On the other hand, the apologetic and eschato- logical literature, which Kabbinic Judaism after the rise of Christian speculation more and more excluded from canonical use, shows a marked ten- dency to offset these heathen demiurgic ascriptions by similar ones applied not directly to God but to
I a hypostatizcd creative Wisdom (Pr 8---^', Wis 7"' 8' g-"- ^ Sir 24"- ^, Bar 3S-3"), or to an angelic Being endowed with the same demiurgic attributes (2 Es 5=«-6«).
The statement of Kabbi Kohler (Jewish Encycl. i. p. 438) is therefore correct regarding the phrase in Eev 1* and 21" if not in 22'^ : ' This is not simply a paraphrase of Is 44'* "I am the first and the last, " but the Hellenized form of a well-known Rab- binical dictum, "The seal of God is Emet, which means Truth, and is derived from the letters n D n, the first, tlie middle, and the last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things."' In other words, we must realize tlie metaphysical development of Jewish theology which had taken place between Deutero- Isaiah and Revelation. The passages adduced by Kolder from Joma 696 and Sanh. 64(i, and in par- ticular Jerus. Jeb. xii. 13a, Gen. R. Ixxxi., show the early prevalence of this interpretation of Dn 10-' ' I sliall show thee what is marked upon the writing of truth (nax 2033), as the signum of God ; for, says Simon ben Lakish, "k is the first, D the middle, and n the last letter of the alphabet." ' This lieing the name of God according to Is 44', ex- plained Jerus. Sanh. 1. 18«, ' I am the first [having iiad none from whom to receive tlie kingdom] ; I am the middle, there being none wlio shares the kingdom with me ; [and I am tlie last], there being none to whom I shall hand the kingdom of the world.' It would seem probable, however, con- sidering the connexion with Is 44' ('first and last,' the passage is a commonjilace of early Christian- Jewish polemic), that the l^abbalistic form nK is the earlier, tlie middle term having perhaps been inserted in opposition to Jewish angelological and Christian cosmological speculation. Cf. Rev 11" and 16* with I'' 4* ; and 2 Es 6^'^ (where Uriel, speak- ing in the name of the Creator, says, ' In the beginning, when the earth was made . . . then did I design these things, and they all were through me alone, and through none other : as by me also they .shall be ended, and by none other ') with He 21".
In 1 Co 8' we have a significant addition to the two-term ascription, ' One God, the Father, of (e?) «hom are all things, and we iinfo (ei's) him.' St. Paul (or his Corinthian converts) adds, 'And one Lord Jesus Christ, through \\hom are all things, and we through him.' 'I'liis addition marks the parting of the ways for Jewish and Cliristian theology, implying a mediating hypostasis identi- fied with Christ, that is, a Wisdom-Logos doctrine. That in Rev P and 21' the phrase is still applied in the purely Jewish sense to God the Father alone, is placed beyond all doubt by the connected ascrip- tions, especially 0 ibv Kal 6 tjv Kal 6 ^pxoficvos (not= eadp.ffo!) connecting 1* with I''.
Why, and in what sense, the term A-J) is applied in Rev 22'= by the glorified Christ to Himself, is the problem remaining ; and this independently of the question of composite authorship ; for to the final redactor, whose date can scarcely be later than A.D. 95, there was no incompatibilitj'.
(c) Besides the metaphysical or cosmological de- velopment, which we have traced in connexion with the Divine title A-S2 from Deutero-Isaiah througli Wisdom and pseudo-Aristeas to its bi- furcation in Jewish and Christian theology con- temporary with the Book of Revelation, we have a parallel development of cschatological character. Jehovali is contrasted with the gods of the heathen in Is 41-»-=' 42" 43»-"' 44«-'-=« 45=' 469-'" 48^- ■*• '=, also, and indeed primarily, as 'first and last' in the sense of director of all things to the fulfilment of His predeclared purpose, i.e. confirmcr and fid- filler of His promise of redemption (44'). And manifestly the development of this idea of Jehovah
ALPHA AND OMEGA
ALPHiEUS
45
as ' first and last ' in the redemptive or soterio- logical sense, would be more congenial to Hebrew thought than the metaphysical, although cosmo- logy plays a great and inci'easing part in apoca- lyptic literature. In the substitution of 6 epxo/j.ei'os for the anticipated 6 iabusvos in Kev 1^ 4" (cf. 11" 16') recalling Mt IP and He W, we have evidence of the apocalyptic tendency to conceive of God by preference soteriologically.
But the final redemptive intervention of Jehovah is necessarily conceived as through some personal, human, or at least angelic (Mai 3', 2 Es 5°") agency, even when creative and cosmological functions are still attributed to Jehovah directly, without any, or with no more than an impersonal, intermediate agency. Hence, while in Rev \* as in I'' and 21" Jehovah Himself, ' the Alpha and Omega, the be- ginning and tlie end,' is also 6 epxb/j.ei'os, there is no escape for any believer in Jesus from trans- ferring the title in this soteriological sense to Hiiu as Messiah. This will be the case whether his cosmology requires a Logos-doctrine for demiurgic functions, as with St. Paul, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Fourth Evangelist, or not. (The only trace of a true Logos-doctrine is the very super- ficial touch llev igis"). Thus in Rev 1" 2^ the Isaian title ' the first and the last ' is applied to Christ, and in 3" He is called ' the Amen . . . the beginning of the creation of God.' The titles are combined in 22", where we should perhaps render (Benson, Apocali/jjse, 1900, p. 26), 'I, the Alpha and the Omega (am coming), the first and the last, the beginning and the end.' As Hengstenberg maintained (on Rev 1**), 'In this declaration the Omega is to be regarded as emphatic. It is equi- valent to saying, As I am the Alpha, so am I also the Omega. The beginning is surety for the end ' (cf. Ph 1"). For this reason it is perhaps also better to connect the words 'Sai, 'Aixiiv of 1' with v." 'Verily, verily, I am the Alpha and the Omega' (Terry, Bibl. Apocahjpflcs, 1898, p. 281).