---
title: Hebrews 8:11
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-8-11/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-8-11.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Hebrews 8:11
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Hebrews 8:11

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> No longer will each one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.

## JW Usage

JWs read the new covenant promise — "they will by no means teach each one his fellow citizen… for they will all know me" — as a future millennial reality. In the present, a teaching authority (the Governing Body) remains necessary. Jeremiah 31:34 is deferred when it would dismantle the channel claim but invoked when it supports organisational certainty.

## Protestant Usage

The writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:33–34, where the new covenant promise explicitly includes everyone "from the least to the greatest" — directly contradicting a two-class system that excludes most believers from the covenant. The covenant's purpose is forgiveness of sins ("I will by no means call their sins to mind anymore"), which every human needs. If excluded from the covenant, you are excluded from the forgiveness it provides. Hebrews 8:6, 8:11, and 8:13 use present-tense language — the covenant is already in effect, not merely a millennial hope. The direction of travel in Jeremiah 31:34 has begun in Christ through the Spirit-indwelt priesthood of every believer (1 Peter 2:9). This framework is fatal to the "we need a single channel of communication now" claim.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The New Covenant Includes All Believers](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/new-covenant-anointed-only.md) — Jeremiah 31:34 / Hebrews 8:11 — 'From the Least to the Greatest' [Salvation]
- [Meeting Attendance Is Not What Hebrews 10:25 Commands](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/hebrews-10-25-meetings.md) — Hebrews 10:24-25 / Romans 16:5 / Colossians 4:15 [Practice]
- [Already, But Not Yet — The New Covenant's Direction of Travel](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/inaugurated-eschatology-already-not-yet.md) — Jeremiah 31:34 and 1 Corinthians 13:12 read together [Authority]
- [Ministers of a New Covenant](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/new-covenant-2cor3-direct-mediation.md) — 2 Corinthians 3:6, 18 — Paul's 'us' has no asterisk [Salvation]