Did God kill the first borns in Exodus, according to Jehovah's Witnesses? Two Jehovah's Witnesses were here yesterday, and we talked for a while about religion. We mentioned briefly God's killing of all the first born in Egypt in Exodus 12:29, whereupon one of the Witnesses said that it wasn't God who killed them. Not having a Bible close by, I just said I must misremember, and we started talking about something else.

Now, upon rereading Exodus 12:29 I think it's pretty clear that "the Lord" killed the first born. Is there some alternative interpretation of this, that this Lord is entirely separate from God? I'm confused, because the Witnesses otherwise seemed to have great knowledge of the Bible. What am I missing?

Who do Jehovah Witnesses believe killed the first-borns in Exodus 12?
Jehovah's Witness have a particular affinity for "Jehovah" as the proper name of God.  One of the issues they often point out is that "the LORD," which translates the Tetragrammaton YHVH, is a Jewish superstition that hass somehow corrupted and dishonored the one of whom it speaks.  

In [their understanding]  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah's_Witnesses_beliefs) of the Godhood (which is assuredly non-Chalcedonian, and non-Trinitarian), YHVH is a very different character from the more mainstream perspective. In their understanding, God is a force, albeit an approachable one, rather than a person.  (Note: In this perspective, Jesus as the son of God is not God, but rather a god or godlike being.)

Between these two things, I suspect that the issue of disagreement was less one of "what actually happened," than of one of terminology - or perhaps the nature of God in this instance.  The Biblical narrative (which many JW's reject as being corrupt, preferring instead their own NWT) indicates that Jehovah (whom Trinitarians view as God the Father) was in fact the one doing it. Exodus 11 states:


  And Moses went on to say: “This is what Jehovah has said, ‘About midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt,  (New World Translation)
  
  Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt" (NET Bible)


The question then, is what their understanding of "the LORD" is.  From their perspective, it's not God - that is Jehovah. From a Chalcedonian perspective, however, it is a distinction without a difference.