Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Revelation 22:13 - 22:13
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Rev 22:13. Ἐγὼ τὸ ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ω, πρῶτος καὶ ἔσχατος, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος, I Alpha and O, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End[246]) See App. Crit. Ed. ii. on this passage. The Lord Jesus plainly speaks here: and there are three clauses, the first of which we weighed at ch. Rev 1:8, where the Father speaks of Himself; the second we considered at ch. Rev 1:17, where the Lord Jesus speaks of Himself; the third, together with the first, we touched upon at ch. Rev 21:6, where again the Father speaks. Now, in the present passage, the three clauses are accumulated, a most manifest proof of the glory of the Lord Jesus; who testifies concerning Himself both those things which the Father had spoken concerning Himself, ch. Rev 21:6, and those things which He Himself had spoken concerning Himself, ch. Rev 1:17. Is it then one and the same sentiment which is expressed in a threefold form? Nay, something more is contained in it. The clause Α and Ω is as it were the basis of those titles, which we have just noticed, of God and Christ; and it has a kind of general and as it were hieroglyphic force, to be determined by the other titles which follow. This is first spoken by the Father, ch. Rev 1:8; and the second answers to it, in which Christ calls Himself the First and the Last, ch. Rev 1:17. Artemonius, who is excellently refuted by Wolf, translates it, most excellent and most abject. He Himself by Isaiah explains it, as Him, before whom and after whom there is no other God, the Author of salvation. This is at the commencement of the book. At the close, He who sits upon the throne says, I am Α and Ω: and He Himself explains it, the Beginning and the End, ch. Rev 21:6. Then the Lord Jesus says, I Α and Ω: and He also adds the explanation, but a twofold one: for He both repeats that saying of His, the First and the Last, and now, when the throne of God and of the Lamb is in the new Jerusalem, speaking of Himself, He adds that, which the Father had spoken, the Beginning and the End. It is put without the article, πρῶτος καὶ ἔσχατος, and that too in the primary copies; but with the article, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος, just as τὸ Α καὶ τὸ Ω, which is a remarkable sign of a kind of gradation.
[246] AB Vulg. omit εἰμι: but h Orig. 4,6c, 21b, Cypr. 294, and Rec. Text, support it. A and Clem. have ἄλφα. Bh Vulg. Orig. Cypr. have α: so Rec. Text. A has πρῶτος-ἔοχατος; B Orig. and Rec. Text, ὁ πρ. καὶ ὁ ἐσχ. AB have, with Orig. 4,21b, ἡ ἀοχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος. Rec. Text omits the articles.-E.