Was Jesus created, or is He the Creator?
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus did not always exist as God. In their view he is Jehovah's first and only direct creation — the being who later became known as the archangel Michael — and everything else was made through him afterward.
That is a different claim from saying Jesus is a lesser kind of divine being, which is what John 1:1 is about. This question is about something more basic: did Jesus himself have a beginning as a created thing, or is he the one all created things came from?
The two verses behind the Jehovah's Witness view are Colossians 1:15, which calls Jesus "the firstborn of all creation," and Revelation 3:14, which calls him "the beginning of the creation of God." Both can sound, on a first read in English, like Jesus is being placed on a list of things God made.
"Firstborn" does not mean "first-created" everywhere the Bible uses it — it is also a title of rank, given to someone who was not literally born first.
Colossians itself is the clearest example: it calls Jesus "firstborn" and then, in the very next sentence, explains why — because everything was created through him, and he exists before all of it. That is a strange thing to say about someone the passage means to include among the things created.
What settles it is the whole case, not one word
- He made everything that has been made. John 1:3 says that everything that came into existence came into existence through him — not through someone else who made him first.
- No angel was ever called God's Son. Hebrews asks directly: "To which of the angels did he say at any time, 'You are my Son'?" (Hebrews 1:5). If Jesus were the archangel Michael, this is exactly the identification the passage rules out.
- The angels are told to worship him, not the reverse. "Let all the angels of God worship him," Hebrews says of the Son (Hebrews 1:6). Some Bibles used by Jehovah's Witnesses translate this "do obeisance to him" instead — a real, but theologically motivated, translation choice examined below.
- He is called God, and called the Creator, in the same breath. Hebrews quotes God addressing the Son as "God" with an eternal throne (Hebrews 1:8), then as the one who "laid the foundation of the earth" (Hebrews 1:10). Creator language, not creature language.
None of this makes the Jehovah's Witness reading dishonest — "firstborn" really can describe rank instead of order, so the argument has to be made, not just asserted. But once Colossians' own reasoning and the sustained argument of Hebrews 1 are read in full, both point the same direction: Jesus is presented as the Creator standing outside creation, not the first and best of the things created.
Examine it for yourself
The evidence, the interpretations and the conclusion, separated so you can examine each step. Every passage is linked; read them in context.
What "firstborn" actually means
Prototokos ("firstborn") is used elsewhere in Scripture as a title of supremacy given to someone who was not literally born first. Psalm 89:27 has God call David "my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth" — David was Jesse's youngest son, not his first. Colossians makes the same move: it calls Jesus "firstborn" and immediately gives the reason — not a claim about when he came into existence, but a claim about what he did and what he is: the one all things were created through, and the one who exists "before all things."
- Colossians 1:15
"The firstborn of all creation" — the title in question.
- Colossians 1:16-17
The reason given for the title, in the same breath: creator of all things, existing before all things.
- Psalm 89:27
God calls David "firstborn" as a title of rank, though David was not literally born first.
- Colossians 1:18
The same letter glosses "firstborn from the dead" as being about preeminence — "that in all things he might have the preeminence" — the same sense, applied to the same person, a few verses later.
Hebrews 1: greater than the angels, not one of them
Hebrews opens by arguing at length that the Son is superior to the angels — a strange thing to spend a whole chapter proving if the Son were himself an angel, the archangel Michael. The chapter's own evidence: God never called any angel "my Son"; the angels are commanded to worship the Son; the Son is addressed as "God" with a throne that lasts forever; and the Son, not the Father, is the one Scripture quotes as having "laid the foundation of the earth."
- Hebrews 1:5
"To which of the angels did he say at any time, 'You are my Son'?" — directly excludes the Son from the category of angel.
- Hebrews 1:6
"Let all the angels of God worship him" — angels are commanded to worship the Son, not identified with him.
- Hebrews 1:8
"Your throne, O God, is forever and ever" — the Father addresses the Son as God.
- Hebrews 1:10
Quoting Psalm 102: "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth" — applied to the Son as Creator, not creature.
What they teach
Stated accurately, on its own terms, then examined against Scripture.
Jesus Christ is not the eternal Creator but a created being — Jehovah's first and only direct creation, later known as the archangel Michael. Colossians 1:15 calls him "the firstborn of all creation," and Revelation 3:14 calls him "the beginning of the creation by God," both of which Jehovah's Witnesses read as saying he was the first thing God made.
"Firstborn" (Greek prototokos) is a title of rank in Scripture, not a birth record. Psalm 89:27 has God call David — who was not literally born first among Jesse's sons — "my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth." The same site that shows this page's evidence links Colossians 1:18, "that in all things he might have the preeminence," directly back to Psalm 89:27, because that is the same idiom: rank, not order of creation. Colossians itself glosses "firstborn" this way in its very next clause — the reason given for the title is that Colossians 1:16-17 everything was created through him and he exists before all things, not that he came first in a countable series he belongs to. A created being cannot be both the means by which everything was created and one of the things created through himself.
- Colossians 1:15
"The firstborn of all creation" — the title under examination.
- Colossians 1:16-17
The reason Paul gives for the title in the very next clause: Christ is the one all things were created through and exist before, not one member of "all things."
- Psalm 89:27
God calls David "firstborn" as a title of supremacy among kings, though David was not literally born first.
The Greek word behind "firstborn," prototokos, and the title's use as rank rather than birth order in Psalm 89:27 and in Colossians' own follow-up clause, are textual facts anyone can check against the passages themselves. What the title means in this specific case — rank or literal creation order — is the interpretive question, and Colossians answers it in the same breath it asks it.
Revelation 3:14's "the beginning of the creation by God" (some translations: "of God's creation") turns on the Greek word arche, which has a real semantic range: it can mean a first item in a sequence, but it can also mean "source" or "origin" — the point from which something begins, without being counted as part of what follows. Translations differ on exactly this point: even Young's Literal Translation, which otherwise mirrors Greek word order as closely as English allows, renders arche here as "chief" rather than a sequential "first," reflecting that range rather than settling it. This is a real linguistic ambiguity, not a plain textual fact either side can simply win by pointing at the word.
What the evidence supports
Scripture does not present Jesus as a created being. It presents him as the one through whom everything that exists was made.
Colossians' own reasoning for calling Jesus "firstborn" is his role as Creator, not his place in a sequence of created things, and Hebrews 1 argues at length that the Son is not one of the angels — he is worshipped by them, addressed as God, and credited with laying the earth's foundations. Therefore The Berea rejects the teaching that Jesus is a created being, whether identified as the archangel Michael or otherwise.
Examine further
- John 1:1
The Word was God, and was with God — see the dedicated question on this verse.
- Colossians 2:9
"In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" — the same letter that calls him "firstborn."
Discuss and study
- Why does it matter that Colossians gives its own reason for calling Jesus "firstborn," rather than leaving the word to speak for itself?
- If Jesus were an angel, what would Hebrews 1 need to not say about him?