Sunday, October 23, 2016

Revelation 1:8 - The Unipersonal God Speaks

The following was posted in one of the forums:
Rev 1:1 Cleary shows us who was speaking to John so we know that it was also Christ saying He was the Alpha/Omega:
¶ The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
Re 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Our response:

Revelation 1:1 definitely and clearly distinguishes "God" from "Jesus." The Revelation originated from "God" and "God" gave this revelation to Jesus; this is plainly stated. So is "God" in Revelation speaking unipersonally of one person, or three persons? Most trinitarians claim that "God" in Revelation 1:1 refers to the Father; this is indeed so, and so in Revelation 1:1 "God" is not three persons, but one. And by reading closely the context of the appearances of the word "God" all through Revelation, the conclusion is that "God" is continuously not referring to three persons, but one person, as can be clearly seen from its usage in Revelation 1:1. Jesus speaks of the unipersonal God as his God in Revelation 3:12 (King James Version). Several other translations speak of references to this unipersonal "God" as the God of Jesus also in Revelation 1:6; 2:7; 3:2.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. -- American Standard Version.

The Alexandrian manuscripts, the Complutensian edition, and the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read, "the Lord God"; and the Ethiopic version only God. The Greek expression kurios, rendered as "the Lord" in Revelation 1:8, often represents, in our known NT manuscripts, a substitution for the holy name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the context indicates this to be the case in Revelation 1:8.

The expression "who is and who was and who is to come" identifies the speaker as "God" of Revelation 1:1, the one spoken of by, basically, the same expression in Revelation 1:4, and who is distinguished from Jesus in Revelation 1:5. Thus the speaker is not Jesus, but rather "God" who gave the Revelation to Jesus. Please note that the one speaking in Revelation 1:7 is not Jesus, but rather John. Trinitarian Bible scholar A. T. Roberston shows that Revelation 1:8 is an "unannounced" change of speaker in his comments on Revelation 1:8. And he makes no mention of Revelation 1:8 as being spoken by Jesus.

See our studies on Alpha and Omega
and
See also:

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