Hebrews 1:8 in the NWT reads "God is your throne" — meaning God is the
source of Christ's authority, not that Jesus is God. The verse says God
supports Christ's rule, like a throne supports a king.
Open to in the NWT: 'God is your throne forever and ever.' Then ask: 'What does it mean for God to be someone's throne? Do you sit on God?' The rendering makes no sense. Every major English translation — ESV, NIV, NASB, KJV — reads 'Your throne, O God.' The Greek (ho thronos sou ho theos) is a vocative: the Father is directly addressing the Son as 'God.' Even the NWT's own rendering of — the source text — shows the address. And notice the context: begins 'But with reference to the Son.' The entire statement is about the Son. The Father calls his own Son 'God.' If the Father calls Jesus God, who are we to call him anything less?
The Father himself addresses the Son as 'God.' This is not a human opinion or a contested passage — it is the Father's own testimony about the Son, recorded in Scripture and quoted by the author of Hebrews.
'God is your throne' means God is the source of Jesus' kingly authority.
If that were the meaning, the sentence structure would be different. The Greek ho thronos sou ho theos uses the nominative as a vocative — a direct address. This is how virtually every Greek scholar reads it, including Murray Harris, B.F. Westcott, and even the Watchtower's own Kingdom Interlinear which shows 'the throne of you the God' in the literal rendering. The natural reading is 'Your throne, O God.' And ask yourself: what kind of theology makes God into furniture? 'God is your throne' is a meaning no one would arrive at without a prior commitment to denying Jesus' deity.
Verse 9 says 'God, YOUR God, anointed you' — so Jesus has a God above him.
Yes — and that's entirely consistent with the Trinity. In his incarnation, Jesus relates to the Father as his God. says he was in the form of God but took the form of a servant. The same person can be addressed as God (v8) and also have a God (v9) — because the Son took on human nature. The question is not whether Jesus has a God — it's whether the Father calls him God. And he does, in verse 8.
The NWT is just offering a legitimate alternative translation.
The NWT stands virtually alone in this rendering. The BSB, ESV, NIV, NASB, KJV, CSB, NET, and NRSV all read 'Your throne, O God.' When one translation disagrees with every other translation and every major Greek commentary, the question is why. The NWT translators had a theological commitment to denying Jesus' deity, and they adjusted the translation to fit. That is not scholarship — it is eisegesis.
Don't get drawn into an extended Greek grammar debate at the door. The simplest argument is: 'The Father is speaking about the Son. He calls him God. Your own NWT says "God is your throne" — but what does that even mean? Does the Son sit on God?'
Read with the verses around it until you can explain from memory who is speaking and who is addressed, noting that the verse begins 'with reference to the Son'. Then read , the source of the quotation. Check the NWT's 'God is your throne forever and ever' in for yourself, and compare how the NWT renders . Practise the doorstep question aloud, then the simple follow-up: 'Does the Son sit on God?' Expect verse 9, 'God, your God, anointed you'; rehearse the reply from that the Son, having taken the form of a servant, can be addressed as God and also have a God.