The Beginning and the End

How long is a person's life? Moses, in an Old Testament psalm, says that it's 70 years or perhaps 80. Today, in the 21st Century, some people even live well into their nineties. Very few lives exceed a century, from beginning to end.

In contrast, God is eternal. Back in early February, I saw that He's called El Olam, the Eternal God and Atik Yomin, the Ancient of Days. Right at the end of the Bible, in the book of Revelation, He introduces Himself four times as the Alpha and Omega: the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

God has always been and He always will be. He had no beginning and He will have no end. That's why He calls Himself the beginning and end of everything. Most people know that Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. It's like saying, "I am the A and the Z."

Three times He follows it up by adding the words arche and telos. Arche (as in the word archetype) means the original or the beginning of something, while telos (as in telephone, telescope and other words that suggest distance) means the ending. 

Rev 1: 8, Rev 21: 6, Rev 22: 6

And twice He expands it by calling Himself the First and the Last. The Greek word for first is protos (as in prototype) - meaning the first in time, but also meaning the first in rank, the one most worthy of honour. And the Greek word for last is eschatos (as in the word eschatology); it means the last or uttermost both in time and space.  Rev 1: 11, Rev 22: 13

In other words, with these two names God is saying: There is nothing above or beyond me. There was nothing before me and there will be nothing after me. I am the ultimate, infinite God of the universe.