Jesus The Alpha & Omega
The First & The Last
The Beginning and The End

These names are used by John and it is significant that he uses them both of God and of Christ.  In Revelations 1:8 we read: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty", and again in 21:6, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end".  No one who believes in God will deny the appropriateness of these names.  All the more significant, therefore, is there application one and all to Christ.  "Fear not", says the Glorified Christ in the opening vision of the book, "I am the first and the last, and the living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades" (1:17f).  Similarly, John is bidden to write to the angel of the church in Smyrna, "These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and lived again" (2:8), and at the end of the book he is told, "Behold, I come quickly..., I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end".  (22:13).  No names of Christ have such universality, inclusiveness, and finality....

There is a parallel idea in St. Paul's reference to God in Romans 11:36, "For of him, and through him, and unto him are all things", and again in 1 Corinthians 8:6, "Of whom are all things, and we unto him", a passage in which, with a significant change of preposition, Jesus Christ is described as the one Kyrios "through whom are all things, and we through him".  A similar thought is expressed in Revelation 3:14, "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God".  The belief that the creation and the consummation of all things are divine acts is fundamentally Biblical.  The name "the Beginning and the End" may therefore be only a variant of "the First and the Last".

Whatever may be said of the origin of these names, there can be no doubt that they illustrate the high Christology of Revelations.  In themselves, and because they are used both of God and of Christ, they describe a suprahuman figure who is pre-existent and beyond the bounds of time.

-excerpt was adapted from The Names of Jesus by Vincent Taylor pg 156-8

Jesus The Alpha & Omega - Pt 2
The First & The Last
The Beginning and The End

Alpha and Omega are the first and the last letters, respectively, of the Greek alphabet. They have been employed from the fourth century as a symbol expressing the confidence of orthodox Christians in the scriptural proofs of Our Lord's divinity. This symbol was suggested by the Apocalypse, where Christ, as well as the Father, is "the First and the Last" (ii, 8); "the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (cf., xxii, 13; i, 8). Clement of Alexandria speaks of the Word as "the Alpha and the Omega of Whom alone the end becomes beginning, and ends again at the original beginning without any break" (Strom., IV, 25). Tertullian also alludes to Christ as the Alpha and Omega (De Monogamiâ, v), and from Prudentius (Cathemer., ix, 10) we learn that in the fourth century the interpretation of the apocalyptic letters was still the same: "Alpha et Omega cognominatus, ipse fons et clausula, Omnium quae sunt, fuerunt, quaeque post futura sunt."

The question whether this symbol in its regular form, was in use before the Council of Nicaea (325) has not yet been settled definitely. If so, it was of very rare occurrence. In a fresco which dates from the middle of the fourth century in the "great cave" of the catacomb of Praetextatus, Alpha and Omega are found in connection with the monogrammatic cross. The oldest inscription in which the letters occur in their traditional form dates from 364. From this time on they were a favorite symbol of the orthodox Christians.

-adapted from The Catholic Encyclopedia at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01332a.htm

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