Jesus as God in Revelation

Trinitarian Theology in Revelation 1:8

I AM THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA says Lord, the God—the IS and the WAS and THE COMING ONE, the ALMIGHTY. Revelation 1:8

Alpha and Omega Mosaic, Sacre Coeur Church, Paris

Unlike so many churches today that separate out the children from the adults during the main worship service, the churches I grew up in—First Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia—did not do that, at least while I was there. 

I remember distinctly going to the high church service at FBC Charleston (from five to seven years old), as my mother processed with the choir down the central aisle and up into the choir loft as they sang.

We always sang the Gloria Patri and the Doxology in every service. 

And the Baptist hymnal in use at the time (The Broadman Hymnal 1956—and the ones to follow) had <Holy, Holy Holy> as the first hymn in it, a hymn we sung very often. 

At Sherwood there was no procession or Gloria Patri, but we sang the Doxology every week at offering time and frequently sang Holy, Holy, Holy.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost: as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen. [Ambrose of Milan, 4^th century]

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below, praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. [Thomas Ken, 1674]

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty, Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee; Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity. [Reginald Heber, 1826]

What distinguishes these three hymns is their focus on the Trinity—the unity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost in the first two of these hymns). 

For me, trinitarian theology has been embedded in my very psyche from my earliest remembrances.

Yet at sixty-two years old, I still wrestle with the mind-bending reality of the being of God as ThreeinOne. (continued)

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Though the term “Trinity” does not occur in the New Testament, virtually every book contains some sort of trinitarian theology—that is, references to God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (only James, and 2 and 3 John contain no references to the Holy Spirit).

Traditionally, the idea that God is Spirit is not controversial at all.

The Old Testament is filled with references to the Spirit of God or Spirit of Yahweh—“Do not take your Holy Spirit from me” in Psalm 51, for example.

The primary stumbling block from day one following the Resurrection was the belief that Jesus is God. 

Jesus as God in the New Testament

The New Testament is unabashed in this belief: “Jesus is Lord” is itself a key phrase of that belief, not to mention the entire tenor of the Gospel of John, such as “I and the Father are one,” or “Before Abraham was, I AM,” or “In the beginning was the Word … and the Word was God.”

Father and Son terminology is also clear throughout the New Testament—especially the Gospel of John—and in Revelation Jesus is described as “Son of Man” twice, and refers to himself as “the Son of God” in Revelation 2:18.

With the book of Revelation, John did not just embrace trinitarian theology (the Spirit is referred to seventeen times), but pushed the identity of Jesus as God to its extreme limits. 

By the end of Revelation, though God and the Lamb are still spoken of distinctly, they sit on the same throne and John used the singular “him” and “his” for God and the Lamb together: “And the throne of God and the Lamb is in it [the New Jerusalem] and his servants serve Him, and they will see His face, and His name is on their foreheads” Revelation 22:3–4.

Does the pronoun “his/him” refer to God or the Lamb or both? 

Yes.

Who speaks in Revelation 1:8?

In Revelation 1:4-5, John plainly introduced the trinitarian God with the distinct “the Ιs and the Was, and the Coming One,” then “the seven spirits before his throne” for the Holy Spirit, then Jesus Christ who was the focus of verses 5–7.

In Revelation 1:8, the union of God and Jesus rises up before us like the immense, seemingly impenetrable Rocky Mountains west of Denver (or west of Calgary in Canada). 

John has motored along with his opening section and suddenly a voice from heaven declares: I AM THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA (Greek: ego eimi to alpha kai to ō)—think the thundrous voice of God at Mount Sinai.

John recorded these words precisely like an Old Testament prophet: I am the alpha and the omega, says Lord the God, the IS and the WAS and the COMING ONE, the Almighty.

These are the first prophetic words in Revelation—that is, words directly from God—and they appear to come from God alone.

But who is speaking? 

The reality of who speaks is less than clear—especially in light of the rest of Revelation. 

In verses 5-7 directly before v. 8, the entire focus was on Jesus (though v. 4 includes God and the Spirit). 

Then out of nowhere a voice speaks. Is it Jesus? Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus often uses I am alone or with predicates. When he stilled the sea in Mark, Jesus responded, I am. So “I am the Alpha and Omega” would fit with saying in John like “I am the Light of the World” or “I am the Bread of Life.”

But John inserts “says Lord the God” into Revelation 1:8.

Without those words, we would be forced to accept these words as from Jesus. 

Red Letters

But even with the words, “says Lord the God,” the situation is not much clearer, especially in English translations. 

The so-called “red-letter” Bibles have some interesting takes on this verse (red letter bibles place the words of Jesus in red). I have three available at home (Bolded words below are red):

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, which is, and which was and which is to come, the Almighty (Thompson Chain Reference King James Version).

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (New American Standard Bible 1975 and New International Version 1978–the two are exactly the same).

The KJV red letter edition places the first part as Jesus’s words, but not the second, and the other two put ALL the quoted words in red, EVEN THOUGH “the Lord God” IS THE STATED SPEAKER! 

Medallian with Alpha, Omega, and Chi Rho, 4th century

The non-red letter KJV and a few others (ASV, LEB, Darby) have no quotation marks—just like most if not all foreign language translations (I checked German, Spanish, Italian and French). A few others (such as RSV, NRSV, the GNT, and the TLB place quotation marks around “I am the Alpha and the Omega” but not <who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty>.

The vast majority of English translations have quotation marks around both parts: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

But without the red letters, these words come from “the Lord God.”

What are we to do with this information? (cont.)

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LORD the God in the Old Testament 

Revelation 1:8 taken by itself out of the context of Revelation would clearly point to the God of the Old Testament, not Jesus—kyrios ho theos is used over 1300 times in the Greek Old Testament to render YHWH Elohim or LORD the God.

In all but a very few instances “the God” in the phrase is followed by some possessive word (your God, my God, our God, the God of Israel, the God of your fathers, etc.), suggesting that “the God” is specifying Yahweh, not the second name of God.

Throughout the OT, the only name of the God (of Israel) is Yahweh (Hebrew YHWH; Jews today use ha-shem—the name—when referring to Yahweh).

Other so-called “names of God” in the Old Testament are actually descriptors of Yahweh (like el-roi “the God who sees” or el-shaddai “the almighty God.”

In the New Testament, “Lord” (Greek kyrios) translates “Yahweh” when placed with “the God (Greek ho theos).”

Revelation follows suit.

Furthermore, the words Alpha and Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet) fit with the words of Yahweh in Isaiah 44:6 and 48:12, “I am the first and the last”—some manuscripts of Revelation actually insert “the first and the last” into 1:8 after the Alpha and the Omega (see the KJV translation above and Observations on the Greek Text).

Thus taken alone (out of context and with no red letters) this verse is a statement about the God, Yahweh, revealed in the Old Testament.

Yet …

Jesus as the Alpha and Omega

Just a few verses later in Revelation, the risen, exalted to heaven Jesus says to John, “I am the first and the last” (Revelation 1:17). 

Then to the church in Smyrna, Jesus says, “the first and the last, who was dead and came alive, says this …” (Revelation 2:8). 

Toward the end of Revelation, there are two other intriguing passages. 

In Revelation 21:5, “the one sitting on the throne” (is it God, Jesus or the two together?) said to John,

“It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely.”

These words spoken to John in Revelation are similar to Jesus’s words to the Samaritan woman in John 4 and to Jesus’s word on the cross in John 19, “It is finished.”

A final passage comes in Revelation 22:12–13,

“Behold, I am coming soon and my reward with me to give to each as is his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

In this case there is little doubt that Jesus was speaking.

Alpha Chi-Rho and Omega on tomb-stone in Domatilla Catacombs, Rome

John in his prophetic rendering of the divine voice and in the visions he experienced and put into words, saw both a distinction and a unity between God and Jesus, between the one sitting on the throne and the one standing or sitting with him—the slain Lamb—whom together John refers to in the singular.

Kyrios

The term Lord (Greek kyrios) is so important to understand in 1:8.

Not only is kyrios the Greek translation for Yahweh in the OT, but is used for both God and Jesus throughout the New Testament like “Jesus is Lord” in Philippians 2:11.

In Romans 10:13 kyrios refers to Jesus and God together as Lord, but quotes Joel 3:5 “and it will be that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be delivered.”

Paul directly connects Jesus identity with Yahweh.

In Revelation, John applies kyrios to God in 4:8 and 11 and in 15:3, 4, and 16:7.

But in 11:8, kyrios refers to Jesus, and in 11:13, Jesus is called “our Lord” and “his Christ.” Then in both 17:14 and 19:16, Jesus is proclaimed “Lord of lords and King of kings.” Finally, Revelation ends with “Come, Lord Jesus” and “the grace of our Lord Jesus be with all.”

“Lord” is used of both God and Jesus (the Lamb).

Revelation 1:8

I believe that we can say in Revelation 1:8 that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega and God is the Alpha and Omega. Jesus (especially in light of the Gospel of John) is “the Is and the Was and the Coming One” (see Hebrews 13:8—Jesus the same yesterday, today, and forever), and God is “the Is and the Was and the Coming One.” Together Jesus and God are “the Almighty.”

The words of “Lord, the God” in Revelation 1:8 are the words of the trinitarian God.

And if this verse refers to God and Jesus together, and if 1:8 is the exclamatory conclusion to John’s letter opening in 1:4–7, then we must also add the Spirit, referred to as “the seven spirits before his throne” in 1:4.

And could the “to him be glory” in Revelation 1:6 refer to Father, Spirit, and Son together?!

I think so.

That verse from Holy, Holy, Holy gets it right:

Trinitarian theology is hardly conceivable to our feeble minds, but Revelation never lets us forget the reality of God’s unity in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit.

Observations on the Greek Text of Revelation

and Audio podcast

Ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ ἄλφα καὶ τὸ ὦ, λέγει κύριος ὁ θεός, ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος, ὁ παντοκράτωρ. Revelation 1:8