Isaiah 9:6: Does “Mighty God” Mean Less Than “Almighty God”?

Isaiah 9:6 calls the promised child Mighty God. Isaiah 10:21 uses that same Hebrew title, el gibbor, for the God to whom a remnant of Jacob returns, and the verse before it names Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel. Jehovah’s Witnesses treat “Mighty God” as a lesser title than “Almighty God,” so that the child is not Jehovah. The prophet uses the phrase for the child and for the God of the remnant.

Key Points

• The New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible) of Isaiah 9:6Isaiah 9:6 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)For a child has been born to us, A son has been given to us; And the rulership will rest on his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.Isaiah 9:6 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)Open the Source says his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Verse 7 says the zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.
• The study note on John 1:1John 1:1 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.John 1:1 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)Open the Source in that Bible says calling the Word “a god” lines up with Isaiah 9:6, “Mighty God” and not “Almighty God.”
• The New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible) of Isaiah 10:21Isaiah 10:21 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)Only a remnant will return, The remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.Isaiah 10:21 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)Open the Source says the remnant of Jacob returns to the Mighty God. Verse 20 says they support themselves on Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel.
• Jeremiah 32:18Jeremiah 32:18 · King James VersionThou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name,Jeremiah 32:18 · King James VersionOpen the Source calls the LORD the Great, the Mighty God. Deuteronomy 10:17Deuteronomy 10:17 · King James VersionFor the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:Deuteronomy 10:17 · King James VersionOpen the Source calls him a great God, a mighty, and a terrible.
• Latter-day Saints read the next title, “Everlasting Father,” as Christ the Creator. Jehovah’s Witnesses read it as the father of his subjects.

What Does Isaiah 9:6 Say?

The New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible) of Isaiah 9:6Isaiah 9:6 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)For a child has been born to us, A son has been given to us; And the rulership will rest on his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.Isaiah 9:6 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)Open the Source reads:

For a child has been born to us, A son has been given to us; And the rulership will rest on his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)

A footnote on “rulership” offers “government” or “princely rule.” Verse 7 says the zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this. The King James of Isaiah 9:6Isaiah 9:6 · King James VersionFor unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.Isaiah 9:6 · King James VersionOpen the Source says his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. The child is given titles. One of them is Mighty God. Another is Eternal Father, or everlasting Father. The page of that translation does not add a study note that “Mighty God” means a lesser god. The explanation Jehovah’s Witnesses publish for the contrast sits in the note on John 1:1.

What Is the Difference Between Mighty God and Almighty God?

The study note on “the Word was a god” at John 1:1John 1:1 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.John 1:1 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)Open the Source in the New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible) says many translators favor “the Word was God,” equating him with God Almighty, and then gives reasons for refusing that. One of them is this:

Calling the Word “a god,” or “a mighty one,” would be in line with the prophecy at Isa 9:6, foretelling that the Messiah would be called “Mighty God” (not “Almighty God”) and that he would be the “Eternal Father” of all those privileged to live as his subjects.

John 1:1 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)

The note treats “Mighty God” as a title that stops short of Almighty God, and it treats “Eternal Father” as fatherhood over subjects, not the fatherhood of Jehovah. John 1 and the Word walks through the grammar the note itself calls qualitative. This page stays with the Isaiah title the note uses.

“Almighty” in the King James is often Shaddai (H7706), as in Genesis 17:1Genesis 17:1 · King James VersionAnd when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.Genesis 17:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source, “I am the Almighty God.” Isaiah 9:6 does not use that word. It uses el gibbor, mighty God. The question is whether el gibbor is a title Isaiah withholds from Jehovah. The next chapter answers that with the same words.

What Does El Gibbor Mean?

El (H410) and gibbor (H1368) are the two words behind “mighty God.” The New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible) of Isaiah 10:21Isaiah 10:21 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)Only a remnant will return, The remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.Isaiah 10:21 · New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible)Open the Source says: “Only a remnant will return, The remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.” Verse 20 says those who remain will no longer support themselves on the one who struck them, but will support themselves on Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel. The remnant returns to the Mighty God, and the paragraph has already named Jehovah.

The King James of Isaiah 10:21Isaiah 10:21 · King James VersionThe remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.Isaiah 10:21 · King James VersionOpen the Source says the remnant shall return unto the mighty God. Jeremiah 32:18Jeremiah 32:18 · King James VersionThou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name,Jeremiah 32:18 · King James VersionOpen the Source addresses the LORD as the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts. Deuteronomy 10:17Deuteronomy 10:17 · King James VersionFor the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:Deuteronomy 10:17 · King James VersionOpen the Source says the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible. The English “mighty” in those lines is the family of gibbor. Isaiah did not reserve el gibbor for a Messiah who is less than Jehovah. He used it for the God the remnant returns to, in a paragraph about Jehovah.

Is Jesus the Creator or a Creature? is the related claim that the Son is the first thing made. A child called Mighty God, in a book that calls Jehovah the Mighty God, is not that claim. Who Is Jehovah? quotes their account of the divine name and the New Testament lines that use the LORD’s words for Jesus. Elohim (H430) is the plural-form word for God in Genesis 1:1Genesis 1:1 · King James VersionIn the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.Genesis 1:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source. El in Isaiah 9:6 is the shorter word, and Isaiah 10:21 shows whose title it is in this prophecy.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do Other Groups Read “Everlasting Father”?

The same verse gives the child a second title that is argued over. The 1916 First Presidency exposition of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reprinted in the April 2002 EnsignThe Father and the Son, 1916 · English, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsGod the Eternal Father, whom we designate by the exalted name-title “Elohim,” is the literal Parent of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and of the spirits of the human race.The Father and the Son, 1916 · English, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsOpen the Source, says, citing Isaiah 9:6, that “with analogous meaning Jesus Christ is called ‘The Everlasting Father,’” in the sense of Creator. The study note on John 1:1 in the New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible) reads “Eternal Father” as the father “of all those privileged to live as his subjects.” In both, the title does not make the child the one that church calls the Father: Elohim for Latter-day Saints, Jehovah for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Elohim and Jehovah in Latter-day Saint Teaching: Two Divine Beings? quotes the 1916 statement at length.

Who Does the Zeal of Jehovah Belong To?

Isaiah 9:7 says the zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this. The New World Translation (Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible) reads it the same way. The note on John 1:1 calls that Jehovah the child’s own Father, who accomplishes the promise. The titles in verse 6 are still the child’s names, including Mighty God.

Keep Reading

• John 1 and the Word
• Is Jesus the Creator or a Creature?
• Who Is Jehovah?
• What Does Elohim Mean?
• What Is God’s Name?
• The Trinity