Isn't Jesus really Michael the archangel?
The Bible speaks of only one archangel, Michael, who leads God's angels in battle. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says the Lord Jesus returns with an archangel's voice. So Michael is evidently the name Jesus had in heaven before he came to earth and has again since his resurrection: the highest of God's created spirit sons.
— Jehovah's Witnesses, 'Who Is the Archangel Michael?' (jw.org, Bible Questions Answered)
No text in the Bible says Jesus is Michael. The identification rests on an inference from 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Meanwhile Scripture draws a sharp line between them. Daniel calls Michael 'one of the chief princes', but the Son is unique. Michael would not rebuke Satan on his own authority, but Jesus did. And the letter to the Hebrews spends a whole chapter showing that the Son is not an angel at all, but the Creator whom angels worship.
What Scripture says
4So He became as far superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is excellent beyond theirs. 5For to which of the angels did God ever say: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father” ? Or again: “I will be His Father, and He will be My Son” ? 6And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all God’s angels worship Him.” 7Now about the angels He says: “He makes His angels winds, His servants flames of fire.” 8But about the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the scepter of Your kingdom. 9You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You above Your companions with the oil of joy.” 10And: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. 11They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. 12You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed; but You remain the same, and Your years will never end.” 13Yet to which of the angels did God ever say: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet” ? 14Are not the angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
The Son is superior to angels: God never called an angel his Son, angels are commanded to worship him, and the Son is addressed as God and Creator.
13However, the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.
Michael is 'one of the chief princes', one among a group of high-ranking angels.
9But even the archangel Michael, when he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, did not presume to bring a slanderous charge against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
Michael did not dare pronounce judgment on the devil but said, 'The Lord rebuke you'.
10“Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus told him. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ ”
Jesus commands Satan directly and on his own authority: 'Be gone, Satan!'
16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.
The Lord descends with a cry of command, an archangel's voice and the trumpet of God. These describe the accompaniments of his coming, not his identity.
5For it is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.
God has not subjected the world to come to angels, but to the Son.
3Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.
Everything that came into being came into being through the Word. Angels are created; the Word is the Creator.
The case
What Jehovah's Witnesses believe
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that before his human birth the Son of God was a mighty spirit creature, the first thing Jehovah created, known in heaven as Michael the archangel. On earth he lived as the man Jesus. After his death he was raised as a spirit and resumed his heavenly position as Michael. The official site jw.org says Michael is "evidently a name given to Jesus before and after his life on earth."
The reasons given are usually three: Scripture mentions only one archangel by name; Michael leads God's angels in battle (Revelation 12:7), as Jesus leads heaven's armies (Revelation 19:14-16); and the returning Lord descends with "an archangel's voice" (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
It's worth noticing the word evidently. No verse says that Jesus is Michael. The view is an inference. So the question is whether the inference holds up against what Scripture says directly.
Four contrasts in Scripture
1. One of many, or one of a kind?
Daniel 10:13 calls Michael "one of the chief princes". He is a leader among a group of high-ranking angels, one among peers. The Son, by contrast, is monogenēs, the "only" or "unique" Son (John 1:14, 18; 3:16), who shares the Father's glory before creation (John 17:5).
2. Borrowed authority, or his own?
In Jude 9, when Michael disputed with the devil, he "did not presume" to pronounce judgment but said, "The Lord rebuke you". Jude's point is that even the mightiest angel defers to God's authority. Jesus, however, rebukes Satan directly (Matthew 4:10; 16:23) and commands demons by his own word (Mark 1:25; 9:25). The two figures behave differently because they hold different kinds of authority.
3. The argument of Hebrews 1
The letter to the Hebrews was written to show that Jesus is superior to angels. Its arguments only work if he is not one:
| Hebrews | The Son | The angels |
|---|---|---|
| 1:5 | Called "my Son" by God | No angel ever addressed this way |
| 1:6 | Receives worship | Commanded to worship him |
| 1:7, 14 | — | Servants, "ministering spirits" |
| 1:8 | Addressed as "God" with an eternal throne | — |
| 1:10-12 | Creator of heaven and earth, unchanging | Part of the created order |
| 1:13 | Seated at God's right hand | Never invited to sit there |
If the Son were the archangel, the author's question "to which of the angels did God ever say...?" (1:5, 13) would have an obvious answer: "To Michael." The author clearly expects the answer "none".
4. Creator, not creature
John 1:3 says that apart from the Word nothing came into being. Colossians 1:16 says that in him were created "all things... visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities", the very ranks of the angelic world. If Michael is an angel, then Michael was created through the Son. The one cannot be the other.
How to talk about this kindly
Your Witness friend has likely been taught that this view honors Jesus as God's greatest creation and most loyal servant. Begin there: both of you want to honor Jesus. Then open Hebrews 1 together and read it slowly. Ask: "If Jesus were an angel, what would the author's argument be?" Let the text do the work.
Why it matters
An angel, however glorious, could not reveal God perfectly or save us. Hebrews insists that the one who "made purification for sins" is the radiance of God's glory and the exact imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1:3). The Christian hope is not that a high-ranking creature served God well on our behalf, but that God himself, in the person of his Son, came to rescue us.
Word study
greek · “chief angel, archangel” · Jude 9
Found only twice in the New Testament (1 Thessalonians 4:16; Jude 9). It combines archē ('first, chief') with angelos ('messenger, angel'). An archangel is a leading angel, but still within the class of angels, which Hebrews 1 sets in contrast to the Son.
hebrew · “Michael, 'Who is like God?'” · Daniel 12:1
The name is a question: 'Who is like God?' The expected answer is 'No one.' It suits a faithful servant whose very name points away from himself to God. The New Testament form is Μιχαήλ (G3413). By contrast, the Son is described as the exact imprint of God's being (Hebrews 1:3).
“But what about…?”
Doesn't 1 Thessalonians 4:16 say Jesus has an archangel's voice?
It says the Lord descends 'with' a cry of command, 'with' an archangel's voice and 'with' the trumpet of God. These are three accompanying sounds. If the archangel's voice made Jesus an archangel, the 'trumpet of God' would make him God, which Witnesses would not accept. Most interpreters understand the archangel to be among those accompanying the Lord at his return.
Doesn't Revelation 12:7 show Michael leading the angels, just as Jesus leads the armies of heaven in Revelation 19?
Leading angels in battle is something an archangel and the Lord could both do. Shared roles do not prove identity; Moses and Joshua both led Israel, but were different men. In Revelation 12 the victory itself is credited to 'the blood of the Lamb' (12:11), not to Michael.
Doesn't Hebrews only show Jesus is superior to the other angels?
Hebrews never says 'other angels'. Its point is a contrast of kind: the angels are servants, 'ministering spirits' (1:7, 14), while the Son is the unchanging Lord who laid the earth's foundation and will outlast the created heavens (1:10-12, quoting Psalm 102, a psalm addressed to the LORD).
Hasn't anyone else ever identified Jesus with Michael?
Yes. Some Protestant commentators and Seventh-day Adventists have identified Michael with the pre-incarnate Christ. But they hold that Christ is fully God, so they take 'Michael' as a title for the uncreated Son, not as proof he is a created angel. The key question is not the name but whether the Son is Creator or creature.
Where Christians differ
Go deeper
- book · 1993Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's WitnessesRon Rhodes
- book · 2007Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of ChristRobert M. Bowman Jr. & J. Ed Komoszewski
- book · 1965The Kingdom of the CultsWalter Martin
- book · 1964The Epistle to the Hebrews (NICNT)F. F. Bruce
Sources (2)
- Jehovah's Witnesses, 'Who Is the Archangel Michael?' (jw.org): Michael is 'evidently a name given to Jesus before and after his life on earth'
- Insight on the Scriptures (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1988), vol. 2, article 'Michael'
Related questions
Doesn't John 1:1 say the Word was 'a god'?
The missing article does not make theos indefinite. In Greek a predicate noun placed before the verb often lacks the article for reasons of word order and emphasis. Most grammarians read theos here as qualitative: the Word has the very nature of God. 'A god' also creates a problem the Bible won't allow: a second, lesser god beside the one true God, who says there is no other (Isaiah 44:6-8).
Doesn't Colossians 1:15 say Jesus was the first created being?
'Firstborn' in Scripture often means the one with first rank and inheritance, not the first one made. God calls David his 'firstborn' though he was the youngest son. And Paul immediately explains why Christ is firstborn: 'for' by him all things were created. Paul doesn't say 'all other things'. That word is added in the New World Translation. In Paul's Greek, Christ stands outside the whole created order as its Creator and heir.
If Jesus is God, who was He praying to?
Jesus wasn't praying to himself. He, the Son, was praying to the Father, a distinct person. The objection would refute the idea that Jesus and the Father are the same person, but Christians have never believed that. And because the Son truly became human, he lived a fully human life of dependence, including prayer. His prayers show his true humanity and his relationship with the Father; they do not cancel his deity.
This entry is a draft and has not yet been theologically reviewed.