--- title: The Christian Shema — Paul Splits the Shema to Include Jesus url: https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/christian-shema/ markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/christian-shema.md type: argument perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching topics: [Deity of Christ] challenges: [Jesus Is a Created Being, The Trinity Is a False Pagan Doctrine] verses: [1 Corinthians 8:6, Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 44:24, Philippians 2:9, Isaiah 45:23, John 1:1, 1 Timothy 2:5, Titus 2:13, Romans 9:5, John 1:3, 1 Corinthians 8:4, Isaiah 45:22, Colossians 1:15-17, Romans 11:36, Malachi 2:10, 1 Corinthians 8:5, Hebrews 2:10] strength: Very Strong tone: Good attribution: Richard Bauckham / N.T. Wright / James White added: '2026-04-04' last_reviewed: '2026-10-11' index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt --- # The Christian Shema — Paul Splits the Shema to Include Jesus *1 Corinthians 8:6 / Deuteronomy 6:4 / Isaiah 44:24* ## Doorstep Question > "In the Shema, 'Lord' means Jehovah — it's God's own name. Paul puts Jesus in that exact slot: 'one God, the Father… one Lord, Jesus Christ.' Would a devout Jewish monotheist place anyone other than Jehovah in the Shema?" ## JW Claim Paul distinguished Jesus from God. The Father is the 'one God' and Jesus is the 'one Lord' — two different persons with two different ranks. 'Lord' is a title that can apply to God, Jesus, or even human masters. The prepositions confirm subordination: the Father is the source ('from whom'), the Son is merely the instrument ('through whom'). ## Strategy Start with the Shema — the most important confession in Judaism. Read Deuteronomy 6:4 in the NWT: 'Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.' Two key terms: 'God' and 'Jehovah/Lord.' Both refer to the same one God. Then read 1 Corinthians 8:6 in the NWT: 'there is actually to us one God, the Father… and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are.' Paul takes the Shema's 'one God' and 'one Lord' and distributes them — the Father is the 'one God,' Jesus is the 'one Lord.' Same words, same structure, same confession. Press the implication: in the Shema, 'Lord' IS Jehovah — it's his personal name. Paul puts Jesus in that exact slot. No first-century Jewish monotheist would place a creature alongside Jehovah in the Shema. Then close with creation: the 'through whom all things came' clause attributes universal creation to Jesus. Read Isaiah 44:24 in the NWT: 'I am Jehovah, who made everything. I stretched out the heavens by myself.' If Jehovah created alone, and all things came through Jesus, then Jesus must be Jehovah — not a tool, but the Creator himself. ## Key Insight Paul deliberately reformulates the Jewish Shema (Deut 6:4) to include Jesus within the divine identity. Every key term from the LXX Shema — heis, theos, kyrios — appears in 1 Corinthians 8:6 distributed between Father and Son. A first-century Jew placing a creature in the Shema would be unthinkable blasphemy; Paul does it because Jesus belongs within the identity of YHWH. ## JW Responses & Counters ### Response 1 **JW says:** "Paul separates God and Lord — the Father is God, Jesus is Lord. They're different." **Counter:** In the Shema, YHWH is both God (Elohim/Theos) and Lord (YHWH/Kyrios). Paul doesn't divide one God into two beings — he distributes the Shema's titles between Father and Son. If 'one God' excludes Jesus from being God, then by the same logic 'one Lord' excludes the Father from being Lord — but Jehovah's Witnesses call Jehovah 'Lord' constantly. The division is functional, not ontological. ### Response 2 **JW says:** "'Lord' (kyrios) just means 'master' — it doesn't mean Jehovah." **Counter:** In the Septuagint (which Paul's audience used), kyrios is the standard translation of YHWH — used over 6,000 times. When Paul puts kyrios in the slot where the Shema has YHWH, the identification is unmistakable. Philippians 2:9–11 confirms this: Jesus receives 'the name above all names' and every knee bows — quoting Isaiah 45:23, which is exclusively about YHWH. ### Response 3 **JW says:** "'Through whom all things came' shows Jesus was God's tool — an instrument, not the Creator." **Counter:** Isaiah 44:24 says Jehovah created 'alone' and 'by myself.' If Jesus was a created tool, Jehovah did not create alone — and Isaiah 44:24 is wrong. The only way to reconcile these texts is if Jesus is within YHWH's identity — the Creator acting 'through' himself (the Son). John 1:3 confirms: 'without him nothing was made.' ### Response 4 **JW says:** "Paul was not intentionally referencing the Shema — this is just a scholarly theory." **Counter:** The verbal parallels are too precise to be coincidental. Paul uses all four key terms from the LXX Shema (heis, theos, kyrios, heis) in the same confession, in a passage explicitly about monotheism ('there is no God but one'). Scholars across the spectrum — Bauckham, Wright, Hurtado, Fee — identify this as a deliberate reformulation. Even the Watchtower acknowledges the Shema context by citing the 'one God' language. ### Response 5 **JW says:** "1 Timothy 2:5 proves Paul only calls the Father 'God' — Jesus is 'a man.'" **Counter:** 1 Timothy 2:5 affirms Jesus' humanity and mediatorial role — it does not deny his deity. The same Paul also wrote Titus 2:13 ('our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ') and Romans 9:5 ('Christ, who is God over all, forever praised'). Paul affirms both: Jesus is truly man and included in the divine identity. ### Response 6 **JW says:** "A Jew would never put a creature in the Shema — so Paul didn't intend the Shema connection." **Counter:** This argument works against the JW position. If Paul did reformulate the Shema (and the verbal parallels strongly suggest he did), then he was making a divine identity claim. If he didn't intend the Shema, he still calls Jesus 'the one Lord through whom all things came' — attributing universal creation to Christ, which Isaiah 44:24 reserves for Jehovah alone. ### Response 7 **JW says:** "The verse says the Father is the one 'we for him' — we exist for Jehovah, not for Jesus." **Counter:** That's right about the Father, but Paul says the same thing about the Son. Colossians 1:16 in the NWT: "All other things have been created through him and for him." The Greek phrase is identical in both verses, eis auton, "for him" or "towards him". Paul says in Romans 11:36 that all things are "from him and through him and for him", meaning God. In 1 Corinthians 8:6 he shares those words out between Father and Son. In Colossians 1:16 he gives the Son both "through" and "for". The goal of the whole creation is the Son as well as the Father. Can a creature be the one that all creation exists for? ### Response 8 **JW says:** "'One Lord' is a different category from 'one God'. Malachi 2:10 says we have 'one father', and that doesn't stop me having an earthly father. Jesus is one Lord in a lower sense." **Counter:** Paul tells us which category he means in the verse before: "just as there are many 'gods' and many 'lords'" (1 Corinthians 8:5). Those are the gods people worshipped in Corinth. Both "one God" and "one Lord" answer that list, so the category is the one who is worshipped. Now run it both ways. If "one Lord" leaves the Father as Lord in a higher sense, then "one God" leaves Jesus as a god in a lower sense. That gives you two gods, and two gods is exactly what Paul denies in verse 4: "there is no God but one." Malachi 2:10 actually helps here. "Do we not all have one father? Was it not one God who created us?" "One father" and "one God" are two titles for the same Creator, set side by side, and the mark of that one is that he created us. Paul gives the "one Lord" the creation clause too: "through whom all things are." So which side of the line is Jesus on, Creator or creature? ### Response 9 **JW says:** "'All things' (ta panta) here means the new creation, the blessings of salvation, not the universe." **Counter:** This one usually comes from biblical Unitarians. Witness publications themselves teach that Jesus took part in the original creation. Look at how the verse is built. "All things" is one clause, and "we" is another: "through whom all things are and we through him." The new creation is the "we". "All things" is wider than the church, and verse 5 has just spoken of things "in heaven or on earth." Paul uses the same wording for the whole of creation elsewhere. Colossians 1:16 spells it out: "in the heavens and on the earth." Romans 11:36 and Hebrews 2:10 say all things exist for God and through him. If Paul only meant believers, why does he add "and we" as a separate clause? ## What to Avoid Don't get bogged down in Greek grammar debates at the doorstep. The structural parallel between Deuteronomy 6:4 and 1 Corinthians 8:6 is visible even in English. Keep the focus on the Shema → reformulation → Isaiah 44:24 creation clincher. ## Homework Read Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 side by side until you can show from memory where 'one God' and 'one Lord' land in Paul's confession. Check the NWT wording of both passages yourself, along with Isaiah 44:24, 'I stretched out the heavens by myself'. Practise the doorstep question aloud and keep the line simple: the Shema, Paul's reformulation, then the creation clincher. The likeliest reply is that 'Lord' only means master, so read Philippians 2:9-11 alongside Isaiah 45:22-23 and be ready to explain in a sentence that kyrios is the Septuagint's standard word for YHWH. Keep 1 Timothy 2:5, Titus 2:13 and Romans 9:5 marked in case Jesus' humanity comes up. ## Next Moves - [Jehovah Created Alone — So Jesus Must Be Jehovah](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/isaiah44-creator.md) - [Jesus Receives Worship](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/worship-of-jesus.md) - [Let Us Make Man — The Isaiah 44:24 Trap](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/genesis1-26-let-us.md)