ALPHA AND OMEGA?
Isaiah 44:6 “This is what the Lord says - Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last;apart from me there is no God.”
Revelation 1:8 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 1:11
“Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last:”
Revelation 22:13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
??First: the Book of Revelation is an unreliable book.Early Christians and elders of the Church - Marcion, Caius of Rome, Dionysius of Alexandria, Amphilocius of Iconium, Gregory of Nazianzus, Cyril of Jerusalem, Synod of Laodicea in 360 CE - disputed it.
The author of the Revelation identifies himself as some unknown John, but probably not the apostle John because the style of the book is completely different from the Gospel of John.
Other than his name, very little is known about him.Martin Luther criticized this book.He wrote in the preface to Revelation,
About this book of the Revelation of John, I leave everyone free to hold his own opinions.I would not have anyone bound to my opinion or judgment.I say what I feel.I miss more than one thing in this book, and it makes me consider it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic… Many of the fathers also rejected this book a long time ago… For me this is reason enough not to think highly of it: Christis neither taught nor known in it.”
To this day, Lutheran scholars put the Revelation of John in a separate category of disputed books.
??Second: Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.?
Biblical scholars are not completely sure what the phrase “the Alpha and the Omega ” means.It cannot be strictly literal, because neither God nor Jesus is a Greek letter.It is like saying God is ‘A’ and ‘Z’.Lenski concludes, “It is fruitless to search Jewish and pagan literature for the source of something that resembles this name Alpha and Omega.Nowhere is a person, to say nothing of a divine Person, called ‘ Alpha and Omega ’, or in Hebrew, ‘Aleph and Tau ’.”
Although there is no evidence from the historical sources that anyone is named “the Alpha and Omega,” Bullinger says that the phrase “is a Hebraism, in common use among the ancient Jewish Commentators to designate the whole of anything from the beginning to the end;e.g., ‘ Adam transgressed the whole law from Aleph to Tau ’.”
The best scholarly minds have concluded that the phrase has something to do with starting and finishing something, or the entirety of something.
??Third: the doctrine of Alpha and Omega is a sad and unfortunate example of mankind’s tampering with the Word of God. It shows how doctrine is contracted by men to justify false beliefs. The phrase “Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last
” (Revelation 1:11) which is found in the King James Version was not in the original Greek texts.
Therefore, the Alpha Omega phrase is not found in virtually any ancient texts, nor is it mentioned, even as a footnote, in any modern translation!
??Fourth : In the Book of Revelation 1:8, King James Version implies that Jesus said he was Alpha and Omega. Since God says He is Alpha and Omega in Isaiah 44:6, Jesus, according to Christians, is claiming divinity here. However, the wording of King James is inaccurate. Not only do all modern translations clarify it was God who said it, not Jesus, but the conveyor of the words is one of God’s angels.
Revelation 1:1-3
NRSV “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place; He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.”
, [27.10.20 22:09]
With these corrections, it becomes evident that this was a statement of God and not a statement of Jesus, the Prophet of God.
Revelation 1:8
KJV “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
RSV ‘“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’
New American Bible (Catholic) “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.”
??Fifth: Revelation 22:13 is part of the vision of an unknown John (not the author of the gospel) in which he claims a visitation by an angel, mentioned in Revelation 21:09.
NRSV “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’”
The angel is speaking from Revelation 22:10-13:
NRSV “And he said to me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.
Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’
Jesus did not say those words, not is there any indication they refer to him.
Then passage continues in verses 14 and 15.
NRSV “Blessed are those who wash their Robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
This does not appear to be Jesus Christ speaking because the appearance of the first person singular pronoun in 22:16 signals a shift in speaker. Therefore, Alpha and Omega in the passage refers to God Himself, speaking through the angel.
??To be sure about how false the book of Revelation is , read this :
Jesus says “I am the root and the offspring of David”–
(Revelation 22:16).
So who was Jesus really?
The root (Creator) of David or the offspring (seed) of David?
It is very clear how fabricated it is
Just use your mind
Does it make sense ?