CC finished his evidence for Jesus being God:
First, the expression 'first and last' simply means 'only.' Adam was the first and last man made from the dust of the earth by God.
Jesus is the first and the last (only one) of creatures created personally by God himself. All others were created by God
through the work of his Only-begotten Son. Jesus is the first and the last (only) person to be raised from the dead to eternal life by God. All others are to be raised up by God through the work of the Only-begotten Son.
Second, 'Alpha and Omega' does appear to be used as a title for God.
Although it is very common that the words of one speaker slide right into those of another speaker (e.g., Is. 10:4, 7), it also happens that sometimes the writer identifies the new speaker. As we see in Daniel, for example, Daniel nearly always identifies himself as the new speaker when he uses the words “
I, Daniel” whenever it might be confusing to the reader (especially after a different person has been speaking) - Dan. 7:15, 28; 8:15, 27; 12:5. If we then examine Revelation (which is recognized as being similar to, patterned after, and frequently referring to, the Book of Daniel), we find that John also uses this technique. “
I, John” identifies a new speaker in every instance John uses it: Rev. 1:9; 22:8. So Rev. 1:9 is merely the statement of a new speaker.
Now let's examine Rev. 22:8-16. John is identified as the speaker in 22:8. The angel speaks in
9). The angel apparently continues speaking in
10). The angel
may be still speaking in
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
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
JB, and
NJB use quotation marks to show that these are all words spoken by the angel.
However, the
RSV, NRSV, NASB, NEB, REB, NKJV, NAB (1991 ed.),
ESV, ISV, NLT, 21st Century King James Version, Third Millenium Bible, and
TEV 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(s) of verses 12 and 13 continues to speak? Some Bibles indicate this. But other highly respected trinitarian translations do not!
The
RSV, NRSV, NASB, NEB, REB, NKJV, NAB (1991 ed.),
ESV, ISV, NLT, 21st Century King James Version, Third Millenium Bible, and
TEV 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 and the
NJB 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 insist that the person speaking just before verse 16 is the same person who is speaking in verse 16, then, according to the trinitarian
RSV, NRSV, NASB, NEB, REB, NKJV, NAB (1991 ed.),
ESV, ISV, NLT, 21st Century King James Version, Third Millennium Bible, and
TEV, 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, so does the only other such usage in that same book. Yes, Rev. 22:16 - “I, Jesus” also introduces a
new speaker. This means, of course, that the previous statement (“I am the Alpha and Omega”) was made by someone else!
Even the
KJV translators, who didn't even use quotation marks, 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); and
Revised Webster Bible. Lamsa’s translation (
Holy Bible From the Ancient Eastern Text) also uses “him.“
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.
In short, there is no reason, other than a desire to support the trinity tradition, to believe that Jesus is being called “Alpha and Omega” in Rev. 22. And there is good evidence to believe that it is his Father only who uses this title for himself.
We should ask ourselves why Trinitarian teachers insist on such dubious (at best) 'proofs'!!
