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First and Last (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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FIRST AND LAST (ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος).—This title occurs three times in Rev. (Revelation 1:17; Revelation 2:8; Revelation 22:13). In the first two passages it is clearly Christ who claims the title for Himself, as appears from the references to the Resurrection in the immediate contexts. In all probability the same is the case in the third passage (Revelation 22:13), else there is an abrupt change of the speaker three verses later (Revelation 22:16 ‘I, Jesus, have sent mine angel,’ etc.). However, Alford and some others hold that God the Father is the speaker in Revelation 22:13.

‘The First and the Last’ is claimed by Jehovah as a description of Himself, with slight variations in the form, in Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 44:6; Isaiah 48:12 (cf. also isa Isaiah 43:10). The Greek form of the title in Rev. is not identical with that given by the LXX Septuagint in any of these passages, in all of which the LXX Septuagint has differences representing differences in the Hebrew (Isaiah 41:4 ἐγὼ θεὸς πρῶτος, καὶ εἰς τὰ ἐπερχόμενα ἐγώ εἰμι; Isaiah 44:6 ἐγὼ πρῶτος καὶ ἐγὼ μετὰ ταῦτα; Isaiah 48:12 ἐγώ εἰμι πρῶτος, καὶ ἐγώ εἰμι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα). It is plain, however, that a supreme description of Jehovah in the OT is applied in Rev. to Christ, and the significance of the transference as regards the Christology of the book is unmistakable. Besides this, in Isaiah 22:13, where, as has been said, it is natural to regard Christ as the speaker, the title ‘the First and the Last’ stands between two others, ‘the Alpha and the Omega,’ ‘the Beginning and the End,’ the first of which is found also in Isaiah 1:8 and Isaiah 21:6, and the second in Isaiah 21:6, in which passages the speaker may be either Christ or, as is maintained by some (Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iv. p. 263^a), God the Father, or ‘God in the Undivided Unity of His Being.’ It may be, therefore, that in Rev. itself we have the same supreme titles given to God the Father and to Christ. But whether this be so or not, once it is admitted that Isaiah 22:13 is spoken by Christ, the accumulation in that verse of descriptions which could only belong to the infinite being of God emphatically marks the belief of the author of Rev. as to the nature of Christ (see Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. ii. pp. 690^b, 691^b, vol. iv. p. 263^a).

Of the ‘Thirteen Principles of the Faith,’ formulated by Moses Maimonides (12th cent. a.d.), the fourth is: ‘I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His name, is the first and the last’ (Authorized Daily Prayer-Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire^{2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred]} , p. 89). Schoettgen says that the title was also given by the ancient Jews to the Messiah (Hor. Heb. tom. ii. lib. i. [‘Nominum Messiae, quae divinam illius naturam indigitant’]: ‘ראשׁון Primus. Ipse Deus. Jesa. xliv. 6. Ego, inquit, primus, et ego novissimus; quibus verbis aeternitatem designatam voluit. Judaei vero antiqui etiam Messiam sic vocant’).

The nature of God necessarily transcends definition, but ‘the First and the Last’ and the parallel titles are endeavours to suggest such conceptions of God as men can comprehend. It would not be enough to say that ‘the First and the Last’ is the equivalent of ‘the Eternal.’ The title recalls the old covenant name of God, Jehovah (Jahweh), and its interpretation in Exodus 3:14. It seems plainly to be an expansion of that name, of which ‘the Eternal’ is not a satisfactory rendering. Exodus 3:14 (‘I am what I am,’ or, more accurately, ‘I will be what I will be’) does not give to יהוה an abstract meaning. היה is γίγνομαι, not εἰμί. It does not mean be essentially, but phenomenally. The idea of יהוה is not of abstract existence, but of active being; manifestation in history. Jehovah is not a God who barely exists, but One who asserts His being, and enters into an historical relation with humanity. Not being determined by anything external to (before, or after) Himself, He is consistent with Himself, true to His promises, and unchangeable in His purposes. He will not fail or disappoint His servants. He will approve Himself. What He will be is left undefined, or defined only in terms of Himself, for the very reason that His providential dealings with His people in their ever-varying needs are inexhaustible—are more than can be numbered or expressed (see Driver on ‘The Tetragrammaton,’ Biblica, Oxf. 1885; and A. B. Davidson in Hastings’ ^{B [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.]} , vol. ii. pp. 199^b, 845^a).

This interpretation of the Divine name is amplified in the prophets. Delitzsch on Isaiah 41:4 says: ‘It is the meaning of the Divine name Jehovah which is thus unfolded (‘I the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he’), for Jehovah is God as the absolute, eternally existing, and absolutely free Ego’; and, on Isaiah 43:10 (‘I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me’): ‘He is the sole realization of the idea of God inherent in human consciousness, and He is this eternally. His being has no beginning and no end, so that no other being with Divine claims and character could precede or follow Him’ (cf. also Isaiah 45:5; Isaiah 45:21-22, Isaiah 46:9-10, Isaiah 48:12). These chapters again and again insist on the ‘fundamental truth that God is eternally the same (as He is the only) Self-existent Personal Being. To Him the whole range of creaturely existence in all its cycles must be visible,—and to Him only can it be so’ (Speaker’s Com.). The prophets emphasize the expression of the moral unchangeableness of God in the name Jehovah (see esp. Isaiah 26:4; Isaiah 26:8; Isaiah 41:4, Hosea 12:5-6, Malachi 3:6).

It may be said, then, that the title ‘the First and the Last,’ as applied to Christ in Rev., recalls, and attaches to Him, all that the OT writers had realized of the nature of God. How much more it contains for a writer who uses it in the light of the Incarnation may be gathered from Colossians 1:15-20, a passage related as resting upon the same Christological basis of faith, and which is indeed the ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος of Rev. written out at full length. Both authors alike claim for Christ absolute supremacy in relation to the Universe, the natural Creation, and in relation to the Church, the new Moral Creation, ἴνα γένηται ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτὸς πρωτεύων. For both Christ is πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως,—prior to all creation and sovereign over all creation. He is the source of life to the Universe, the centre of all its developments, the mainspring of all its motions—ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα) (cf. John 1:4 δ γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν). And as all things had their origin in Him (the First), so all things return to Him as their goal and consummation (the Last)—τὰ πάντα διʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται (cf. Romans 11:36, Hebrews 2:10, where the reference is to God). All things have their sphere within the sphere of the life of Him who is ‘the First and the Last.’ In Him they originate and in Him they cohere—αὐτός ἐστι πρὀ πάντων, καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν (cf. Acts 17:28, in reference to God). He is the δεσμός of the Universe. And such also is His position in relation to the Church, the new spiritual creation—He is absolutely prior and sovereign, because there too He is the source of life. His Resurrection is the ground of His headship of the Church (Revelation 1:17. See Lightfoot and Meyer on Colossians 1:15-20; cf. Ephesians 1:10, Philippians 2:8; Philippians 2:10-11).

It is interesting to trace the same underlying thought about the nature of God in Rev. and in the Fourth Gospel. A connexion has been pointed out between ἑγώ εἰμι ὁ πρῶτος καἰ ὁ ἔσχατος of Rev. and the similar phrases of Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 48:12 and the explanation of the Divine name Jehovah in Exodus 3:14. There seems to be a correspondence between the ἐγώ εἰμι of the LXX Septuagint in these and other passages (Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 43:13, Deuteronomy 32:39) and the ἐγώ εἰμι of John 8:24; John 8:28; John 8:58 (cf. also John 13:19). In all these passages the words have a pregnant meaning. In John 8, Christ presents Himself to the Jews not simply as the Messiah, but as One who has ‘life in Himself’ as being the spring of life. He is infinitely, as God is. He shares the being of God. Therefore e claims supreme control not only of the seen and the finite, but of the unseen and the infinite (see Westcott, ad loc.).

Cheyne (on Isaiah 41:4) thinks that the ἐγώ εἰμι of John 18:5 is intended in the same sense, and finds this view confirmed by the supernatural effect of the sounds described in John 18:6.

All existence is necessarily relative to Him who is ‘the First and the Last.’ Nothing can enter into the final summing up of all things, or partake of eternity, which does not receive life from Him and is not conformed to His purpose. When Christ claims this title for Himself, it is plainly announced that the revelation of God in Christ, in what He was and what He did, is the key to the issues of human life. Christianity is final. See also art. Alpha and Omega.

A. E. Ross.