Jesus is Michael the archangel

The opening chapter of Hebrews is the longest passage in the Bible about how the Son relates to the angels, so it is the place to test the idea. Its argument turns on a question asked twice:

“For to which of the angels did God ever say: ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father’?” (Hebrews 1:5)

“Yet to which of the angels did God ever say: ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet’?” (Hebrews 1:13)

The writer expects the answer “none of them.” That answer only works if the Son is outside the group being asked about. If the Son were Michael, the honest answer to “to which of the angels?” would be “to one of them, the archangel,” and the argument would fall apart.

The writer then says what angels are: “ministering spirits sent out to serve” (1:14). In the next chapter he adds, “For it is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come” (2:5). The world to come is subject to the Son. If the Son were the chief angel, the world to come would be subject to an angel, the very thing the writer denies.

Hebrews 1:6 quotes God: “Let all God’s angels worship Him.” The New World Translation reads “let all of God’s angels do obeisance to him.” The Greek verb is proskyneō, which means to bow down before someone. It can describe honor given to a king or a master, so “do obeisance” is not an impossible rendering in every verse.

What decides its meaning here is who gives it and who refuses it. In Revelation 22:8-9, John falls down before an angel to give him this same proskyneō. The angel stops him: “Do not do that!.. Worship God!” The New World Translation renders the verb “worship” there. An angel of God will not accept this act from a man.

Now read Hebrews 1:6 again. All God’s angels are told to give the Son exactly what an angel refuses to receive. That includes the archangel. Whatever English word you choose, Michael is on the giving side of Hebrews 1:6 and the Son is on the receiving side. One person cannot stand on both sides of the same command. You can read the passage with notes at Hebrews 1:6-8.

Hebrews 1:8 reads, in most translations, “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.” The New World Translation reads “God is your throne forever and ever.” The Greek can be construed either way, so it is fair to set that verse aside and look at the one right after it.

Hebrews 1:10 continues God’s words to the Son: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.” This is a quotation of Psalm 102:25. In the psalm, the one addressed is Jehovah; the psalm opens with a prayer to him. Hebrews takes words spoken to Jehovah about creating heaven and earth and says God speaks them to the Son. Hebrews 1:2 says the same in plain prose: through the Son God “made the universe.”

Scripture names Michael in five passages: Daniel 10:13, 10:21, and 12:1, Jude 9, and Revelation 12:7. None of them calls him Son or maker of anything, shows anyone bowing to him, or applies to him a verse first spoken to Jehovah.

You are right that “firstborn” can mean the first child born. In the Bible it also names the son who holds first rank and receives the inheritance, even when he was not born first. God says of David, the youngest of Jesse’s sons, “I will appoint him as My firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:27). God calls Israel “My firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22), and says “Ephraim is My firstborn” (Jeremiah 31:9), though Manasseh was older.

Colossians 1:15-16 tells you which sense Paul means, because he gives a reason: “the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.” He is firstborn because everything was made in him. Paul then says he is “before all things.”

The New World Translation reads “all other things” in these verses. The Greek has panta, “all things,” with no word for “other”; earlier editions of the New World Translation printed “other” in brackets to show it was added. The Watch Tower Society treats the word as implied, because it understands the Son as the first thing Jehovah created. The Greek does not say it, and without it the passage puts every created thing, “thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities” in heaven included, on one side and the Son on the other. John 1:3 says the same: “without Him nothing was made that has been made.” See Colossians 1:15-17.

Each verse used to link the two can be read for whether it says they are one person.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 says the Lord descends “with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.” These are three sounds that go with his coming. If “the voice of an archangel” made Jesus an archangel, “the trumpet of God” would by the same logic make him God, a conclusion the Watch Tower Society does not draw. The verse tells you what will be heard, not who the Lord is.

Revelation 12 has Michael fight the dragon (12:7). The same chapter speaks of the male child caught up to God’s throne (12:5), and says the victory was won “by the blood of the Lamb” (12:11). John keeps Michael and the Lamb distinct in one scene.

Daniel 10:13 calls Michael “one of the chief princes”: one among several. The Son is “the one and only Son” (John 3:16), alone in his class.

Jude 9 says Michael “did not presume” to bring a charge against the devil, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Jesus rebukes Satan on his own authority: “Away from Me, Satan!” (Matthew 4:10). Michael defers to the Lord; Jesus speaks as the Lord.