There is an intriguing word choice by the One speaking to John in the opening chapter of the book of Revelation. The speaker identifies Himself with several epithets: “the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End”*, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty”, “the First and the Last”, “He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore”. All but one has an apparent Old Testament link.
| “the First and the Last” | Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.’ (Isa. 44:6 NKJV) | The word Lord is Yahweh in the Hebrew and is understood as the Father. (Jeremiah 31:9 NKJV) |
| “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” | the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. (Gen. 17:1 NKJV) And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” (Exo. 3:14 NKJV) | The word Lord is Yahweh in the Hebrew and declares there is only one God. “I AM WHO I AM” = Yahweh Yahweh or the eternal eternity of God |
| “He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore” | 10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. (Ps. 16:8-11 NKJV) 20 On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on the one who struck them, but they will faithfully depend on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. (Isa. 10:20 NKJV) 34 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” (Luke 4:34 NKJV) 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, 31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. (Acts 2:30-31 NKJV) | The word Lord in Isa. 10:20 is Yahweh in the Hebrew and describes Him as the Holy One of Israel. Jesus is the Holy One of Israel and His flesh did not see corruption. |
It is “the Alpha and the Omega” that is curious since the allusion is found nowhere else in scripture.
Considering that the Revelation was most likely spoken to John in Hebrew, as was the case when Jesus spoke to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 26:14), Revelation 1:8 could be translated, “I am the Aleph and the Tav”. This understanding allows the epithet to be pondered as a marvelous expression of the work of salvation by God through Jesus, the Risen Lord, the Holy One of Israel, expressing the promise of the resurrection to eternal life both in the law of the Old Testament and the Gospel of the New Testament.
The letter aleph is the first letter, the beginning letter, of the Hebrew alphabet. The interesting aspect of the letter is in its form in Hieroglyphic Hebrew, the first alphabet used to write in Hebrew. The letters were written as pictographs with the picture of an ox representing the letter aleph. In biblical times an ox could be a bull or a cow, a heifer. The role of the bull in the atonement for sin was far more prominent in Temple worship than was the role of the heifer.
The significance in the allusion to the Aleph lies in the sin offering of a red heifer without blemish used to purify individuals from the defilement (corruption) of contact with death (Numbers 19) and its association with the crucifixion of Jesus. It was unique from other sin offerings for several reasons:
- it is the only sacrifice that occurs away from the alter and outside the congregation.
- the entire animal was consumed in the fire including most of the blood.
- the ashes were not discarded but used in a purification ritual.
- all the clean individuals partaking in the ritual became unclean following the sacrifice except the one making the sacrifice.
- the priest sprinkling the water with the ashes on those defiled (corrupted) by death became unclean.
In the Second Temple period the red heifer went out from the Temple to the Mount of Olives where it was bound facing west looking to the east entrance of the Temple when it was sacrificed. Some of its blood was sprinkled toward the entrance of the Temple seven times and most of the blood and the entire animal was consumed by fire. The ashes were taken to a clean place outside the Temple. These ashes were mixed with living, running or spring, water to purify those who became defiled by death. All who became defiled by death could become pure again after a week of ritual cleansing. On the third and seventh day of the ritual week the water with the ashes from the heifer was sprinkled on the defiled. Without the sprinkling of the water with the ashes there was no purification from the corruption of death, in effect no hope of a resurrection, the eternal inheritance. Those who fail to be purified defiled not only themselves but also the Temple of the living God.
The writer of the book of Hebrews equates the sacrifice of the red heifer with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection:
13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. (Hebrews 9: 13-15 NKJV)
In the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon declares all is “vanity” because the same end comes to the righteous as to the unrighteous (Ecclesiastes 9:2). All humanity inherits the corruption of death as the result of the fall by Adam and Eve because God is just. No one, not even the High Priest, is exempt from the consequence of the fall. But God is also merciful and gives us a Way of resurrection to eternal life through Jesus the Messiah. It is the consequence of sin and the hope of the Way that is expressed in the sacrifice of the red heifer. Those who participate in the sacrifice and also in the cleansing ritual signifying that there is only one Way to the Father, through the sacrifice of the red heifer with no officer of the law being exempt.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6 NKJV)
The same linkage between atonement for sin and the promise of the resurrection symbolized by the ox, both bull and heifer, is seen in the Passover and the Feast Of Unleavened Bread. The blood of the Pascal sacrifice, the Korban Pesach, covered the Israelites from the plague of death that fell on all who were uncovered. On the first day of the week following the Sabbath after the Passover, always a Sunday, the High Priest makes a wave offering of first fruits before the Lord, a symbol of resurrection. The seventh day after the Passover commemorates the parting of the sea on the seventh day after leaving the bondage of Egypt where the Lord provides a way of escape from death to life for all His chosen who were willing to trust in Him and walk, by faith, through a passageway surrounded by walls of water.
Jesus is our Pascal Lamb, our Korban Pesach. He rose from the dead on the first day of the week after the Sabbath, which was the third day, in that year, after His crucifixion and His resurrection was understood as the first fruits of the promised resurrection for all at His second advent who walk with Him by faith.
“20 But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15: 20 NKJV)
” 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.” (1 Corinthians 15: 23 NKJV)
The night before the Passover sacrifice, Jesus traveled from the Temple to the Mount of Olives. He lay, presumably facing toward the east entrance of the Temple, praying to the Father concerning the sacrifice He was about to make.
39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39 NKJV)
The renowned medieval Jewish scholar Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (aka Maimonides) wrote that the Messiah would prepare the last red heifer. The crucifixion of Jesus on the cross was the sacrifice of the last red heifer.
Considering Jesus as the fulfillment of the law of the red heifer perhaps answers the greatest mystery of the ritual, why is the one making the sacrifice not defiled when all others are? The Gospel of John tells:
“When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished! ” Then bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30 NKJV).
Jesus, the sinless Christ, gave His life, no one took it from Him. Only through His sacrifice can the symbolism of the red heifer be truly discerned.
The symbolism of the letter tav in the death and resurrection of Jesus is far more obvious to Christianity than is the sacrifice of the red heifer. Tav is the last letter, the end letter, of the Hebrew alphabet. Its pictograph is a cross. Under grace the sacrifice of the cross purifies all from sin and the corruption of death, as did the ox under the law.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:19-20 NKJV).
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, (Romans 6:5 NKJV).
There may also be allusions to Jesus as the embodiment of the Aleph and the Tav in other writings of the Apostle John.
34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. (John 19:34-35 NKJV)
Perhaps an allusion to Jesus as the embodiment of the hope of the resurrection symbolized by the blood of the cross and the water of the red heifer.
6 This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. (1John 5:6 NKJV)
Exegesis of this verse leans towards the water of baptism and death on the cross, but it is intriguing to think there may be a nuance in reference to the water of the red heifer and the blood of the cross, the beginning and the end of the hope of our eternal inheritance.
It may be that Jesus was simply repeating His eternal nature in the two epithets, Alpha/Omega and Beginning/End for emphasis. But perhaps, also, Jesus was declaring that the promise of salvation from the corruption of death through the resurrection given in the law by the sacrifice of the red heifer is assured by the work of the cross through Grace, His sacrifice and resurrection.
“I Am the [Aleph] and the [Tav], the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty”. (Revelation 1: 8 NKJV)
How simple and yet intriguing are the words Aleph and Tav in reference to Jesus, Yeshua HaMashiach. He is the embodiment of the hope of the resurrection in the justice under the law and in the Grace of the Gospel over the law.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! (Romans 11: 33 NKJV)
* The phrase “the Beginning and the End” is not contained in the NU translations but its inclusion is consistent with Rev. 21:6; 22:13.