(2) It is practically certain that d7clXXoxoi' and a'jkdluji, and also the Hebrew D'^nx (dhcdim) and ni'?nN (ahfduth), are derivatives of the Sanskrit word aguru, of wliich the term 'eagle-wood' is itself a corruption. If this etymology Is correct, it indi- cates tliat both the name and the commodity were brought from the Far East (cf . ^^3, Sanskrit narada). The Greek dXoi; and our own ' aloe ' may be from the same root.
(3) There was an aiitive trade in spices carried on in ancient times, not only through Phconicia but .also through the Syrian and Arabian de-serts, so that tliere is no great ditticulty in supposing that ' aloes ' were brought from India. These con- siderations seem to .alibrd sutticient ju.stification for the belief that eagle-wood was the aloes of the Biblical writers. Hugh Duncan.
ALPHA AND OMEGA.— A solemn designation of divinity, of Jewish origin, peculiar to the Book of Revelation. In Uev 1» it is applied to Himself by 'the Almighty,' with obvious relation to Ex 3" (cf. V.'') and Is 41-' H'^ (for the LXX rendering of nin- niN3s by Tra.vTOKpa.Toip, cf. Am 3'^ 4'^). In Uev 21^ also the epithet is applied not to the Son but to the Father, a.s shown by the context (cf. verses ^ 'a voice out of the throne,' ^ 'He spake that is seated on the tlirone,' ' ' I «ill lie his t;od and he shall be my son '). In 22'- it is placed in a derived sense (i.e. ' I, the primary ol.ijctt and ultimate ful- filment of God's promise') in the mouth of the glorified Jesus. This transfer of a Divine title to the Son furnishes a problem of gieat interest for the early development of Christology ; for, as R. H. Charles pomts out (Hastings' DB i. p. 70), 'although in Rev 1^ [add 21«] this title is used of God the Father, it seems to be confined to the Son in Patristic and subsequent literature.'
1. Origin and Signifieancc. — (a) The simplest and most primary use of this figure, derived a.s it is from the first and last terms of the alphabet, which with CJreeks and Hebrews were also those of numerical notation, is common to several lan- guages. Thus in English we have the expression 'from A to Z.' Schoettgen (Hor. Hcb. i. 1086) adduced from Jalkut Rubein, fol. 17. 4, 'Adam transgTessed the whole law from n to n ' ; antl 48. 4, 'Abraham kept the law from N to n.' As Cremer;shows(r/i(;o/. Worterbuch, p. 1), this has no bearing on the case except linguistically. In Jcdktit Rub. 1-28. 3, God is said tn bless Israel from N to n (because Lv !(/■• '" li.-iiis with n and ends with n), but to curse only Ir.mi i to o (because Lv le"-"^ begins with i and ends with d). E. H. Charles (I.e.) adds examples of this (general) use from Martial (v. 26 and ii. 57) and Theodoret (HE iv. 8). , . J r
(i) In the Intpv, more i.liilosnpliic.il, period of Hebrew literal ur.- similar .spi. ■-,,..„, an. applied to Gou a- iii.liralnr d 11 1- oinni|'i I'-i'nce and eternal 'exist.-,,.-... i;,..l, as il..- i;,-,,,,:; .;,-"»/_ whom all tilings proceed and l.j »huii, thuy tend, is thus contrasted in Deutero-Isaiah with heathen divmi- ties (41-' 43" [cf. Ex 3'-'] 44" 4S'-). Here the be.st example is the ^Cabbalistic designation of the
44
ALPHA AND OMEGA
ALPHA AND OMEGA
Sliekinah as nx, according to Buxtoif = ' principiuni et finis ' {Lex. Chald. Talm. et Habb. ).
But a threefold designation of God as the Eter- nal is also employed. The Jerusalem Tarrjum on Ex S" so interprets the Divine name (' qiii fnit, est, et erit, dixit nmndo '), and the Targ. Jonathan on Dt 32'* ('ego ille est, qui est, et qui fuit, et qui erit'). So also, according to Bousset (ad Rev l-"), Shemoth B. iii. f. 105. 2, Midrash Tillim 117. 2, Bereshith B. on Dn 10"' (the 'writing of nax— truth = the seal of God.' See below). Thus in He 2'° God is both end and means of all things (5i' 6V, Sl oB to. iravra) ; in Eo 11^^ ' Of him, through him, and unto him are all things' ; cf. Kev 1''.
Instances of expressions of like implication applied to the Deity (6 Seos), or to individual divinities, are naturally still more common in Greek philosophical literature, so that, as Justin says (ad Grwcos, xxv.), 'Plato, when mystically expressing the attributes of God's eternity, said, " God is, as the old tradition runs, the end and the middle of all things " ; plainly alluding to the Law of Moses.' The tradition was indeed 'old' in Plato's day, but there are many more probable sources than Ex 3'^ for Plato. We need refer only to the song of the Peleiadoe at Dodona : Zeus vv, Zeds (uTiv, Zei>s ^fffffrai (Palis, x. 12. 5) ; and the Orphic sayiii;^, Zfps trpuTos yiv^To, Zeus vcttcitos dpx">epai'i'os, Zci's K((pa\ri, Zei)s /i^crcra, k.t.X. (Lobeck, Aglaujihtdn h.v, 5i 1 , 5-23, 530 f. ). Similar attributes are applied to Athene and Asclepius in examples quoted by Wetstein. Notoriously the Jewisli apologists had been beforehand with Justin Mar- tyr in ascribing to Moses the larger and more philosophical conceptions of Deity enunciated by the philosophers ; and from these writings of the period of Kevelation and earlier it is possible to demonstrate the existence of a Jewish kcrijgma ( formula of missionary propaganda) defining the true nature of the Deity and of riglit worship, wherein Is 44*^- with the expression borrowed in Hev 1* 2^, or its equivalent, is the central feature. Josephus (c. Apion. ii. 190-198 [ed. Niese]), contrasting the law of Moses on this subject with heathenism, calls it 'our doctrine (X670S) concerning God and His worship.' What he designated ' the first com- mandment ' is easUy recognizable as part of such a kerygma, and seems to be derived from the same Jewish apologisti pseudo - Hecatjeus (c. 60 n.c.) whom he quotes in c. Apion. i. § 183-204, and ii. 43. It is traceable already in the diatribes against idolatry in the Ep. of Aristeas (132-141) and the Wisdom of Solomon (chapters 13-14). The Pro- oeraium of the oldest Jewish Sibyl (Sib. Or. v. 7-8, 15) has: 'There is one God Omnipotent, im- measurable, eternal, almighty, invisible, alone all- seeing, Himself unseen. . . . Worship Him, the alone existent, the Kuler of the world, wlio alone is from eternity to eternity.' It appears again in Christian adaptation in Ac 17""" (cf. 14'»-i', 1 Th 18. io_ Ro 118.3J -vvis ir-a 13«- '" 14>-- -■2-^) ; in the fragment of the Kerygma Petri, quoted in Clem. Strom, vi. 5. 39-43 (Frags. 2 and 3 ap. Preuschen, Antileg. p. 52 : eis 6e6s ijTiv, 8s apxri" TrivTuy eira'ataiv Kal H\ovs i^ovalav ^xWj k.t.\.): in the Apology of Aristides; Tatian's Oration iv.; Athena- goras. Leg. xiii., and the Ep. to Dingn. iii. It begins in Josephus : on Oebs Ixfi rd ffvuTraura TraiTcXrjs Kal /iaKapios, avris aiiry Kal Trocrii' avrapK-rfi, apx^l Kal y.i<ra. Koi tc'Xos outos tuv wavxuv — ' He is the beginning and middle and end of all things ' (c. Apion. ii. 190).