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Revelation 21 :6-7 "And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7. The one who conquers will have this heritage..". ESV

What "Alpha/beginning" is mentioned here:

1.The beginning of life. The only source of "the water of life"?

2.The most powerful beginning. "The one who conquers will have this heritage". He who sits on the throne reigns over other "beginnings"?

3.The beginning of the Christian story. e.g. "the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world". 1 John 4:14?

4.The only beginning. Although the word "Alpha" can be made to relate to aspects of its context, essentially here it stands by itself. The only beginning because "he who was seated on the throne" is the first cause of every causal chain.

If God had not created at all then only he would exist. Neither the things called "bad and good" or anything else would exist if he was not the first cause, "bad and good" Matthew 22:10?

  1. How does Alpha relate to Omega?
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  • Letters form a means of intelligent communication from one to another, expressing concept. Therefore they should be considered in the context of 'Logos' : the word. (Up-voted +1.) Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 16:02
  • As a profane comparison, Amazon has the motto "A-Z" (and their logo has a curved arrow from "A" to "Z" in the word "Amazon"), meaning "Everything from A to Z". Commented Aug 13, 2024 at 3:29

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The Greek word "alpha" always occurs as part of the phrase "alpha and omega". These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. As such it appears to be a Greek explanation for the very OT Hebrew expression, "First and Last".

  • Isa 41:4 - Who has performed this and carried it out, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD—the first and the last—I am!
  • Isa 44:6 - Thus says the LORD, the King and Redeemer of Israel, the LORD of Hosts: “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God but Me.
  • Isa 48:12 - Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I have called: I am He; I am the first, and I am the last.

In the book of Revelation we have this:

  • Rev 1:8 - “I am the Alpha and the Omega, [+TR: the beginning and the end]", says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come—the Almighty.
  • Rev 1:17, 18 - When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.
  • Rev 21:6 - And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.
  • Rev 22:13 - "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."

Thus, the title, "the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" in the book or Revelation is taken from the title of Jehovah in the OT and applied to both God the Father and Jesus in the NT.

Therefore, the title "first and last" = "alpha and omega" is a divine title expressing eternal existence - before all things (Col 1:17) and eternal existence.

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I would be grateful to offer a brief answer, since it's capable of being a standalone answer, and hasn't appeared as a subpoint in the other answers.

This is on the first line of big Liddell & Scott (1882): so one of the only times I haven't needed a crane to look up a word in it!

α' = εἷς

α was also a numeral, representing the digit 1. I checked Arndt & Gringrich also to make sure, and this was still the case at the time of the NT. Their first line has α'=1

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals

For the oneness of God - Deuteronomy 6:4, Mark 12:29 In Greek: ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν Κύριος εἷς ἐστιν

Since this is the Greatest Commandment, it's sufficient in itself for Revelation to want an alpha in Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ὦ.

(PS: in case it's thought I'm bringing a dog-whistle to an old argument, the Greek alphabet has 24 letters, and the factors of 24 are 1,2,3,4,6,8,12,24. If a restrictive converse is drawn from the alpha, it may be opened again by the omega.)

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Alpha points to the absolute beginning of aseity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aseity

Aseity (from Latin ā "from" and sē "self", plus -ity) is the property by which a being exists in and of itself, from itself, or exists as so-and-such of and from itself.[1] The word is often used to refer to the Christian belief that God contains within himself the cause of himself, is the first cause, or rather is simply uncaused

Colossians 1:17 expresses this idea of aseity:

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

God created the air and us. We need air to stay alive. Take away the air and we died. God's life does not depend on anything he created. The divine life cannot die. This points to the unending of Omega.

Revelation 1:8

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

Alpha points to eternity apart from the beginning of physical time. Omega points to eternity apart from after the end of physical time. Alpha and Omega refer to the existence of the uncreated God. Alas, words fail us. In a sense, there is no beginning and there is no end.

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  • Alpha and Omega come as a pair so if Alpha points to aseity how does that relate to Omega? I have put in point 5. Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 14:59
  • Good point. I added. Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 15:19
  • There is no such thing as 'eternity before' or 'eternity after'. Eternity is. It is something other than time. The term aseity originates from Plato, not from the bible. Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 16:04
  • Good point. I modified. Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 16:15
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“How does Alpha relate to Omega?”. Answer, it is ‘את’.

Revelation is the ‘most Old Testament like’ book in the New Testament. Well over three quarters of this book directly references the Old Testament. The Old Testament Hebrew has this ‘את’ combination in numerous locations - and it is mostly untranslated.

aleph-tav (את) are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In Revelation, written in Greek, the first and last letters are alpha/omega. את in the Old Testament reflects Inspiration, divine inspiration.

The presence of this ‘marker’ although not translated, is always highly significant. It either centre’s many ‘truths’, that is, God giving his signature to what is said. Or is surrounds significance sections. (Starts and Ends them).

Even it’s presence in words is significant. The Hebrew word for truth ‘אֱמֶת’, starts and ends with aleph-tav.

So in your quoted verse...

Revelation 21:6 And he said to me, "It is done!

“it is done” ends with Gods ‘mark’ - that is, that it is the truth. Another words, it is done!

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    Can you quote some places in the OT where ‘את’ is used? Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 9:23
  • The Old Testament Hebrew has this ‘את’ combination 9612 times - and it is mostly untranslated. Could you give us some substantiation, or link, or other reference, please. Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 11:00
  • @Nigel “I Am the Aleph-Tav: Unveiling Jesus in the Old Testament” - ISBN: 9781973627432. Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 18:26
  • @Dottard How about the first verse. GEN 1:1 - בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 18:28
  • @Dave - are you suggesting that אֵת in Gen 1;1 as a direct object marker (an essential part of Hebrew grammar and syntax) is the signature of God??? Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 20:28
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The Great Ox. A metaphor of being the sacrificial animal.

It means ox great, or as English syntax, the great ox.

O (omega) typically translated into English as The, should be translated as Great. Writing the omega before a name was declaring them to be great. A important person.

Alpha αΑ in the ancient Canaanite languages meant ox. The animal called a ox. The animal was sacrificed by some religions and worshipped by others. In Christianity it was both because Jesus symbolizes a ox.

Alpha α also became the Christian code symbol of the fish. By elongating the circlular form of the letter it becomes an oval. The first and last strokes of the letter become the tail of the fish. That is how the Jesus fish symbol is created in writing from alpha. This began the creation of Greek lowercase alphabet as the centuries continued. Greek was originally a strict uppercase alphabet. The lowercase Greek alphabet was invented by Christian scribes.

The writings inside ichthys symbol as an artistic expression (or "Jesus fish") is so called because the abbreviation of Jesus as the subject of the sentence is ΙC. The lowercase ς is written as capital C in all ancient Christian texts of Greek for several centuries. IX is the greater abbreviation of Jesus Christ. The capital X is the (ch) lowercase of x. ICXC is the longer of Jesus Christ where IX becomes the shorter abbreviation.

Is that the only meaning of the expression alpha and omega? No, it has multiple meanings too. In some sense the expression suggests that Greek was also a divinely inspired language along with Hebrew.

alpha into the Jesus fish

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    "O (omega) typically translated into English as The" — Are you confusing the letters omicron (Ο ο) and omega (Ω ω)? Commented Aug 13, 2024 at 14:22
  • "Writing the omega before a name was declaring them to be great" — Can you provide a reference for this? Commented Aug 13, 2024 at 14:23
  • So the Greek has two ways translated as meaning “the” in English. O and την. And they’re saying that there’s not a difference in meaning when both are used in the same sentence or group of sentences. Ok, then. Commented Aug 13, 2024 at 14:46
  • It’s the 6th case of Greek. The Greek GOD case of grammar written with letters that cannot be seen Commented Aug 13, 2024 at 15:18
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    "Greek has two ways translated as meaning “the” in English. O and την." — Nonsense. "Ο" is the root word, while "την" is simply one of many forms it can take, this one being την - accusative feminine singular of ο. ¶ And regardless of all that, "O" is the letter omicron, not the letter omega (Ω ω), making the answer and these comments totally irrelevant to the original question. Commented Aug 13, 2024 at 15:22

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