Alpha and Omega

ALPHA AND OMEGA. - Allegorical formula from the Apocalypse (1:8; 21:6; 22:13), which brings together the first and last letter (the beginning and the end) of the (Greek) alphabet as a divine title: "I am the alpha and the omega," says the Lord, who immediately interprets it as "He who is and was and is to come, the Almighty (ὁ παντοκράτωρ)" (1:8), "the beginning and the end" (21:6), "the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (22:13). The mysterious title, which indicates totality in being and in duration, refers explicitly in the last two passages (21:6 and 22:13) to Jesus Christ, to whom it is constantly attributed in patristic literature and in Christian usage; in the first passage (1:8) it designates God in his eternal infinity, but with an allusion to Jesus (cf. 1:13, 17-18; 2:8).

In the sense of first-last (cf. Sir. 24:38), later Jews used alef-tau, the first and last letter of the (Hebrew) alphabet, to indicate totality. In the Jalqut Reuben (13th century): "Adam transgressed the entire Law from alef to tau (fol. 17, 4); Abraham observed the Law from alef to tau (fol. 48, 4); when God blesses Israel he does so from alef to tau (the initial and final letters of Lev. 26:3-13), but when he curses it he does so only from waw to mem (Lev. 26:14-43)" (in J. C. Schoettgen, Horae hebraicae et talm., on Apoc. 1:8). Rabbi Chanina and Resh Lakish (3rd century) give "truth" (alef-tau plus mem = the middle point) as the "seal of God." The Shekinah ("Presence"), that is, God, was designated alef-tau by the cabalists (J. Buxtorf, Lexicon chaldaicum talmud. et rabbinicum, p. 1). But R. H. Charles wrongly asserts that the "A and Ω" of the Apocalypse reproduces this Hebrew expression. B. Allo, on the other hand, assigns it a Hellenistic origin, deriving it from pagan formulas ("mysticism of letters") widespread in Asia Minor, to which St. John would have given a Christian meaning.

The metaphorical use of the two extreme letters of the alphabet was known to profane writers: "A" meant pre-eminence, "the first" (cf. the contemporary Martial, Epigramm., II, 57; V, 26), "A-Ω" totality, "from the first to the last" (cf. Theodoret, Hist. Eccles., IV, 7; PG 82, 1136). Thus in Italian "dall'A alla Z" means "everything, from beginning to end" (N. Tommaseo, Diz. d. Lingua ital., I, p. 1); "dall'A all'O" occurs in this sense in Dante (Par. XXVI, 17; Epist. Cani, 90) and in fourteenth-century writers (F. Sacchetti, Canzone 298, in Rime, ed. A. Chiari, Bari 1916: "Da l'A a l'O disvaria Marte e Morte"), a clear echo of the reading of the Apocalypse. In form, then, A-Ω was a locution fundamentally not obscure to men of letters.

As for the concept, the Apocalypse seems directly linked to Is. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12, where God promises redemption by defining himself: "I am the first and the last" (words with which the Apocalypse explains the formula "A-Ω" in 21:8 and 22:13), as a guarantee of fulfillment (cf. Is. 43:10-12). The Apocalypse therefore intends to suggest in the proem (1:8) and in the conclusion (21:6 and 22:13) that God's salvific counsel will be fulfilled to the end, when the Almighty (1:8) will vanquish his antagonists in the "judgment" of Jesus Savior and Sovereign, beginning (Ps. 101 [102]:26 and Heb. 1:10; 12:2; Jn. 1:1) and end (Rom. 10:4). "A-Ω" expresses the divine transcendence, in its attributes of infinity, eternity, universal causality (both efficient and final), including within it the economy of the Redemption.

Thus Clement of Alexandria explains it (Stromata, IV, 25; PG 8, 1365): "the circle of all the perfections, which revolve and are centered in unity." More fully Tertullian (De monogamia, 5; PL 2, 935), whom St. Jerome (Adv. Iovin., 1, 18; PL 23, 247 ff.) and St. Isidore (Etymol., 1, 3; PL 82, 76 ff.) later transcribed: "Duas Graeciae litteras, summam et ultimam, sibi induit Dominus, initii et finis concurrentium in se figuras, uti, quemadmodum A ad Ω usque volvitur et rursus Ω ad A replicatur, ita ostenderet in se esse et initii decursum ad finem et finis recursum ad initium, ut omnis dispositio in eum desinens per quem coepta est, per sermonem scilicet Dei qui caro factus est, proinde desinat quemadmodum et coepit." And Prudentius, Cathemerinon, IX, 11 ff. (PL 59, 863): "Alpha et Ω cognominatus: Ipse fons et clausula - Omnium quae sunt, fuerunt quaeque post futura sunt." Cf. St. Cyprian, Testimon. adv. Iud., II, 1, 6, 22; III, 100; PL 4, 725, 730, 745, 806; St. Paulinus of Nola, who is the first to attest the use of "A-Ω" in art, Carm., 19, 645-52; 30, 89-96; PL 61, 546 ff., 673; Arethas of Caesarea, on Apoc. 1:8 in J. A. Cramer, Catenae Graecorum Patrum in N. T., VIII, Oxford 1844, p. 189 ff. - On the Gnostic interpretation (A-Ω forms the number 801, equivalent to περιστερά "dove") of Marcus, a disciple of Valentinus, cf. St. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer., I, 14, 6; 15, 1; PG 7, 608, 616 ff., and Tertullian, De praescript., 50; PL 2, 88.

Antonino Romeo

ARCHAEOLOGY

Christians used to express the formula A-O on monuments, placing the two letters beside the chrismon or monogram of Christ; they rarely used them alone, as in the famous title of Evelopi in Caesarea of Mauretania (De Rossi, in Bullett. di Arch. crist., 1st series, 2 [1864], p. 28). They probably intended in that way to protest against the Arians who denied the divinity of the Word; in fact that usage occurs only after the Council of Nicaea. Various anomalies in the practice of placing the two letters beside the monogram are due simply to the negligence or whimsy of the stonecutters; often they are even hung on the horizontal bar of the monogrammatic cross (late), rather for ornamental purposes than in imitation of processional crosses.

Antonio Ferrua