ALPHA AND OMEGA ăl’ fə, ō mĕg ə (Α καἱ Ω).

1. Background.. The first and last letters of the Gr. alphabet, alpha being equivalent to our letter a and omega (literally, great O) to our long o as in no. The first and last letters of the Heb. alphabet are א and ת and these were used by the ancient Jews to mean “from first to last” or “from beginning to end,” as one might say, “from A to Z.” This Jewish usage prob. explains the similar usage of alpha and omega in the NT.

2. Usage in NT. The phrase occurs three times in the NT (Rev 1:8; 21:6; 22:13), and always with the repeated definite article, τὸ̀ ̓́Α καὶ̀ τὸ̀ Ω (the Alpha and the Omega). It is probable that the occurrences in Revelation were intended as allusions to Isaiah 44:6; 48:12, “I am the first, and I am the last,” asserting the eternal and transcendent greatness of Jehovah. Perhaps also Revelation 1:8; 21:6; 22:13 were intended as allusions to Romans 11:36 and Ephesians 1:10, not in the actual words but in the theological concepts involved.

3. Theological implications. In Revelation 1:8 it is “the Lord God” who asserts, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” and the speaker is further described as the One “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” In Revelation 21:6 and 22:13, on the other hand, the Lord Jesus Christ is the speaker who calls Himself “the Alpha and the Omega.” These two vv. taken with 1:8 constitute a strong asertion of the true and eternal deity of Jesus Christ. Similarly, the use of language in Revelation 21:6 and 22:13 concerning Jesus Christ is equivalent to that used concerning Jehovah in Isaiah 44:6 and 48:12 and involves a strong implication of the deity of Jesus Christ. As used in these texts, the meaning plainly is not merely chronological or taxonomic, but ontological and metaphysical; it concerns not merely when Jesus Christ exists or where He is to be ranked among existences, but who and what He is in His essential being or nature. The implication includes His eternity, pre-existence and essential deity. For any created being, however exalted, to claim to be the Alpha and the Omega as these terms are used of Jesus Christ in Scripture, would be blasphemy.

Bibliography “Alpha and Omega” in Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie (1903); SHERK, I (1907), 136, 137; HDB (1923), I, 70; W. J. McKnight, The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ: John to the Seven Churches (1927), 19, 20, 47, 48; ISBE (1929), I, 103; Encyclopedia of Christianity (1964), I, 151, 152.