I discovered that I love history, especially when history involves the Scriptures. Uncovering the Hebrew culture and lifestyle has given me a whole new perspective of what it means to follow in the foot steps of our Messiah, Jesus.
For example, in the book of John, he opens his gospel by saying, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Did you know that in the Hebrew translation of the book of Genesis, in Genesis 1:1, where the bible begins, where the line reads very similarly to John’s gospel, there is a word that is not translatable? The “word” is really not a word at all, but two Hebrew letters, the Aleph a)) and the Tav t. The first and last letters of the Hebrew written language. The beginning and the end. Does this sound familiar?
Since the newest portion of the scriptures are translated from the Greek language, we are more familiar with the statement from the book of Revelation 22:13 that states “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” These terms Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek language and while accurately translated, their use can unknowingly bury a deeper meaning to the Lamb’s declaration in John’s vision and John’s gospel.
John knew his Hebrew scriptures and in his Gospel he used the book of Genesis to point out, to all who doubted, that indeed, Jesus (Yeshua) was there in the beginning. Jesus is the Word, the Aleph and the Tav, and He was with God in the beginning and He was God. Later when John writes of his “revelation” he records Jesus’ statement, again proving, that He is that Word and was there before the foundations of the earth were created. He is the beginning (the Aleph) and the end (the Tav).
Isn’t God so cool? He used letters and language to convey his meaning across the ages and pages!
