Omega

Omega — the last letter of the Greek alphabet — appears in Revelation only as the second half of the title "the Alpha and the Omega," used by Yahweh God in the opening vision and by the one who sits on the throne and by Christ at the close. The pairing of first and last letter is unfolded in the same passages by parallel phrases — beginning and end, first and last — and stands for the all-comprehensiveness of the speaker.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega"

The title is given for the first time in the salutation that opens the Apocalypse: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, says Yahweh God, He Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come, the Almighty" (Rev 1:8). The three temporal phrases — Who Is, Who Was, Who Is To Come — gloss the alphabetical bracket: from first letter to last letter is from the one who already is back through what was and forward to what is coming.

The Beginning and the End

When the new heaven and new earth are unveiled, the one on the throne speaks the title again, this time paired with a different gloss: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him who is thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely" (Rev 21:6). The title here introduces the promise of the water of life and grounds the gift in the speaker's comprehensiveness — the one who is the whole alphabet from start to finish is the one who supplies the thirsty.

The First and the Last

At the very end of the book the title is given a third time, stacked with two further parallel phrases: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Rev 22:13). All three pairings — alphabetical, ordinal, and temporal — are set side by side, and the speaker who claims them stands at the close of the book among the announcements of his coming.