Alpha and Omega Part Three of Series

Revelation 1:8, KJV: I Am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending.[7]

From the creation, the “signs,” the aleph ve tau, the alphabet, was intended to be both numerals and letters witnessing to and symbolizing the Logos of the Most High God.[8] The lights of the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars were created for “signs,” ’othoth. This plural represents the grouping, or pluralizing of the alphabetic signs. These signs were for two purposes: to mark time, designating the times and seasons, and to give light, separating the light from the darkness, (Gen. 1:14).

When Christ said: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending”; that is, the ending and the beginning were one and the same point. Christ became the overlapping anchor between the “this age” and “the age to come.” 2Esdras 6:7 shows that the “dividing of times” means “the end of the first age and the beginning of the age that follows.” That is, this particular era shared both the end of the old age and the beginning of the new.

Definition of the Letter tau

The letter tau is defined by Gesinius (Lexicon s.v.) as: “(1) a sign, Eze. 9:4 (Arab….a sign in the form of a cross…whence the name of the letter …, which in Phoenician, and on the coins of the Maccabees has the form of a cross. (From the Phoenicians the Greeks and Romans took both the name and form of the letter.) (2) sign (cruciform), mark subscribed instead of a name to a bill of complaint; hence, subscription, Job 31:35.”

The Constellations Were Originally Named the Letters of the Alphabet

According to Jewish tradition, Moses “invented” the alphabet. However, it would be more accurate to say, “Moses was shown the alphabet upon Sinai.” There God showed him the order of the constellations of the heavens that mark both time and location, the global position. The alphabetic figures then were drawn in a stylized form of the constellations. The Hebrew name for this circle of constellations was not ‘zodiac,’ but rather Mazzaroth, (Strong’s #4216).

Seiss says that, due to the proclivity of the Jews to idolatrous worship of the heavenly bodies, all the figures of the zodiac were erased and the Hebrew alphabet was substituted in their place (p., 177). Seiss’ view is perhaps an anachronism, for the more likely scenario was that the “zodiac” signs were always, and originally designated by the Hebrew alphabet and only when Hebrews fell into idol worship did they use the signs of the “zodiac”.

Alphabet as Time Markers

As time markers, they fulfilled a numeric function, to mark day and night and the seasons of the year. As light givers they were to fulfill a literary and artistic function: to give Light on the earth and to separate Light from darkness physically, and wisdom from ignorance, intellectually. The original alphabet represented these two distinct rays, the numerical, which first found expression in the time-reckoning function and later in other mathematical uses, and the linguistic, expressed in writing. At this first stage it should perhaps be called the “numero/alphabet.” The original idea of the numero/alphabet represented the idea of order.

Alphabet as Witness of the Most High God

As signs, these highest of all symbols, were created as a witness of and to the Most High God, to teach and to inspire worship. We should therefore not wonder that they have been prostituted to idol worship throughout history in many cultures of the world. That is all the more reason we should appropriate them, as symbols, to the worship of Christ, their legitimate and intended use.

[7] The KJV includes the phrase “the beginning and the ending” but this is at the translator’s privilege for it was not in the original Greek. The KJV translators felt it was necessary in order to bring out the sense of the verse.
The RSV leaves out the phrase “the beginning and the ending” here but includes it at Revelation 21:6 and 22:13 where the saying is repeated, see “First and Last” my Commentary on 1:17.
[8] It could well be argued that this heavenly Pattern is the written Name of God. Its incorporation into the Temple meant that God’s Name was there. That is, the Temple was created and designed for the purpose of an observatory of the heavenly Pattern telling the times and seasons and teaching the wisdom of God. See also my Commentary at 1:3 “Christ as Light and Time”.

Next Lesson: Alpha and Omega Part 4