by Giuseppe Monno
Hebrews 1:6
And again, when he brings the First-born into the world, he says: “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
Hebrews 1:6 stands among the clearest and most compelling affirmations of Christ’s identity in the New Testament. It declares, without qualification, the divine dignity of the Son: “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
This is no incidental remark. It is a theological cornerstone. Yet the New World Translation renders the phrase as: “let all of God’s angels do obeisance to him.”
Such a rendering is not merely stylistic. It reflects a deliberate interpretive choice—one that aligns the text with a prior doctrinal position rather than allowing doctrine to be shaped by Scripture itself.
The verb used here is proskynéō, the standard term in Scripture for the worship offered to God. It denotes not a gesture of respect, but an act of adoration. When Jesus says, “You must worship the Lord your God” (Matthew 4:10), he uses this very word.
To replace “worship” with “do obeisance” is to soften the force of the original. What properly belongs to the sphere of divine worship is reduced to a gesture of honour.
The author of Hebrews is quoting Deuteronomy 32:43 from the Greek Septuagint. In its original setting, the command is addressed to God himself: “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
Hebrews applies this text directly to Christ. The implication is unmistakable: what the Old Testament reserves for God is, in the New Testament, attributed to the Son.
To weaken this act into mere “obeisance” is to obscure that connection and to disrupt the theological continuity between the two covenants.
The rendering found in the New World Translation is therefore not driven by linguistic necessity, but by theological concern—namely, the reluctance to acknowledge that Christ receives divine worship.
This approach reverses the proper order. Scripture does not conform to doctrine; doctrine must be drawn from Scripture.
When a translation consistently adjusts key terms in passages concerning Christ, it moves beyond translation into interpretation.
The New Testament records several occasions on which Jesus receives proskynéō—true worship: after the Resurrection (Matthew 28:9) and from his disciples (Matthew 14:33).
If such acts were merely gestures of respect, it would be difficult to explain why they are never condemned as idolatrous, as they would be if directed toward a created being.
For these reasons, “worship” in Hebrews 1:6 is not a confessional preference, but the most accurate rendering in light of the language, the context, and the coherence of Scripture as a whole.
By contrast, “do obeisance” represents not simply an alternative wording, but a diminished reading—one that ultimately weakens the full dignity of the Son.
Yet the testimony of Scripture remains clear and compelling: the angels do not merely honour Christ—they worship him.