jesus is called "the First and the Last" in but argue this title carries a different meaning when applied to Jesus than when applied to Jehovah in . The Watchtower teaches that Jesus is "first" as the firstborn of creation and "last" as the last one directly created by God. This interpretation allows them to maintain a strict separation between Jehovah's identity and Jesus' subordinate role. In the argument, JWs attempt a voice-change explanation — claiming a prophetic speaker shift — to avoid the implication that the same "First and Last" who created the earth also says "Jehovah has sent me."
The Protestant reading recognises that "the First and the Last" is an exclusive divine title. In , Yahweh declares "I am the First and I am the Last; apart from me there is no God." When Jesus claims this identical title in , he is taking upon himself the very designation that Yahweh says belongs to him alone. strengthens this identification: the speaker who calls himself "the First and the Last" and who laid the earth's foundation (clearly Yahweh) then says "the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has sent me, and his spirit" — revealing plurality within the one God. The title does not merely describe sequence or rank; it is a claim to eternal, uncreated deity that bridges the Old and New Testaments.