Watchtower Blotch of Alpha and Omega interpretation

by Ticker 29 Replies latest watchtower bible

Ticker

Now to cover a point of a different nature but one I feel very important, a point in which the Society has deliberatly tried to gloss over in their manipulating of scripture. We see in Rev. 1:7,8 a mention of the Alpha and Omega, the one who is, who was, and who is to come. Now any JW would no doubt relate the alpha and omega to Jehovah God as they have been taught. In fact they have dishonestly inserted Jehovah's name into this rendering as the NWT reads in Rev 1:8 "I am the alpha and the omega, says Jehovah God, the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty." Now read Revelation 1:17,18 NWT reads "And when I saw him I fell as dead at his feet. And he laid his right hand upon me and said "Do not be fearful. I am the First and the Last, and the living one, and I became dead, but, look! I am living forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Ha'des."

Now Revelation 22:12,13,16,20, NWT reads "Look! I am coming quickly, and the reward I give is with me, to render to each one as his work is. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. I, Jesus, sent my angel to bear witness to you people of these things for the congregations. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright morning star. He that bears witness fo these things says, Yes, I am coming Quickly. Amen! Come, Lord Jesus."

Since when did Jehovah God become the firstborn of the dead, does this not rightly apply to Christ? Why would John rejoice and say Amen come lord Jesus, if he were not the one coming quickly but rather it was Jehovah as the Watchtower attempts to present. Is not Jesus also represented as the one bearing witness in Revelation as chapter 1:5 stated? So then it would seem very clear He is the one coming quickly. How can Jehovah be the alpha and omega coming quicking, the first and the last, firstborn of the dead, who became dead but now living forever and ever? According to the Society Jehovah God never did die, so how can they rightly gloss these scriptures over with sloppy translating and manipulating of scripture? I found this very eye opening in my search for truth on matters.

Sorry if this came out choppy, I will try to fix it later when I have a little more time. Hope it helps someone.

Ticker
SallySue

I've always found the Society;s Alpha and Omega interretation to be faulty.
Thank you for pointing this out so beautifully.
How can they claim Jehovah is the First and the Last while the Bible says Jesus is the First and the Last.
ithinkisee

But that makes it easier to prove the shakiness of the NWT doesn't it?
If NWT translation CLEARLY says Alpha and Omega, First and Last is Jehovah in Rev. 1
And if NWT translation CLEARLY says Alpha and Omega, First and Last is Jesus in Rev 22
Point this out to someone, and then simple say ... "There can't be TWO FIRSTS and TWO LASTS."
For Christians, this is an example where Jesus calls himself God. The NWT translation supports the christian doctrine of the trinity withouth them even realizing it.
(of course I think they realize it now)
-ithinkisee
funkyderek

And if NWT translation CLEARLY says Alpha and Omega, First and Last is Jesus in Rev 22

It doesn't! Every other translation does, but the NWT peppers the whole passage with a convoluted series of quotation marks, making it seem as if someone else is talking.
12 “‘Look! I am coming quickly, and the reward I give is with me, to render to each one as his work is. 13 I am the Al´pha and the O·me´ga, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. 14 Happy are those who wash their robes, that the authority [to go] to the trees of life may be theirs and that they may gain entrance into the city by its gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and those who practice spiritism and the fornicators and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone liking and carrying on a lie.’
16 “‘I, Jesus, sent my angel to bear witness to YOU people of these things for the congregations. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright morning star.’”
Verse 12 opens with the angel (double quotation marks) quoting someone (single quotes)who identifies himself as the Alpha and the Omega. The Watchtower claims this person is Jehovah. At the end of verse 15, the single quotes end, and a new set begin in verse 16, indicating that someone else is talking. This is necessary for the Watchtower's theology, but is indefensible as a translation. The speaker in verse 12 says "Look! I am coming quickly" which is said on two other occasions in the chapter by Jesus. It's an extraordinary length to go to to avoid the most obvious reading of the passage.
inquirer

This is what the Reasoning From the Scriptures says about it:

Texts in which a title that belongs to Jehovah is applied to Jesus Christ or is claimed to apply to Jesus

Alpha and Omega: To whom does this title properly belong? (1) At Revelation 1:8, its owner is said to be God, the Almighty. In verse 11 according to KJ, that title is applied to one whose description thereafter shows him to be Jesus Christ. But scholars recognize the reference to Alpha and Omega in verse 11 to be spurious, and so it does not appear in RS, NE, JB, NAB, Dy. (2) Many translations of Revelation into Hebrew recognize that the one described in verse 8 is Jehovah, and so they restore the personal name of God there. See NW, 1984 Reference edition. (3) Revelation 21:6, 7 indicates that Christians who are spiritual conquerors are to be ‘sons’ of the one known as the Alpha and the Omega. That is never said of the relationship of spirit-anointed Christians to Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke of them as his ‘brothers.’ (Heb. 2:11; Matt. 12:50; 25:40) But those ‘brothers’ of Jesus are referred to as “sons of God.” (Gal. 3:26; 4:6) (4) At Revelation 22:12, TEV inserts the name Jesus, so the reference to Alpha and Omega in verse 13 is made to appear to apply to him. But the name Jesus does not appear there in Greek, and other translations do not include it. (5) At Revelation 22:13, the Alpha and Omega is also said to be “the first and the last,” which expression is applied to Jesus at Revelation 1:17, 18. Similarly, the expression “apostle” is applied both to Jesus Christ and to certain ones of his followers. But that does not prove that they are the same person or are of equal rank, does it? (Heb. 3:1) So the evidence points to the conclusion that the title “Alpha and Omega” applies to Almighty God, the Father, not to the Son.

Insight on the Scriptures

ALPHA AND OMEGA

These are the names of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and are used as a title three times in the book of Revelation. The additional occurrence of this phrase in the King James rendering of Revelation 1:11, however, does not receive support from some of the oldest Greek manuscripts, including the Alexandrine, Sinaitic, and Codex Ephraemi rescriptus. It is, therefore, omitted in many modern translations.

While many commentators apply this title both to God and to Christ, a more careful examination of its use restricts its application to Jehovah God. The first verse of Revelation shows that the revelation was given originally by God and through Jesus Christ, hence the one speaking (through an angelic representative) at times is God himself, and at other times it is Christ Jesus. (Re 22:8) Thus Revelation 1:8 (RS) says: “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God [“Jehovah God,” NW], who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Although the preceding verse speaks of Christ Jesus, it is clear that in verse 8 the application of the title is to “the Almighty” God. In this regard Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament (1974) observes: “It cannot be absolutely certain that the writer meant to refer to the Lord Jesus specifically here . . . There is no real incongruity in supposing, also, that the writer here meant to refer to God as such.”

The title occurs again at Revelation 21:6, and the following verse identifies the speaker by saying: “Anyone conquering will inherit these things, and I shall be his God and he will be my son.” Inasmuch as Jesus referred to those who are joint heirs with him in his Kingdom as “brothers,” not “sons,” the speaker must be Jesus’ heavenly Father, Jehovah God.—Mt 25:40; compare Heb 2:10-12.

The final occurrence of the title is at Revelation 22:13, which states: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” It is evident that a number of persons are represented as speaking in this chapter of Revelation; verses 8 and 9 show that the angel spoke to John, verse 16 obviously applies to Jesus, the first part of verse 17 is credited to “the spirit and the bride,” and the one speaking in the latter part of verse 20 is manifestly John himself. “The Alpha and the Omega” of verses 12-15, therefore, may properly be identified as the same one who bears the title in the other two occurrences: Jehovah God. The expression, “Look! I am coming quickly,” in verse 12, does not require that these aforementioned verses apply to Jesus, inasmuch as God also speaks of himself as “coming” to execute judgment. (Compare Isa 26:21.) Malachi 3:1-6 speaks of a joint coming for judgment on the part of Jehovah and his “messenger of the covenant.”

The title “the Alpha and the Omega” carries the same thought as “the first and the last” and “the beginning and the end” when these terms are used with reference to Jehovah. Before him there was no Almighty God, and there will be none after him. He will bring to a successful conclusion the issue over Godship, forever vindicated as the one and only Almighty God.—Compare Isa 44:6.

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Ticker

If they can dispute that or attempt to from the reasoning book then how can you or they dispute this,
1st Corinthians Chapter 10:1-4 (NWT quoted)
"Now I do not want you to be ingnorant, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all got baptized into moses by means of the cloud and of the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they used to drink from the spiritual rock-mass that followed them, and that rock mass meant the Christ."
Ticker
inquirer

I found it! Took me a while!
___

1968 10/15

Questions from Readers

• In what way did the Israelites in the wilderness “drink from the spiritual rock-mass that followed them,” as stated at 1 Corinthians 10:4?—I. M., U.S.A.

The apostle Paul commented about the provisions God made for the Israelites after they left Egypt, saying: “All ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they used to drink from the spiritual rock-mass that followed them, and that rock-mass meant the Christ.”—1 Cor. 10:3, 4.

It seems that the apostle had two meanings in mind here, the first literal and the second spiritual.

In view of his preceding comments about passing through the Red Sea, it is apparent that Paul was alluding to the literal food and drink that God provided miraculously for the Israelites in the wilderness. Jehovah supplied manna on a regular basis for them. Since this literal food was produced miraculously or through Jehovah’s spirit, it might be termed “spiritual food.”

Similarly, God through his spirit provided drink for them. Shortly after leaving Egypt the people lacked water. At God’s direction Moses took his rod and struck a rock, producing water for the some two million Israelites as well as for their animals. (Ex. 17:5-7) Near the end of their forty-year trek Moses again struck a rock and water gushed forth for that huge congregation.—Num. 20:1-11.

How did they drink in a literal way from a “rock-mass that followed them”? While the rock Moses initially struck did not roll along after them for all those years, the fact is that they had divinely provided water from a rock-mass on at least two occasions, one near the beginning and one near the end of the forty years. So the literal water might be said to have followed them in that sense. Or, when the water was provided in such enormous amounts, it might have been somewhat of a river that “followed” them or went along with them, kept up with them, in that they could drink from it for a while as they journeyed.

But how is this suggestive of a way that those Israelites back there partook of spiritual provisions that followed or went along with them? The Israelites were expecting the “seed” promised to Abraham, Shiloh who was to come. (Gen. 22:18; 49:10) The sacrifices and ceremonies connected with their sins and their need for forgiveness pointed to the Messiah, the antitypical “rock-mass.” As Paul wrote in other places: “The Law has a shadow of the good things to come,” and, “The Law has become our tutor leading to Christ, that we might be declared righteous due to faith.” (Heb. 10:1; Gal. 3:24) So, along with providing literal food and drink for the Israelites, God provided spiritual sustenance which followed them or went along with them through the wilderness. The spiritual things relating to the Messiah could sustain their hope and spiritual life.

When Jesus did come as the Messiah, there flowed out from him spiritual waters of life and provisions far more valuable than those literal things given the Hebrews. Jesus said: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He that puts faith in me, just as the Scripture has said, ‘Out from his inmost part streams of living water will flow.’” (John 7:37, 38) Many Israelites who drank from the rock-mass in the wilderness did not even enter into life in the Promised Land. But to the later Jews who did not stumble over Jesus as the “rock-mass of offense,” Christ gave spiritual waters that became “a fountain of water bubbling up to impart everlasting life.”—Rom. 9:32, 33; John 4:14, 15.
Leolaia

The Reasoning Book explanation is indeed a rather poor one. Point #2 is irrelevant, because the exegetical choice made by Hebrew translators (who insert the name without textual authority, often on a trinitarian bias) does not constitute proper evidence. Point #5 is almost embarassing:
(5) At Revelation 22:13, the Alpha and Omega is also said to be “the first and the last,” which expression is applied to Jesus at Revelation 1:17, 18. Similarly, the expression “apostle” is applied both to Jesus Christ and to certain ones of his followers. But that does not prove that they are the same person or are of equal rank, does it? (Heb. 3:1)
The superlative epithet "the first and the last" logically entails a single person who is first (preceding all others) and who is last (postceding all others), as someone just said there cannot be two "first and lasts". It is thus not at all comparable to a title like "apostle" which can apply to any number of people who can be "sent". The discussion in the Reasoning Book completely misses the following germaine points:
(1) The title "the first and the last" is an OT epithet applied exclusively to Yahweh: "I, Yahweh, who am the first and shall be with the last" (Isaiah 41:4), "Thus says Israel's king and his redeemer, Yahweh Sabaoth: I am the first and the last; there is no other God like me" (Isaiah 44:6), "Listen to me, Jacob, Israel whom I have called: I am the first, I am also the last. My hand laid the foundations of the earth and my right hand spread out the heavens" (Isaiah 48:12). It is thus a title that explicitly addresses God's eternity and uniqueness. (2) This epithet is literally rendered in the Greek in Revelation 1:17 (cf. 2:8, 22:13) as "I am the first and the last (egó eimi ho prótos kai ho eskhatos)," and the LXX has "I am the first" (egó eimi prótos) for Isaiah 48:12, "I [am] the first" (egó prótos) for Isaiah 41:4, 44:6, and tho it renders the Hebrew word for "last" more loosely (e.g. as "into the things to come" in 41:4, "with the hereafter" in 44:6, "into eternity" in 48:12), the wording in Revelation is attested (see Field) in some Greek versions of Isaiah 48:12 (egó prótos kai egó eskhatos "I [am] the first and the last") and eskhatois "last things" is used by Theodotion in Isaiah 41:4. (3) This exclusive title is applied to Jesus in Revelation 1:17-18: "I am the first and the last, I was dead and now am living forever and ever". (4) In Revelation 22:13, the title occurs in a triplet of similar epithets: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End". Each express the same thought and are semantically equivalent. (5) The equivalent title "Alpha and Omega" is applied to the "Lord God" in Revelation 1:8: "I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty". (6) The triplet of epithets in Revelation 22:13 is also probably applied to Jesus because it is followed by the statement in v. 16: "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to make these revelations to you for the sake of the churches". The important point is not that Jesus identifies himself as speaking here, for the chapter has frequent, confusing shifts between speakers: the "angel" speaks in v. 6, John speaks in v. 8, the angel speaks for his own self in v. 9, the "angel" speaks with the voice of the Alpha and the Omega in v. 10-15, Jesus speaks in v. 16, the "Spirit and the Bride" speak in v. 17, and John again speaks in v. 18-21. Because of the shifting, the mere fact that Jesus speaks in v. 16 does not indicate that he is the speaker in v. 13. However, what is important is that he states in v. 16 that he was the one who SENT the angel to make the revelations on his behalf. The angel is thus a messenger for Jesus, and this suggests that the divine voice relayed through the angel in v. 13 is that of Jesus. Both Jesus and "the Alpha and the Omega" are also depicted as coming. (7) The two epithets of "Alpha and the Omega" and "Beginning and the End" are applied to "the One sitting on the throne" in Revelation 21:5-6, who offers "water from the well of life" to those who are "thirsty" and the one who drinks from it will have him as "his God" (v. 7). Although the place of Revelation within the Johannine corpus is questioned, it is striking that Jesus is the one who offers the "living water" in John and that his disciple Thomas confesses him as "my God" (cf. John 4:10-14, 7:37-38, 20:28). Moreover, Revelation 7:17 states that the "Lamb" is "the one at the Throne" who "will lead them to springs of living water". Regarding who is sitting at the throne, ch. 21-22 depict a joint throneship of Jesus and God with them united as the "temple" and united in shining like the sun: "There was no temple in the city since the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were themselves the temple, and the city did not need the sun or moon for light, since it was lit by the radiant glory of God and the Lamb was a lighted torch for it.... The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in its place in the city ... they will not need lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will be shining on them" (21:22-23, 22:3-5). In ch. 4 and 5, the "Lamb" is distinguished from "the One sitting on the throne", yet in 3:21 Jesus says that he "sat down with my Father on his throne" and 7:17 says that "the Lamb [is] at the center of the throne". (8) The epithet "the one who was, who is, and who is to come", applied explicitly to the Lord God in 1:4, 8, 4:8, 11:17, 16:5-7, is echoed in the statement by Jesus about himself: "I was dead, and now I live forever and ever" (1:18). That the title has implications of Jesus' death and his resurrection is confirmed by 17:8 which parodies the phrase by applying it to the Beast who was killed and restored to life (a satanic parody of Jesus' own death and resurrection, see 13:3-4): "The Beast you have seen once was and now is not, he is yet to come up from the Abyss". (9) Jesus, in addition to calling himself the "first and the last" also refers to himself as "the one living" (ho zón) and "living forever and ever" (zón eis tous aiónas tón aiónón) in Revelation 1:18; this expression originally applied to Yahweh in Deuteronomy 32:40 (eis tón aióna in the LXX) and especially in Daniel 12:7 ("the one living forever" tón zónta eis tón aióna in the LXX), which is explicitly quoted in Revelation 10:6 and applied to the Creator, and the intensive form attributed to Jesus in Revelation 1:18 is applied to God in 15:7: "God the one living forever and ever (theou tou zóntos eis tous aiónas tón aiónón)". (10) Other titles applied to Jesus in Revelation originally referred to Yahweh in the OT: "the Lord of Lords and King of Kings" (17:14, 19:16) which resumes the "God of Gods and Lord of Lords" in Deuteronomy 10:17, Psalm 136:1-3 and the "King of Kings" of 2 Maccabees 13:4. (11) The description of Jesus in Revelation 1:13-16 mixes and combines motifs of the "Ancient of Days" in Daniel 7:9, 13 and angel in 10:6.
Much of this could well be inconsisteny on the part of the author (or authors, if the book is composite), but the freedom with which exclusive divine epithets are applied to Jesus indicates a very high christology involved in the book.
LittleToe

Leo:I hope folks take the time to read what you've just written.
Regardless to their view of the Bible, God, Christianity, religion, or any such things, it highlights a clear area where the WTS taught us falsehood.
hamsterbait

Actually the WTBS does not know its ass from its elbow on this one.
If you look up the discussions of these verses in the "Revelation Grand Climax at Hand" one section 'proves' the Alpha and Omega to be Jesus, and another Jehovah.
How that contradiction got through in the first edition (the only one I read) is beyond me. Sadly I threw the book out during the darkest days of realisation so I cannot provide page and para references.
Incidentally shouldn't we feel sorry for poor lonely unloved Revelation??
HB

Watchtower Blotch of Alpha and Omega interpretation

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