Tag Archives: constellations

Alpha and Omega Part 2 of Series

Revelation Commentary, , , , , , ,

 Revelation 1:8: “I am Alpha and Omega.”

This utterance, the first of the utterances of Jesus in the Book of Revelation, seems to be saying, not only the awesome title “I Am,” but also that “I Am the Alphabet,” since alpha and omega are the names of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. This is a puzzling statement unless and until we understand the significance of the alphabet as it is used in this context.[1]

Hebrew Aleph and Tau

Based upon the premise that the book was originally written in Hebrew, we should translate the alphabetic terms back to the Hebrew. The equivalent of Greek alpha and omega is Hebrew aleph and tau. The aleph and tau, being the first and last letters, represents the entire alphabet and is no doubt the Hebrew word for “alphabet.’  The word we translate “and” is represented in Hebrew by the letter vau, giving us the three letters aleph, vau, and tau.These three letters so arranged spell the word translated “sign,” or transliterated ’ôwth, or sometimes ‘oth. [2]

We may readily see that as the alphabet Christ is the totality of every word that may be uttered, written, or read. He is The Word. However, there are aspects of the ancient alphabet that are difficult to translate. One of those is the fact that the oldest alphabets were not only letters, but were also numerals. As the numerals, Christ is the entire realm of all that can be measured or quantified, that is, all mathematics and science. But this is not yet all that the term aleph-vau-tau indicates, for in the earliest traceable stages, the alphabet was also the means of designating the time-telling stars and constellations in their time-telling movements as well as their function in navigation and cartography (Seiss, 177).[3]

Even now there is a system for naming stars that uses the Greek alphabet – roughly in order of their brightness within a constellation: alpha, beta, gamma, … etc.

Christ is All and in All

To sum it up, as aleph-vau-tau, Christ is All and in All: The Word, Time, Space, Wisdom, Life.

Origen in his Commentary said that the canonical books of the Hebrew Bible were twenty-two, “like the letters of their alphabet.”[4] This was a fact noted also by Josephus and other writers of that era. It indicates that they considered the alphabet as representing a totality; that is, the complete Scriptures were contained in the twenty-two letters of the alphabet.

[1] See also my Commentary on Revelation 1:7, “Coming”. The Hebrew word ’ôwth, (consisting of the letters aleph-vau-tau,), is used in Dan.7:13 regarding the ‘coming’ of the Son of Man in the clouds.

[2] Targumim = ‘translations’.
The Babli is the Babylonian Talmud and the Yerushalmi is the Jerusalem Talmud.
Midrash is: (1) the haggadic or halakic exposition of the underlying significance of a Bible text. (2) A collection of Midrashim. (3) cap: the Midrashic literature written between the 4th century B.C. and 11th century AD].
Haggadah is: (1) ancient Jewish lore forming esp. the nonlegal part of the Talmud. (2) The Jewish ritual for the Seder, (Passover feast).
Halakah is the body of Jewish law supplementing the Scriptural law and forming especially the legal part of the Talmud.

[3] “In the perspective of early Christians who compiled listings of heretics, Israelites who rejected Jesus as Messiah were quintessential heretics. Among this group, the Pharisees were remembered for their devotedness to astrology: ‘Fate and astrology were quite popular notions with them,’ writes Epiphanius…. Epiphanius further recounts how they possessed a vocabulary of their own in Hebrew for the zodiac and other celestial beings,” (Malina, 74).
Quoting Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 4.46. Anti-Nicene Fathers, 5.42, that “‘Heretics’ read constellations in terms of Israel’s biblical tradition. They assimilate the doctrines of an Aratus, for example, to those declared by the Scriptures, thus ‘exhibiting a strange marvel, as if the assertions made by them were fixed among the stars” (ibid.).
Malina says further: “The heretics opposed by Hippolytus interpret the Scriptures allegorically. The Scriptures do not mean what they say literally, but refer to something else (this is allegory). Furthermore, these heretics likewise interpret the stars allegorically, using the fixity and regularity of the stars to give credence to their interpretations” (ibid.). These heretics thus used the stars to give credence to strange doctrines and suggest hidden meanings.

[4] As stated by Eusebius, History of the Church, 6.25; that the Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation (ibid., 6:25.10).

Next Lesson – Alpha and Omega Part 3

Asia – The Heavenly Pattern and the Earthly Copy – Part One

Revelation Commentary, , , , , ,

Read: Revelation 1:4 through 1:11.

Revelation 1:4: “John to the seven churches which are in Asia.”
In Revelation 1:11 we also read: “What thou seest write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches…”
The words “in Asia” are in the Greek text of verse four but are not in the Greek text of verse eleven. The KJV in verse eleven inserts “which are in Asia” at the translator’s privilege. This is an example of a translator assuming that the “in Asia” of verse four represented the same literal seven churches named in verse eleven. It is my belief that it did not.
The passage in 1:4 seems to describe the geographical setting of the addressees of the book, “in Asia.” Are these churches to be understood as merely seven literal churches, located in Asia Minor at that period of time? Much time, effort, and expense have been exerted to find the location of these churches. While some of their locations are quite well attested, others are vague. Some of these churches and their locations were so small and insignificant at the time that there is no certainty as to their location, if they existed at all in the natural sense.[i]This suggests that the Revelator used these seven churches symbolically.

Cosmic Geography

The ancients used the stars for telling time and for navigation and the intimate knowledge of the stars was extremely valuable for these purposes. While this use of the stars was not astrology neither was it the equivalent of our modern astronomy. Perhaps other writers have named it more appropriately Cosmic Geography. Today’s Global Positioning System uses this same concept.

Scholars now recognize that in ancient times there was a sense of Cosmic Geography or, as some call it Astrological Geography,[ii] or Zodiacal Geography, (Malina, pp. 103, 190).  This system likens certain geographical areas on earth to certain constellations or configurations of stars in the heavens.[iii]

The constellations are pictured as having been written, or engraved, by God upon the broad expanse of the heavens: “Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? (Isaiah 51:9). The word Rahab means “proud” as does its kindred word Rachab, meaning “proud” in the sense of pride in its broad expanse. The phrase cut in pieces means also “engraved.” In other words, God engraved the broad expanse of the heavens with the constellations. He “wounded, (pierced, or transfixed), the dragon,” a constellation sometimes called Draco or The Serpent. Compare Isaiah 27:1:

In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that [is] in the sea.

The great constellation called Draco, “the Serpent,” appears to be impaled by the pole star, so that point cannot move, although both ends of the Serpent move about the pole; he apparently is pierced, or transfixed, wounded.

So in the Book of Revelation we have two maps in view, one earthly, and one heavenly. These seven churches in their proper perspective are the earthly image of a heavenly reality, just as the Temple was intended to be an image of the heavens when rightly constructed and used.

John, a mortal man, speaks to the literal, earthly churches with a message that is intended to bring them into conformity to the spiritual heavenly Pattern which he is allowed to view and describe in the vision of Revelation 1:12-20. It is God’s will for the Churches to be like the seven candlesticks in the right hand of Christ in the heavens.

[i]Bruce J. Malina. On the Genre and Message of Revelation.  Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995, p. 73: “… socially insignificant communities.”  Hereafter cited in text.
[ii] Bruce M. Metzger, “Astrological Geography”, Chapter VII, Apostolic History and the Gospel: Biblical and Historical Essays presented to F. F. Bruce on his 60th Birthday, eds. W. Ward Gasque, and Ralpha P. Martin, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 1970. 123-133.
[iii] See Metzger, Apostolic History, 123-133.  Although Metzger discounts the connection between the list of nations given in Acts 2:9-11 with a certain astrological treatise by Paulus Alexandrinus who lived in the fourth century AD, he does not disprove the connection. He seems unaware that the ancient view of the cosmos and the Biblical use of the stars is not “astrology” but rather a unifying view of the universe.
   Metzger, however, cannot deny a connection between geography and astrology:  “It cannot be denied that in antiquity there may well have been some remote connexion between geography and astrology, revealed perhaps in the custom of beginning to enumerate a list of lands and countries starting in the East (at the rising of the sun). At the same time, however, it is doubtful whether the average cultured Greek and Roman writers were any more conscious of such a connexion than the modern Englishman is aware of the astrological matrix from which the word ‘disaster’ arose,” (Note 2, p. 132).
   Metzger seems to be unaware of the fact that the whole earth was mapped in relation to the heavens, that cartography and chronology depend upon a knowledge of the heavens, that in ancient times navigation by land or sea depended upon a knowledge of the heavens.
   Another fact of which many are unaware is that the Jews in the first century were scattered throughout the Roman Empire, and that there was a very strong, powerful and rich colony in Babylon. He says of the phrase “Judean Mesopotamian” that “Why Mesopotamia should deserve to be called ‘Judean’ is not easily explained.” This shows his total unawareness of the strength of the Babylonian community of Jews. As international merchants a working knowledge of the stars was indispensable to their trades.