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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 22:13, the first and the last
Jesus gathers into one sentence the titles Isaiah gives the Lord alone, the first and the last, with the Alpha and the Omega and the beginning and the end.
Revelation 22:13, in every translation this tool compares.
A signature that combines three family seals leaves no doubt whose letter it is. In Isaiah the Lord calls himself first and last, and says there is no other God. Revelation has used these titles one at a time, for God and for Jesus. Here Jesus claims all three together.
First and last, from Isaiah 44:6 and 48:12. John's Greek is ho protos kai ho eschatos.
Isaiah has first and last only. John adds Alpha and Omega, the opening and closing letters of the Greek alphabet. He also adds beginning and end. In Isaiah the Lord speaks; here Jesus speaks.
Titles Isaiah kept for the one God now belong to Jesus. Beale says the pairs mean he rules the start and the end of history and everything between. That is why he can promise to come and to judge in the verse before.
Not a title for a lesser being. In Isaiah the first and the last means the only God; the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible and Beale read it as a divine title applied to Jesus.
Beale notes that the book has already given God the titles Alpha and Omega (1:8; 21:6) and beginning and end (21:6), and given Christ the title first and last (1:17; 2:8). Here all three, used of God in the Old Testament, are joined and given to Christ. He refers back to his comments on 1:4, 8 and 17 for the Old Testament background, where Isaiah 41:4, 44:6 and 48:12 are the source. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible names those three Isaiah texts and says the divine titles belong to Jesus. The ESV Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible call them divine titles. The grade follows chapter 1, where Beale calls the use of Isaiah in 1:17 a clear reference.
The sources agree. Keener reads the titles as an inclusio, framing the book with its opening in 1:8.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 22:13
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 22:13
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:13
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:13
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:13
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 22:13
