The BDAG Lexicon (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature 2001) is considered among the most highly respected dictionaries of Biblical Greek. It is the gold standard in Greek/English lexicons.
When the BDAG replaced the BAGD, a change was noticed under ARCH/ARXH. Christ as "first created" at Rv 3:14 had been upgraded from possible to probable.
You can download this article at https://digilander.libero.it/domingo7/Burney.pdf
"Another New Testament allusion to Prov. viii 22 in reference to Christ is found in Rev. iii 14 H ARXH THS KTISEWS TOU QEOU, [the beginning of the creation of/by God] a title of the risen Christ which Dr. Swete and Dr. Charles have not a shadow of authority for limiting in meaning to 'the Source of God's Creation'. There is every reason to suppose that ARXH is here used with all the fullness and meaning which St Paul extracts from reshith--Beginning..." and then Burney turned to Rev. 21:6 where ARCH is translated as "beginning."
The BAGD/BDAG reference also mentions Job 40:19 ARCH, speaking of Behemoth "He is the first (ARCH) of the works of God" (RSV). Behemoth was not the "source" of God's works, but rather was one of
them.
Even Henry Alford in his Greek Testament states the following:
Alford goes on to argue against this position and has to use sources outside the New Testament to do so. This is much like the admissions we read from many that the reading "the word was a god" at John 1:1 is possible from the point of grammar alone....but they don't want you to accept that.
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