Rev. i. 8: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, “saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Rev. i. 11 : “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.”
Rev. i. 17, 18: “And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto “me, Fear not; I am the first and the last : [I am] he that liveth, and “was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore.”
Rev. ii. 8: These things saith the first and the last, who was dead, “and is alive.”
Rev. xxii. 13: “I [am] Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, “the beginning and the end” (Griesbach).
TRINITARIAN ARGUMENT. – The First and the Last; that is, the one, eternal God, who is from ever. lasting to everlasting. — John Wesley on Rev. i. 17.
These divine titles [Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last] can only be applied to an eternal being. —Dr. Hawker: Sermons on the Divinity of Christ, p. 178.
OBSERVATIONS. – According to GRIESBACH, the word God should be inserted after Lord in Rev. i. 8; — a passage which will therefore have an exclusive reference to the Father; for these titles, “Lord God,” “He who is, who was, and is to come,” “the Almighty,” are never in Scripture attributed to Jesus Christ (m). With regard to the eleventh verse of the same chapter, there can be no question that Christ is represented as the speaker; but it is observable, that that part of the verse which we have quoted is undoubtedly an interpolation, being rejected by GRIESBACH, and other eminent critics.
From the other texts, however, we have no hesitation in believing, that Jesus characterised himself as Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, &c. Yet, as he had been subject to the power of death, these titles cannot signify eternity of existence, but more probably refer to him as “the author and finisher of our faith” (n) — the best and the greatest of all the prophets, to whom the spirit was given without measure (0) — appointed by the Deity to carry on the great scheme of man's deliverance from sin and suffering, till the consummation of all things, when he will render up his authority to the Father, and God shall be all in all (p). Perhaps, merely, Christ is called the last, on account of his having been rejected by his countrymen, and exposed to suffer the ignominious death of the cross; and the first, because he was the first human being raised from the dead to enjoy immortal existence (q). This interpretation seems to be countenanced by those passages in which our Lord is spoken of-conjointly with the expression, “the first and the last"—as “he that liveth, and was dead” (r). However this may be, it is evident that Christ was mortal; and it is equally evident that the eternal God cannot die. The same being, too, who had been crucified, received a revelation from God (s); but nothing can be imparted to the blessed and all-wise Governor of the universe.
(m) Rev. i. 4, 5: Grace [be] unto you, and peace, from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, .... and from Jesus Christ, &c. — See chap. iv. 8; xi. 17; xv. 3; xvi. 5, 7, 14; xviii. 8; xix. 6, 15; xxi. 22; xxii. 5, 6. 2 Cor. vi. 18.
(n) Heb. xii. 2: Jesus, the author and finisher of [our] faith ; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
(o) See Matt. iii. 11, 17. John iii. 30–35; viii. 29. et al.
(p) l Cor. xv. 28: When all things shall be subdued unto him, THEN SHALL THE SON ALsO HIMSELF BE SUBJECT UNTO HIM THAT PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIM, that God may be all in all.
(q) Rev. i. 4, 5: Grace [be] unto you .... from Jesus Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, [and] the first-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth.
(r) Rev. i. 17, 18; ii. 8, as quoted in Nos. 7, 8, preceding page.
(s) Rev. i. 1: The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show, &c.
Quotations That the Son of God is absolutely the first, none will venture to assert, who maintain that the Father is the first person of the Trinity. — B. Wissowatius, in Racovian Catechism, p. 161.
The terms, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, are, in a finite sense, justly applicable to Jesus as the first of all created existences, and the last of those who will be required to resign the authority with which he is invested by the Father. — Rammohun Roy on Rev. xxii. 13: Second Appeal, Appendix, No. 2.
These words [in Rev. i. 17] are spoken by our Lord concerning himself; who, being the representative, the ambassador of God, is frequently honoured in Scripture with the same titles as his Father. By this declaration, Jesus must mean, that he was the beginning and the end, the foundation and the corner-stone, of God's religious dispensations to mankind. He was the object of the purposes of Providence in the constitution of the ages, Heb. xii. 2: he was the consummation of them, the ARCHGOS KAI TELEIWTHS. — WAKEFIELD: Inquiry into the Opinions of Christian Writers, pp. 103, 104.
When the Almighty is said to be the first and the last, the meaning of the expression is, that he is contemporary with the earliest and the latest events in that chain of causes and effects, by which he accomplishes his stupendous counsels. .... The expressions contained in both these passages [Rev. i. 17; xxii. 13] are the words of Christ. They ought to be interpreted in the sense which we have just given to them when ascribed to the Supreme Being. They signify that Jesus Christ is contemporary with the earliest and the latest events in that dispensation over which he has been ordained by the Almighty to preside; and that he is consequently qualified for all the honours, the exertions, and the duties of his august station. — YATES: Vindication of Unitarianism, pp. 200, 201.
It is clear that this language denotes not an eternity of being; for whoever is literally “the first and the last” exists in time. As clearly, the phrase, when we meet with it in the Scriptures, describes not any thing or any individual peculiar in its kind; since we behold no example of its bearing such an import. Consequently, we must explain it by the clause or clauses, the verse or verses, with which it happens to be associated. When employed in the Old Testament respecting Almighty God [Isa. xli. 4; xliv. 6; xlviii. 12), it designates him as the Source of great public and religious changes, and as the End to which they must be referred, and whither they point. It has no relation to his nature, essence, or everlasting being. So, when applied here to Jesus Christ, it depicts what he now is, and what he was, and must be interpreted by the clause, “I am he that liveth, and was dead,” &c. — once the most abject and despised, at present the head of God's creation. — KENTISH on Rev. i. 17.
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