The true sense, and at the same time the origin and explanation of this application of the Divine title, is to be found, as before, in the Epistles of St. Paul. In 2 Co 1=" the promises of God, how- .soever many they be, are said all to have their Yea in Christ. And, because this is so, it is further declared, 'the Amen is also through him.' The conception that Christ is thn Amen or fulfil- ment of all the promises of (iii.l, as 'lii'ir of all things' and M'e 'joint heirs wil h him ' ( Ko 4'-' 8", 1 Co 3", He 1-, Rev 21'), is coni|.:ir.-aiv.'ly laniiliar to us. It represents the significance of the term O in the eschatological application. We are much less familiar with the idea expressed in the A, though it is equally well attested in primitive Christian and contemporary Jewish thought. In Pauline language it represents that the people of Messiah were ' blessed with every spiritual bless- ing in the heavenly places in Christ, inasmuch as God chose them in his person before the founda- tion of the world . . . and foreordained them to be an adoption of sons,' Eph 1^- = ; cf. Is 44i- -• ', Wis 18'^ He 2=-", Rev 21', and the doctrine of the apocalyptic writers, Jewish and Christian, that ' the world was created for the sake of man ' — resp. 'Israel,' 'the righteous,' ' the Church' (As- samp. Mos. I'--" : L' Es (i^-™ 7'"- " 9'^ : Hormas, Vix. ii. 4' etc. Thi; (K.i-trinc n-sts cm (In I-'''- I's K-"-** Ex i-^ etc. ). II a in:i<' k has shewn ( //I.-./,,,;/ n'f lin,,,ini\ vol. i. Append i\ I, 'Th.. (.'u]i(:e|iti(pii ii'l i'li'-exisl' ence') how pre-exislence is tor the Jewisli mind in some sense involved in that of ultimate persistence. The heir ' for whom ' all things ^^•ere created was in a more or less real sense (according to the dis- position of the thinker) conceived as present to the mind of the Creator before all things. Thus in Rabbinic phrase Messiah is one of the ' seven
pre-existent things,' or His 'soul is laid up in Paradise before the foimdation of tlie world.' A pocaly ptic eschatology demanded a representative 'Son,' the 'Beloved,' chosen 'in the beginning' to be head of the ' Beloved ' people of ' sons ' in the en<l, with at least as mueli logical urgency as speculative cosmolu^^y deiiiaiideJ an agent of the creation itself. It is this « ]ii( li is meant when St. Paul says that ' Iicuvevei ur.iuy l>e the promises of God, tiiey are in Christ W-a,' This is ' the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God who created all things . . . according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus.' In Pauline language, Christ ' the Beloved,' the ' Son of his love,' is tlie Yea and the Amen of the pro- mises of God. Cosmologically, He is the precrea- tive Wisdom, ' the firstborn of all creation, in whom all things were created' (cf. Kc\- 3'^, Pr S--). But it is not only that 'he is l.etoiv all thinjs, and in him all things consist' (cf. Sii l'I', Wis | ), not only that ' all things have been erealeil liuiiitijk him,' but also eschatologically ' loilu him' (Col 1'=-"; cf. He 1"^ and Wis 7----'), logically sub- sequent to Him because made for His sake. In Revelation we have only the latter. The cosmo- logical ' through ' Him practically disaiipears. It is only in the eschatological sense that Christ be- comes the original object and the ultimate fulfil- ment of the Divine purpose and promises, ' the Yea, the Amen,' 'the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.'
2. The, Later Histori/. — It is doubtless from Revelation that the use of the term in Patristic literature and Christian epimaiihy is mainly de- rived, though its populaiity may well have been lartly due to oral eiincnc y iii Jewish-Christian circles before the publiealiuu of Revelation. The eschatological interest is still apparent in the hymn of Prudentius (Cat hem. ix. 10-12), wherein the first line contains a reference to Ps 45' Vulg. (' Eructavit cor meum Verbum bonum '), treated as Messianic by the Fathers —
Alpha Omnii
, flic
(JUEeque post fiitura suat.' But in Clem. Alex. (Sfroiii. iv. 25 and vi, IC) and
Tertulliau ((/.■ Jfrnm,,. r.) Ihe r,,s h.-^iral pie-
donunates. Ainla-.i-r i /■.',. ■/". .//'" ,,/ I'll i-i.,n,,<s, i. 8) presents a, .liilrivnl inln |,i ,1 :,i i,„i. In lino-i,,.
are unbridled. Thus Marcus (17). Irenanis, Hur. I. xiv. 6, XV. 1) maintained that Christ designated Himself A 12 to set forth His own descent as the Holy Ghost on Jesus at His bai)tism, because by Geniatria A Ti ( = 800 -t- 1 ) and Trepiarcpd. ( = 80 -f 5 + 100 -I- 10 + 200 + 300 + 5-1- 100 -t-l) are equivalent.
LlTERATlRK.— B'or the great ma-is of Mc-r cpmr.iphic inateruil the reader is referred to N. Muller iti II. r.c.'4 H. link's li'<t/- eueifkl. i. pp. l-l'J, and the article 'MuMn_i m, h simdi 1 I Cheethain's Dicf. 0/ Chrititian Anluiuifit.^ I already cited, articles on A and Ii may be tuni 1 1 Bible Dictionaries and Enc\ clopa'dias. IN u 1 1 I 1 1 I