ALPHA AND OMEGA.— This phrase is found in Rev 1* 21' 22". In the first passage it is used of God the Father, in the other two of the Son. In the TR it wrongly appears in Rev 1". This phrase calls for treatment in two respects : (1) as to Its form, (2) as to its meaning.
1. That the form of the phrase was familiar, or, at all events, easily intelligible from the outset, is clear from later Heb. analogies. But before we touch on these it is worth observing that a kindred idiom is found in contemporary Latin literature. Thus in Martial v. 26 we find :
Quod alpha dixi, Codre, pasnulatorum
Te nuper, aliqua cum jocarer in charta ;
Si forte bilem movit hic tibi versus,
Dicas licebit beta me togatorum. Cf. also ii. 57, and Theodoret, HE iv. 8, iiiich ftiy ixpria6.ii.i6a. t<} 2X0a ^XP' '''»" "• Amongst the later Jews the whole extent of a thing was often ex- pressed by the first and last letters of the alphabet. Thus (Schoettgen, Ifor. Heb. in loc.) nx was a name of the Shechmah, because it embraced all the letters. Ace. to the Jalkut Hub. fol. 17. 4 Adam transgressed the whole law n nyi 'xa from aleph to tail : ace. to fol. 48. 4 Abraham observed the whole law from aleph to tau ; and, fol. 128. 3, when God blesses Israel He does it from aleph to tau (i.e. the initial and closing letters of Lv 26'"'", in which the blessings on Israel are pronounced), but when He curses Israel He does so from vav to mem (see Lv 20"""). ^Ve may therefore reason- ably infer that the title 'Alpha and Omega' is a Gr. rendering of a corresponding Heb. expression.
2. The thought conveyed in this title is essenti- ally that of Is 44', pnnN '3ki \-ctr\ •:« ' I am the first and I ira the last' (cf. i\* 43'°). The phrase thus dgniCes ' the Eternal One.' It is thus expounded by Aretas (see Cramer's Catena Grcecx in AT on Rev 1* : 'A\0a 5id t4 ipxh' fZ"'", 5ti nal tA 6,\<pa ^PXV '■(Sv iv ypdfifjULTt OTOtx^lwv w dia t6 riXos rCiv aifTuiv. ipx^'' ^i Kal rfKos tU ovk &v ivvoiiaoi t6 Trpuiros arjfiaivta&cu Kal rd foxoT'oy ; ^ta tov vpurros Se, t6 Apapxoi ivvourat, wf Kal iii, tov ia^drov t6 &Tf\€v- T77TOS. In Tertullian, Monog. 5, there is the follow- ing interesting exposition : Sic et duas Gra^ciie litteras, summam et ultimam, sibi induit dominus, initii et finis concurrentium in se figuras, uti, quemadmoilum A ad f) usque volvitur et rursus n ad A replicatur, ita ostenderet in se esse et initii decursura ad finem et finis recursum ad initium, ut omnis dispositio in eum desinens per quern coepta est. per sermonem scilicet dei qui caro factus est, proinde dusinat quemadmodum et coepit.
Cf. also Cyprian, Testim. ii. 1, 6, 22 ; iii. 100 ;
Paulinus of !Sola, Cam. 19. 645 ; 30. 89 ; Pruden-
tins, Catliem. ix. 10-12. Corde natus ex Parentis, ante mundi exordium Alpha et CI cognominatus, Ipse fons et clausula Omnium quae sunt fueruut qua;que post futura sunt.
Although in R«v 1* this title is used of God the
them
Father, it seems to be confined to the Son in I'atristic and subsequent literature.
R. H. Charles.
ALPHABET is a word derived from alphtx ai\d beta, the names of the first two letters in Greek, in which thej' are meaningless, being adaptations of the corresponding Sem. letter-names aleph, an ox, and bcth, a house. This etymology discloses much of the history of the A., which originated among a Sem. people, by whom it was transmitted to the Greeks and by them to the Romans, wnose A., with a few tritfing modifications, we still use.
It is now known that all the alphabets in the world, some 2U0 in number, are descended from a primitive Sem. A., usually styled the Phoen. A., or the A. of Israel.
The universal belief, or possibly the tradition of the ancient world, as reported by Plato, Tacitus, Plutarch, and other writers, was that the Plia^ni- cians had obtained the A. from Egypt. This seemed so probable that after the hieroglyphic writing had been recovered and deciphered, repeated attempts were made to show how the transmis.'^ion might have been efl'ected. This, however, proved to be no easy task. At the time of the Heb. Exodus, the hieroglyphic picture - writing was already a venerable system of vast anticjuity. Existing inscriptions make it possible to tra<e it back to the time of the 2nd dynasty, some 6000 years ago, when it already appears in great perfection, arguing a prolonged period of ante- cedent development. Setting aside a multitude of ideographic picture - signs, there are about 400 pictorial phonograms, of which 45 had emerged out of the syllabic stage, and had attained a sort of alphabetic character ; that is, they either denoted vowels, or were capable of being associated with more tlian one vowel sound. Of these, 25 were in more universal use than the rest, and it was maiidy out of these, as we shall see, that the letters of the A. were developed.
To a French Egyptologist, Emanuel de Rougi, belongs the honour of having discovered the prob- able metliod bj' which the Sem. A. was evolved out of the Egyp. writing. De Rouge pointed out tliat the immediate prototypes of the Phoen. letters were not to be found, as had been supposed, in the pictorial Hieroglyphs of the monuments, or in the well-known cursive Hieratic of tlie Middle Empire, but in an older and more deformed Hieratic script which prevailed in the time of the Early Empire, — a form of writing so ancient that it had alieaily fallen into disuse before the Heb. Exodus. This obscure and difficult script is chiefly known to us from a single MS., now in the National Library at Paris. It goes by the name of the Papyrus Pnsse, having been presented to the Library liy M. Prisse d'A venues, who obtained it at Thebes, where it was found in a tomb as old as the 11th dynasty. It is therefore older by many centuries than the time of Moses, older than the invasion of the Shep- herd kings, and older probably than the date usually assigned to Abraliam.