What is the overall purpose of the Bible? Clearly, it is the redemption of man by God. Who and what, then, is the central message of redemption? Jesus Christ and His cross. He is that precious vicarious atoning sacrifice for all. The Word of God literally revolves around this plan of salvation from Genesis to Revelation. It is found in the plain text, in types and shadows, through chiastic structure, and even just under the surface in the original languages to name just a few ways the LORD revealed this truth. God doesn't want anyone who is sincerely seeking His redemptive salvation to miss it. Truly, He doesn't want any to perish.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
Guess where the good news of redemption, the Gospel, is first found in the Bible? It is found in the original Hebrew wording of the very first verse. Serving as a seal of authenticity, it clearly shares the central message of Holy Scripture for all who wish to see. From creation, no even before creation, God had your salvation on His mind. His love for you is eternal.
It is fairly safe to assume that Jesus' native language was not Greek. Actually, there is a scripture that corroborates this. The Apostle Paul had a life-changing encounter with Jesus, "...I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" (Acts 26:14) Jesus spoke to Paul in the Hebrew tongue.
Later, the Apostle John had a similar encounter with Jesus as recorded in the Revelation. He writes what he sees and hears in Greek, the common language for all in that era so all could understand. He records, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega...(Revelation 1:10-11a)." Again, it is safe to assume that Jesus was speaking in Hebrew and John wrote the record in Greek for all to understand. Regardless of the language; however, the term alpha and omega has a clear Hebrew counterpart, the Aleph Tav. The aleph is the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet and tav is the last letter. Together, they also form an untranslated direct marker in Hebrew that is found twice in the first verse. The positioning of this word in the sentence and the fact that Jesus called himself the Aleph and Tav speaks volumes. Its use throughout the Bible is an amazing study but alas...
In the oldest form of Hebrew, paleo-Hebrew, the present day letters were actually a pictogram. Aleph, it that form, was the head of an ox. It speaks of power, strength, the primary one, and a sacrifice. Sacrifice? Deuteronomy 18:3 lists an ox as an acceptable sacrifice. The letter tav looked like a cross. It spoke of covenant, a sign, a mark. If you put these two together with their symbolic meaning they speak of a sacrifice on the cross, a new covenant between God and man, between the Creator and His creation. Since an aleph can represent God, guess who the sacrifice on the cross was? That's no secret. It's Jesus, the central person of the Bible, who shed His blood on the cross, the central message of the Bible, to save you and me. It is Jesus Christ, the Aleph-Tav who stands in that special middle priestly position holding the Creator to the creation. God the Son holds the Godhead to the creation by His work on the cross--this is the Bible's central message.
For a couple decades, it was the second appearance of the aleph-tav in Genesis 1:1 that was a bit confusing as it was translated as "and." Often during studies on Hebrew in the Bible the words appeared with "extra" letters with a different spelling. It turns out that the extra letters, usually at the front of a word, are there to help interpret the meaning. This happens at least three times in the picture above. First, the letter bet, the first letter, denotes "in." In the Beginning... Later, the letter "he" appears before heavens and earth. This letter implies the use of "the", so it is the heavens and the earth. Now the second use of the untranslated aleph-tav makes sense. The letter that represents "and" is in front of it. That letter is the Hebrew letter "vav." Since the Word (See John 1:1) is untranslated, "and" is the correct interpretation.
Vav in paleo-Hebrew was a nail or peg. It also carries the idea of confirming or establishing. Now it makes sense. The nailed aleph-tav stands between the heavens and the earth. It is the second reference to the Gospel and Jesus being the intercessor for all humanity. Christ, Himself, holds the heavens to mankind on earth. His vicarious atonement and those precious nail-scarred hands establish our relationship with Heaven.
In the first appearance it speaks of His deity. He is the Son of God, the great intercessor who holds the Creator to the creation. In the second usage, He is the Son of Man who was nailed to that cross and literally was suspended between the heavens and the earth for our salvation. Only Jesus stands in this position. As God, he is the power of God for salvation. As man, He bears our petitions to heaven as our intercessor. He is the ultimate High Priest. He is the priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Melchi...that means King and the King is Soon2Come.
