Nope - I already showed you in Revelation 22:12-13 where he said he was the Alpha and Omega. And also in Revelation 1:11-18 ( The Father had manifested himself in flesh, and after he finished the job raised his body up a glorified spiritual body.)
With your application of being the first and the last, explain what he meant in Revelation 22:12-18
The one who said he was the Alpha and Omega in verse 11, said he was the one that liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive forever more, in verse 18. I know who that is - do you?
There are only three places in the entire Bible where the title “Alpha and Omega” is used: Rev. 1:8; Rev. 21:6; Rev. 22:13. “Alpha and Omega” as found at
Rev. 1:11 in the
KJV and
NKJV is recognized as
spurious by most modern Bible scholars:
"Virtually all modern translations do not include in Rev 1:11 the following words that are in the KJV version of that verse:
"
Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and,
"This wording at the beginning of the
KJV's version of Rev. 1:11 is not found in virtually any ancient texts, nor is it mentioned, even as a footnote, in any modern translation or in Bruce Metzger's definitive
A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition, New York: United Bible Societies, 1994."
Some attempt to prove their “Jehovah is Jesus” idea by pointing to Rev. 1:8 where
God is clearly called “Alpha and Omega” and then saying that
Jesus claims the same title at Rev. 22:13. They point to Rev. 22:16 as proof that it is Jesus who is claiming to be the Alpha and Omega of verse 13. Since
Jehovah is clearly Alpha and Omega (Rev. 1:8), they say, and
Jesus is Alpha and Omega (Rev. 22:13), then Jesus
IS Jehovah.
As you probably know, the original NT Greek Bible writers didn’t use any punctuation or capitalization and frequently ran the words of one speaker right into those of another speaker without any warning or indication
. Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, for example, warns Bible readers:
“The language of the MESSENGER frequently glides into that of the SENDER ...” and, “what a SERVANT says or does is ascribed to the MASTER.” - “Hints and Helps to Bible Interpretation” - Preface.
Is Jesus ‘Alpha and Omega’ in Rev. 22?
Now look at Rev. 22:8-16. John is identified as the speaker in 22:8. The angel speaks in verse 9). The angel apparently continues speaking in verse 10). The angel may be still speaking in verse 11) --- or it could be John or even someone else (as implied in verse 10 in the
NAB, 1970 ed.).
Now is the
angel still speaking in verse 12) or is it
God, or is it
Jesus, or even
John? There is simply no way of telling who the speaker is from any of the early Bible manuscripts. It’s entirely a matter of translator’s choice. Some translators have decided it is the angel who continues to speak, and they punctuate it accordingly. So the
NASB,
JB, and
NJB use
quotation marks to show that these are all words spoken by the
angel.
However, the
NKJV, NEB, REB, RSV, and
NRSV show by their use of
quotation marks that someone else is now speaking in verse 12. Most Bibles indicate that the person who spoke verse 12 (whether God, angel, Jesus, or John) also spoke verse 13 (“I am Alpha and Omega”).
Now the big question is: Is it clear that the speaker of verses 12 and 13
continues to speak? Some Bibles indicate this. But other respected trinitarian translations do not!
The
ESV; ISV; LEB; MEV; MOUNCE; NAB (2010 ed.);
NASB; NEB; NKJV; NLT; NRSV; REB; RSV; 21st Century King James Version; TEV; and
WE show (by
quotation marks and indenting) that Rev. 22:14 and 15 are not the words of the speaker of verses 12 and 13 but are
John’s words. (
The Jerusalem Bible; the
NJB; and Moffatt show us that the angel spoke all the words from verse 10 through verse 15.) Then they show Jesus as a
new speaker beginning to speak in verse 16.
So, if you must insist that the person speaking just before verse 16 is the same person who is speaking
in verse 16, then, according to the trinitarian
ESV; ISV; LEB; MEV; MOUNCE; NAB (2010 ed.);
NASB; NEB; NKJV; NLT; NRSV; REB; RSV; 21st Century King James Version, TEV; and
WE , you are saying
John is
Jesus!!! (According to the
JB and
NJB you would be insisting that the
angel is
Jesus!)
And, just as the use of “I, John” indicated a
new speaker in Revelation 1:9, so does the only other such usage in that same book. Yes, Rev. 22:16 - “
I, Jesus” also introduces a
new speaker. This also means, of course, that the previous statement (“I am the Alpha and Omega”) was made by someone else!
Even the
KJV translators have shown by their use of the word “his” in verse 14 that they didn’t mean that Jesus was the same speaker as the Alpha and Omega. The speaker of verse 13 is Almighty God. The comment in verse 14 of these Bibles (as literally translated from the Received Text) explains the importance of doing “
His Commandments” (not “
My Commandments”)! Therefore the speaker of verse 14 is obviously
not God as clearly stated by those Bibles which were translated from the Received Text, e.g.,
KJV; NKJV; KJIIV; MKJV; Young’s Literal Translation; Webster Bible(by Noah Webster);
Revised Webster Bible; and Lamsa’s translation (
Holy Bible From the Ancient Eastern Text).
So we can easily see that there is no reason to say
Jesus spoke the words recorded at Rev. 22:13 (or the above-named
trinitarian Bibles would surely have so translated it!) and, in fact, the context really identifies the speaker as being the same person who spoke at Rev. 1:8, God Almighty, Jehovah, the
Father.
The only other use of the title “Alpha and Omega” confirms this understanding.
“And
He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ .... And He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. .... He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and
he will be My son.’” - Rev. 21:5-7,
NASB.
This particular "Jesus is God" proof is a poor one indeed! You can't even get most respected Trinitarian scholars to agree with it!
Why do you suppose this old 'proof' was concocted in the first place, and why does it still persist today?