Alpha and Omega
Alpha And Omega
These are the first and last letters of the Gr. alphabet; cf. Heb. Aleph to Tau; Eng. A to Z. The title is applied to God the Father in Rev 1:8; Rev 21:5, and to Christ in Rev 22:13 (cf. Rev 2:8). The ancient Heb. name for God, , has been very variously derived, but its most probable meaning is the Eternal One-I am that I am (Exo 3:14). This idea of the Deity, further emphasized in Isa 41:4; Isa 43:10; Isa 44:6, is expressed in the language of the Apocalypse by the Greek phrase and , which corresponds to a common Heb. expression Aleph to Tau, of which the Talmud and other Rabbinic writings furnish many examples. R. H. Charles adduces similar phrases in Latin (Martial, v. 26) and Greek (Theodoret, HE [Note: E Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius, etc.).] iv. 8) to express completeness. To those who believe in a Jewish original for the NT Apocalypse, its presence there will cause no surprise, and its application to Christ will constitute an instance of the Christian remodelling which that book has undergone. Moreover, Jewish writers (e.g. Kohler) have given another explanation of its use as a title for God, calling it the hellenized form of a well-known saying, The Seal of God is Emeth ( = truth), a word containing first, middle, and last letters of the Heb, alphabet (cf. Gen. Rab. lxxxi.; Jerus. Sanh. i. 18a; Sanh, 64a; Yoma 69b). Josephus (c. Apion.) probably refers to this saying (cf. also Dan 10:21 , the writing of truth). Similar is the use of Justin (Address to Greeks, xxv.). Whatever may be the origin of the phrase, its chief significance for Christians lies in its constant application to Christ, of which this passage in the Apocalypse supplies the first of countless instances. Charles and Mller agree that Patristic commentators invariably referred all these passages to the Son, and in so doing they plainly claimed the Divine privilege of eternity for the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and established the claim set forth in the later creeds that the Word of God was equal with God.
Not only was this the universal opinion of the earliest commentators, as of the Christian author or editor of the Apocalypse; it was an opinion deeply rooted in the convictions of the Christian congregations. We hear of no attempt to dispute it; and, relying on this as an established fact, the Gnostic teachers sought to deduce by various means and numerical quibbles the essential identity of all the Persona of the Trinity (cf. Iven. adv. Hr, I. xiv. 6, xv. 1). Among others, Tertullian (Monog. v.), Cyprian (Testimon. ii, 1, 6), Clem. Alex. (Strom. iv. 25, vi. 16), Ambrose (Exp. [Note: Expositor.] in septem Vis. i. 8), emphasized this view of the matter; and, before the last persecution of Diocletian was over, many inscriptions had been put up on tombstones, walls of catacombs, etc., in which these two letters stood for the name of Christ, At a subsequent period the practice became universal all over the Christian world, and countless examples are still extant to prove the general popularity of this custom.
In most cases the letters are accompanied by other symbols and titles of the Master, e.g. ; in a few examples they stand alone as a reverent way of representing the presence of the Redeemer. Most numerous in the period from a.d. 300-500, they decline in number and importance during the early Middle Ages, and are rare, at least in the West, after the 7th and 8th centuries. It is significant to note that in none of those hundreds of examples do the letters (often rudely scrawled by poor peasants) refer to any one but Jesus Christ. It is hard to conceive of any fact more suited to emphasize the deep-rooted belief of the early Christians in the true Divinity of their Lord and Master, who had created the world, existed from the beginning, and was still alive and ready to succour His faithful followers.
Literature.-R. H. Charles, article in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) ; B. W. Bacon, article In Dict. of Christ and the Gospels ; K. Kohler, article in Jewish Encyclopedia ; W. Mller in Realencyklopdie fr protestantische Theologie und Kirche 3 (full account of extant inscriptions); C. Schoettgen, Hor. Heb., Leipzig, 1733.
L. St. Alban Wells.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
alpha and omega
The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Used by Saint John in the Apocalypse (1; 2; 22) to designate, once, the Eternal Father and, three times, Christ. In Exodus 3:14, God calls Himself “the beginning and the end,” that is, the One by whom and for whom all things are made. Used of Our Lord, it clearly implies His Divinity. The letters are often found on early coins, rings, paintings in catacombs, in frescoes of ancient churches, and on corner-stones to designate Christ.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Alpha and Omega
In Jewish Theology
When God passed before the face of Moses on Sinai the great Law-giver of Israel called out: “Jehova, Jehova and and merciful God, of long-suffering, and full of goodness and truth” [(Exodus 34:6), in the Douay Version, “0 the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, patient and of much compassion, and true”]. God’s being is fullness of goodness and truth — Plenitudo veri et boni in the Latin translation. They are foremost among God’s moral attributes. They are the immediate outcome of His Divine operations. For God is an infinitely pure spirit. His being is Intellect and Will. Truth is the final object of the intellect, and goodness is that of the will. In the psalter they are praised and invoked by the poet with holy and loving fondness, e. g. Pss., xxiv, 10; xxxix, 11, 12; lvi, 4, 11; lxxxiv, 11; lxxxv, l5; cxvi, 2. Of the two perfections truth and goodness, the former ranks higher. Truth is the first of all perfections. The Hebrew word for truth is Emeth. It is composed of three letters: Aleph=Alpha, Mem=My, and Thaw=Theta. The Aleph and the Thaw are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet as the Alpha and Omega are of the Greek. Thus the term Emeth (truth) begins with the first letter of the alphabet and ends with the last. This letter of the alphabet and ends with the last. This led the Jewish sages to find in this word a mystical meaning. The Aleph or the first letter of Emeth(truth) denotes that God is the first of all things. There was no one before Him of whom He could have received the fullness of truth. The Thaw, or last letter, in like manner signifies that God is the last of all things. There will be no one after Him to whom He could bequeath it. Thus Emeth is a sacred word expressing that in God truth dwells absolutely and in all plenitude. Emeth, as the Jewish divines truly say, is the signaculum Dei essentia (see Buxtori’s Lexicon). In Yoma 69b., and Sanh. 64a., the following is related: “The men of the great synagogue prayed to God to remove from the earth the Evil Spirit, as the cause of all trouble. Immediately a scroll fell from heaven with the word Truth written thereon, and thereupon a fiery lion came out of the sanctuary. It was the spirit of idolatry leaving the earth”. “This legend shows”, says Hanina “that the seal of God is truth”. (Jewish Encyclopedia.)
In Christian Usage
The manner of expressing God’s eternity by means of the first and last letters of the alphabet seems to have passed from from the synagogue into the Church. In place of the Aleph and Thaw, the Alpha and Omega were substituted. But the substitution of the Greek letters for those of the Hebrew tongue inevitably caused a portion of the meaning and beauty in thus designating God to be lost. The Greek letters Alpha and Omega have no relation to the word Truth. Omega is not the last letter of the word aletheia (truth), as Thaw is of the word Emeth. The sacred and mystical word Truth, expressing in Hebrew, through its letters Aleph and Thaw, God’s absolute and eternal being, had to be sacrificed. “Alpha-Omega” (and its Hebrew equivalent) signify an absolute plenitude, or perfection. It is a Jewish saying that the blessing on Israel in Lev., xxvi, 3-13, is complete because it begins with Aleph and ends with Thaw. Jehovah’s absolute perfection is expressed in Is., xli, 4; xliv, 6, by the phrase, “I am the first and the last”. Plato, “De Legibus”, IV, 715, describes God in the same manner: archen te kai teleuten kai mesa ton onton apanton echon, and quotes this phrase as a palaios logos. Cf. also Josephus, C. Apion., II, xxiii. The phrase fitly expresses the idea that God is eternal, the beginning and end of all things. The fourth Gospel, after stating that the “Word was God”, says, “and the Word dwelt among us full of grace and truth”. Grace stands for goodness. The phrase is identical with Exodus 34:6, “full of goodness and truth”. We have here the two great divine attributes, Truth and Goodness, assigned to Christ in all their fullness. What Moses has said of God, the Evangelist says of Christ. In the Apocalypse the “Alpha-Omega” taking the place of its Hebrew equivalent occur in the first chapter to designate God, i, 8; but in the last two chapters to designate Christ (Ap., xxi, 6; xxii, 13). It is an argument that its author believed in the divinity of Christ. In the earlier ages of the Church the Alpha and Omega were used as the monogram of Christ. These letters became His crest. The poet Prudentius says, “Alpha et Omega cognominatus, ipse fons et clausula omnium quae sunt, fuerunt, quaeque post future sunt” (Cathemer., 9, 11). The “Alpha-Omega” symbol was written under the arms of the cross within a circle or triangle. (Fig. 1). Sometimes the Alpha is found on the right and the Omega on the left to indicate that in Christ the beginning and the end are joined into one. (Fig. 2). This crest is found on the coins of the Emperor Constans and Constantius (Martigny, 458-459). (Fig. 3). The early Christians had the two letters engraved on their signet rings [Fig. 4 (Vigouroux, Biblical Lexicon)]. Sometimes the Alpha and the Omega are written in the Nimbus, or halo, of the Lamb; for instance, in the paintings of the Catacombs of Petrus and Marcellinus, third century. We further find these two letters in frescoes and mosaics of several ancient churches; for instance, in the chapel of St. Felicitas, and in San Marco in Rome; in the world-famed mosaics of Ravenna, in Galla Placidia, St. Crisologo, St. Vitale. In the course of time Alpha and Omega ceased to be used as the monogram of Christ for church paintings and ornaments. During the last centuries the letters I.H.S. (see ABBREVIATIONS, ECCLESIASTICAL) have completely taken their place. Recently, however, on tabernacle doors and antependia the older device is again met with.
———————————–
C. VAN DEN BIESEN Transcribed by Donald J. Boon
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume ICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Alpha And Omega
ALPHA AND OMEGA.A solemn designation of divinity, of Jewish origin, peculiar to the Book of Revelation. In Rev 1:8 it is applied to Himself by the Almighty, with obvious relation to Exo 3:14 (cf. Exo 3:4) and Isa 41:4; Isa 44:6 (for the LXX Septuagint rendering of by by , cf. Amo 3:13; Amo 4:13). In Rev 21:6 also the epithet is applied not to the Son but to the Father, as shown by the context (cf. Rev 21:3 a voice out of the throne, Rev 21:5 He spake that is seated on the throne, Rev 21:7 I will be his God and he shall be my son). In Rev 22:13 it is placed in a derived sense (i.e. I, the primary object and ultimate fulfilment of Gods promise) in the mouth of the glorified Jesus. This transfer of a Divine title to the Son furnishes a problem of great interest for the early development of Christology; for, as R. H. Charles points out (Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible i. p. 70), although in Rev 1:8 [add Rev 21:6] this title is used of God the Father, it seems to be confined to the Son in Patristic and subsequent literature.
1. Origin and Significance.(a) The simplest and most primary use of this figure, derived as it is from the first and last terms of the alphabet, which with Greeks and Hebrews were also those of numerical notation, is common to several languages. Thus in English we have the expression from A to Z. Schoettgen (Hor. Heb. i. 1086) adduced from Jalkut Rubein, fol. 17. 4, Adam transgressed the whole law from to ; and 48. 4, Abraham kept the law from to . As Cremer shows (Theol. Worterbuch, p. 1), this has no bearing on the case except linguistically. In Rub. 128. 3, God is said to bless Israel from to (because Lev 16:3; Lev 16:16 begins with and ends with ), but to curse only from to (because Lev 16:14-34 begins with and ends with ). R. H. Charles (.c.) adds examples of this (general) use from Martial (v. 26 and ii. 57) and Theodoret (E [Note: E Historia Ecclesiastica.] iv. 8).
(b) In the later, more philosophical, period of Hebrew literature similar expressions are applied to God, as indicative of His omnipresence and eternal existence. God, as the Being from whom all things proceed and to whom they tend, is thus contrasted in Deutero-Isaiah with heathen divinities (Isa 41:4; Isa 43:10 [cf. Exo 3:14] Isa 44:6; Isa 48:12). Here the best example is the Kabbalistic designation of the Shekinah as , according to Buxtorf = principium et finis (. Chald. Talm. [Note: Talmud.] et Rabb.).
But a threefold designation of God as the Eternal is also employed. The Jerusalem Targum on Exo 3:14 so interprets the Divine name (qui fuit, est, et erit, dixit mundo), and the Targ. [Note: Targum.] Jonathan on Deu 3:29 (ego ille est, qui est, et qui fuit, et qui erit). So also, according to Bousset (ad Rev 1:4), Shemoth R. iii. f. 105. 2, Midrash Tillim 117. 2, Bereshith R. on Dan 10:21 (the writing of truth = the seal of God. See below). Thus in Heb 2:10 God is both end and means of all things ( , ); in Rom 11:36 Of him, through him, and unto him are all things; cf. Rev 1:4.
Instances of expressions of like implication applied to the Deity ( ), or to individual divinities, are naturally still more common in Greek philosophical literature, so that, as Justin says (ad Graecos, xxv.), Plato, when mystically expressing the attributes of Gods eternity, said, God is, as the old tradition runs, the end and the middle of all things; plainly alluding to the Law of Moses. The tradition was indeed old in Platos day, but there are many more probable sources than Exo 3:14 for Plato. We need refer only to the song of the Peleiadae at Dodona: , , (Paus. x. 12. 5); and the Orphic saying, , , , , … (Lobeck, Aglaophamus, 521, 523, 530 f.). Similar attributes are applied to Athene and Asclepius in examples quoted by Wetstein. Notoriously the Jewish apologists had been beforehand with Justin Martyr in ascribing to Moses the larger and more philosophical conceptions of Deity enunciated by the philosophers; and from these writings of the period of Revelation and earlier it is possible to demonstrate the existence of a Jewish kerygma (formula of missionary propaganda) defining the true nature of the Deity and of right worship, wherein Isa 44:6 ff. with the expression borrowed in Rev 1:8; Rev 21:6, or its equivalent, is the central feature. Josephus (circa (about) Apion. ii. 190198 [ed. Niese]), contrasting the law of Moses on this subject with heathenism, calls it our doctrine () concerning God and His worship. What he designated the first commandment is easily recognizable as part of such a kerygma, and seems to be derived from the same Jewish apologist pseudo-Hecataeus (circa (about) 60 b.c.) whom he quotes in circa (about) Apion. i. 183204, and ii. 43. It is traceable already in the diatribes against idolatry in the Ep. of Aristeas (132141) and the Wisdom of Solomon (chapters 1314). The Promium of the oldest Jewish Sibyl (Sib. Or. v. 78, 15) has: There is one God Omnipotent, immeasurable, eternal, almighty, invisible, alone all-seeing, Himself unseen. Worship Him, the alone existent, the Ruler of the world, who alone is from eternity to eternity. It appears again in Christian adaptation in Act 17:24-31 (cf. 14:1517, 1Th 1:9-10, Rom 1:18-32, Wis 11:23; Wis 13:6; Wis 13:10; Wis 14:12; Wis 14:22-27); in the fragment of the Kerygma Petri, quoted in Clem. Strom. vi. 5. 3943 (Frags. 2 and 3 ap. Preuschen, Antileg. p. 52: , , …): in the Apology of Aristides; Tatians Oration iv.; Athenagoras, Leg. xiii., and the Ep. to Diogn. iii. It begins in Josephus: , , He is the beginning and middle and end of all things (circa (about) Apion. ii. 190).
On the other hand, the apologetic and eschatological literature, which Rabbinic Judaism after the rise of Christian speculation more and more excluded from canonical use, shows a marked tendency to offset these heathen demiurgic ascriptions by similar ones applied not directly to God but to a hypostatized creative Wisdom (Pro 8:22-36, Wis 7:21; Wis 8:1; Wis 9:4; Wis 9:9, Sir 24:9; Sir 24:28, Bar 3:9-37), or to an angelic Being endowed with the same demiurgic attributes (2Es 5:56 to 2Es 6:6).
The statement of Rabbi Kohler (Jewish Encycl. i. p. 438) is therefore correct regarding the phrase in Rev 1:8; Rev 21:6 if not in 22:13: This is not simply a paraphrase of Isa 44:6 I am the first and the last, but the Hellenized form of a well-known Rabbinical dictum, The seal of God is Emet, which means Truth, and is derived from the letters , the first, the middle, and the last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things. In other words, we must realize the metaphysical development of Jewish theology which had taken place between Deutero-Isaiah and Revelation. The passages adduced by Kohler from 69 and . 64, and in particular Jerus. [Note: Jerusalem.] Jeb. 12:13a, Gen. [Note: Geneva NT 1557, Bible 1560.] R [Note: Redactor.] . lxxxi., show the early prevalence of this interpretation of Dan 10:21 I shall show thee what is marked upon the writing of truth ( ), as the signum of God; for, says Simon hen Lakish, is the first, the middle, and the last letter of the alphabet. This being the name of God according to Isa 44:6, explained Jerus. [Note: Jerusalem.] Sanh. i. 18a, I am the first [having had none from whom to receive the kingdom]; I am the middle, there being none who shares the kingdom with me; [and I am the last], there being none to whom I shall hand the kingdom of the world. It would seem probable, however, considering the connexion with Isa 44:6 (first and last, the passage is a commonplace of early Christian-Jewish polemic), that the Kabbalistic form is the earlier, the middle term having perhaps been inserted in opposition to Jewish angelological and Christian cosmological speculation. Cf. Rev 11:17; Rev 16:5 with Rev 1:4; Rev 4:8; and 2Es 6:1-6 (where Uriel, speaking in the name of the Creator, says, In the beginning, when the earth was made then did I design these things, and they all were through me alone, and through none other: as by me also they shall be ended, and by none other) with Heb 2:10.
In 1Co 8:6 we have a significant addition to the two-term ascription, One God, the Father, of () whom are all things, and we unto () him. St. Paul (or his Corinthian converts) adds, And one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him. This addition marks the parting of the ways for Jewish and Christian theology, implying a mediating hypostasis identified with Christ, that is, a Wisdom-Logos doctrine. That in Rev 1:6; Rev 21:6 the phrase is still applied in the purely Jewish sense to God the Father alone, is placed beyond all doubt by the connected ascriptions, especially (not = ) connecting Rev 1:8 with Rev 1:4.
Why, and in what sense, the term is applied in Rev 22:12 by the glorified Christ to Himself, is the problem remaining; and this independently of the question of composite authorship; for to the final redactor, whose date can scarcely be later than a.d. 95, there was no incompatibility.
(c) Besides the metaphysical or cosmological development, which we have traced in connexion with the Divine title from Deutero-Isaiah through Wisdom and pseudo-Aristeas to its bifurcation in Jewish and Christian theology contemporary with the Book of Revelation, we have a parallel development of eschatological character. Jehovah is contrasted with the gods of the heathen in Isa 41:26-27; Isa 42:9; Isa 43:9-10; Isa 44:6-7; Isa 44:26; Isa 45:21; Isa 46:9-10; Isa 48:3; Isa 48:5; Isa 48:12, also, and indeed primarily, as first and last in the sense of director of all things to the fulfilment of His predeclared purpose, i.c. confirmer and fulfiller of His promise of redemption (Isa 44:7). And I manifestly the development of this idea of Jehovah as first and last in the redemptive or soteriological sense, would be more congenial to Hebrew thought than the metaphysical, although cosmology plays a great and increasing part in apocalyptic literature. In the substitution of for the anticipated in Rev 1:4; Rev 4:8 (cf. Rev 11:17, Rev 16:5) recalling Mat 11:3 and Heb 10:37, we have evidence of the apocalyptic tendency to conceive of God by preference soteriologically.
But the final redemptive intervention of Jehovah is necessarily conceived as through some personal, human, or at least angelic (Mal 3:1, 2Es 5:56) agency, even when creative and cosmological functions are still attributed to Jehovah directly, without any, or with no more than an impersonal, intermediate agency. Hence, while in Rev 1:8 as in Rev 1:4 and Rev 21:6 Jehovah Himself, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, is also , there is no escape for any believer in Jesus from transferring the title in this soteriological sense to Him as Messiah. This will be the case whether his cosmology requires a Logos-doctrine for demiurgic functions, as with St. Paul, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Fourth Evangelist, or not. (The only trace of a true Logos-doctrine is the very superficial touch Rev 19:13 b). Thus in Rev 1:17; Rev 2:8 the Isaian title the first and the last is applied to Christ, and in Rev 3:14 He is called the Amen the beginning of the creation of God. The titles are combined in Rev 22:13, where we should perhaps render (Benson, Apocalypse, 1900, p. 26), I, the Alpha and the Omega (am coming), the first and the last, the beginning and the end. As Hengstenberg maintained (on Rev 1:8), In this declaration the Omega is to be regarded as emphatic. It is equivalent to saying, As I am the Alpha, so am I also the Omega. The beginning is surety for the end (cf. Php 1:6). For this reason it is perhaps also better to connect the words , of Rev 1:7 with Rev 1:8 Verily, verily, I am the Alpha and the Omega (Terry, Bibl. Apocalyptics, 1898, p. 281).
The true sense, and at the same time the origin and explanation of this application of the Divine title, is to be found, as before, in the Epistles of St. Paul. In 2Co 1:20 the promises of God, howsoever many they be, are said all to have their Yea in Christ. And, because this is so, it is further declared, the Amen is also through him. The conception that Christ is the Amen or fulfilment of all the promises of God, as heir of all things and we joint heirs with him (Rom 4:13; Rom 8:17, 1Co 3:22, Heb 1:2, Rev 21:7), is comparatively familiar to us. It represents the significance of the term in the eschatological application. We are much less familiar with the idea expressed in the A, though it is equally well attested in primitive Christian and contemporary Jewish thought. In Pauline language it represents that the people of Messiah were blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, inasmuch as God chose them in his person before the foundation of the world and foreordained them to be an adoption of sons, Eph 1:4-5; cf. Isa 44:1-2; Isa 44:7, Wis 18:13, Heb 2:5-10, Rev 21:7, and the doctrine of the apocalyptic writers, Jewish and Christian, that the world was created for the sake of manresp. Israel, the righteous, the Church (Assump. Mos. 1:1214: 2Es 6:55-59; 2Es 7:10-11; 2Es 9:13; Hermas, Vis. ii. 4:1 etc. The doctrine rests on Gen 1:26 f., Psa 8:4-8, Exo 4:22 etc.). Harnack has shown (History of Dogma, vol. i. Appendix 1, The Conception of Pre-existence) how pre-existence is for the Jewish mind in some sense involved in that of ultimate persistence. The heir for whom all things were created was in a more or less real sense (according to the disposition of the thinker) conceived as present to the mind of the Creator before all things. Thus in Rabbinic phrase Messiah is one of the seven pre-existent things, or His soul is laid up in Paradise before the foundation of the world. Apocalyptic eschatology demanded a representative Son, the Beloved, chosen in the beginning to be head of the Beloved people of sons in the end, with at least as much logical urgency as speculative cosmology demanded an agent of the creation itself. It is this which is meant when St. Paul says that however many be the promises of God, they are in Christ Yea. This is the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God who created all things according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus. In Pauline language, Christ the Beloved, the Son of his love, is the Yea and the Amen of the promises of God. Cosmologically, He is the precreative Wisdom, the firstborn of all creation, in whom all things were created (cf. Rev 3:14, Pro 8:22). But it is not only that he is before all things, and in him all things consist (cf. Sir 24:9, Wis 1:7), not only that all things have been created through him, but also eschatologically unto him (Col 1:15-17; cf. Heb 1:2-3 and Wis 7:22-27), logically subsequent to Him because made for His sake. In Revelation we have only the latter. The cosmological through Him practically disappears. It is only in the eschatological sense that Christ becomes the original object and the ultimate fulfilment of the Divine purpose and promises, the Yea, the Amen, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
2. The Later History.It is doubtless from Revelation that the use of the term in Patristic literature and Christian epigraphy is mainly derived, though its popularity may well have been partly due to oral currency in Jewish-Christian circles before the publication of Revelation. The eschatological interest is still apparent in the hymn of Prudentius (Cathem. ix. 1012), wherein the first line contains a reference to Psa 45:1 Vulgate (Eructavit cor meum Verbum bonum), treated as Messianic by the Fathers
Corde natus ex Parentis
Ante mundi exordium
Alpha et cognominatus
Ipse fons et clausula
Omnium quae sunt, fuerunt
Quaeque post futura sunt.
But in Clem. Alex. [Note: Alexandrian.] (Strom. iv. 25 and vi. 16) and Tertullian (de Monog. 5) the cosmological predominates. Ambrose (Expositio in VII visiones, i. 8) presents a different interpretation. In Gnostic circles speculative and cosmological interpretations are unbridled. Thus Marcus (ap. Irenaeus, Haer. i. xiv. 6, xv. 1) maintained that Christ designated Himself to set forth His own descent as the Holy Ghost on Jesus at His baptism, because by Gematria (= 800 +1) and (= 80+5+100+10+200+300+5+100+1) are equivalent.
Literature.For the great mass of later epigraphic material the reader is referred to N. Muller in Herzog-Haucks Realencykl. i. pp. 112, and the article Monogram in Smith and Cheethams Dict. of Christian Antiquities. Besides the works already cited, articles on and may be found in the various Bible Dictionaries and Encyclopaedias. Its use in Rev 1:8; Rev 21:8; Rev 22:13 should be studied in the critical commentaries. On Divine epithets and the doctrine of hypostases see Bousset, Religion des Judenthums, iv. chs. 2 and 5 (1903). Older monographs in J. C. Wolfe, Curae Philolog. et Crit. on Rev 1:8.
B. W. Bacon.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Alpha And Omega
ALPHA AND OMEGA.A title of God in Rev 1:8; Rev 21:6, of Jesus in Rev 22:13 [its presence in Rev 1:11 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] is not Justified by the MSS]. Alpha was the first, and Omega the last letter of the Greek, as Aleph and Taw were the first and the last of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Talmud, From Aleph to Taw meant From first to last, including all between. Cf. Shabb. 51. 1 (on Eze 9:6): Do not read My Sanctuary, but My saints, who are the sons of men who have kept the whole Law from Aleph to Taw.
This explains the title. In each instance St. John defines It. Rev 1:8 I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] the beginning and the ending is an interpolation from Rev 21:6, Rev 22:13), i.e. the Eternal, the Contemporary of every generation. Rev 21:6 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end; Rev 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last (cf. Isa 44:6; Isa 48:12), the beginning and the end, i.e. He who comprehends and embraces all things, from whom all come and to whom all return, the fons et clausula, the starting-point and the goal of history (cf. Col 1:17). The ascription of this title to Jesus as well as to God in a writing so early as the Apocalypse strikingly attests the view of our Lords Person which prevailed in the primitive Church.
Aurelius Prudentius makes fine use of the title in his hymn on The Lords Nativity (Corde natus ex parentis), thus rendered by Neale:
Of the Fathers love begotten
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore.
David Smith.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Alpha and Omega
alfa, ome-ga, o-mega (Alpha and Omega = A and O): The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, hence, symbolically, beginning and end; in Revelation The Eternal One in Rev 1:8 of the Father, in Rev 21:6 and Rev 22:13 of the Son. Compare Theodoret, Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, iv. 8: We used alpha down to omega, i.e. all. A similar expression is found in Latin (Martial, v.26). Compare Aretas (Cramer’s Catenae Graecae in New Testament) on Rev 1:8 and Tertullian (Monog, 5): So also two Greek letters, the first and last, did the Lord put on Himself, symbols of the beginning and the end meeting in Him, in order that just as alpha rolls on to omega and omega returns again to alpha, so He might show that both the evolution of the beginning to the end is in Him and again the return of the end to the beginning. Cyprian, Testim, ii.1; vi.22, iii.100, Paulinus of Nola Carm. xix.645; xxx.89; Prudentius, Cathem., ix.10-12. In Patristic and later literature the phrase is regularly applied to the Son. God blesses Israel from ‘aleph to taw (Lev 26:3-13), but curses from waw to mem (Lev 26:14-43). So Abraham observed the whole law from ‘aleph to taw. Consequently, Alpha and Omega may be a Greek rendering of the Hebrew phrase, which expressed among the later Jews the whole extent of a thing.