Apologetics · FaithLogic
"The First and the Last" — Isaiah 44:6 Applied to Jesus in Revelation
In Isaiah, YHWH names himself "the first and the last" — a phrase coined to rule out every other god. In Revelation, the risen Jesus says it of himself, three times, and adds "the Alpha and the Omega" and "the Beginning and the End." The strongest form of this is not "a title Jesus grabbed" but the specific version in Revelation 1:17–18: "the First and the Last… who died and came to life."
The Title in Isaiah and in Revelation
Isaiah — the phrase that excludes every rival
Isaiah 44:6: "Thus says YHWH… I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god."
Isaiah 48:12: "I am he; I am the first, and I am the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth."
Isaiah 41:4: "Who has called the generations from the beginning? I, YHWH, the first, and with the last; I am he."
The point of the phrase is its exclusivity: it appears in the passages where Isaiah's YHWH is proving, against the idols, that he alone is God. It brackets all of time and all of being. In 48:12 it is tied directly to being the Creator.
Isaiah 48:12: "I am he; I am the first, and I am the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth."
Isaiah 41:4: "Who has called the generations from the beginning? I, YHWH, the first, and with the last; I am he."
The point of the phrase is its exclusivity: it appears in the passages where Isaiah's YHWH is proving, against the idols, that he alone is God. It brackets all of time and all of being. In 48:12 it is tied directly to being the Creator.
Revelation — the risen Christ says it of himself
Revelation 1:17–18: "'Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.'"
Revelation 2:8: "The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life."
Revelation 22:13: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" — and 22:16 names the speaker: "I, Jesus."
Revelation deliberately shares the title. "Alpha and Omega" is spoken by God in 1:8 and 21:6, and by Jesus in 22:13. "The Living One" (ho zōn) is an Old Testament name of YHWH (Joshua 3:10; Hosea 1:10). Revelation does not confuse the Father and the Son — it distinguishes them on almost every page — but it places the Son inside the one divine identity, sharing the titles Isaiah says belong to God alone.
Revelation 2:8: "The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life."
Revelation 22:13: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" — and 22:16 names the speaker: "I, Jesus."
Revelation deliberately shares the title. "Alpha and Omega" is spoken by God in 1:8 and 21:6, and by Jesus in 22:13. "The Living One" (ho zōn) is an Old Testament name of YHWH (Joshua 3:10; Hosea 1:10). Revelation does not confuse the Father and the Son — it distinguishes them on almost every page — but it places the Son inside the one divine identity, sharing the titles Isaiah says belong to God alone.
The strongest form of the argument: "who died and came to life"
The single most compressed statement in Revelation is 1:17–18 / 2:8: "the First and the Last… who died and came to life."
That one clause holds the whole of Christian claim about Jesus: he bears YHWH's own eternity-title, and he is the one who was actually dead. The uncreated one, who is before and after all things, entered death and came out the other side. No intermediary figure in any Jewish text is described that way; no created being can be "the First." The argument does not need a chain of six steps — it needs this sentence.
That one clause holds the whole of Christian claim about Jesus: he bears YHWH's own eternity-title, and he is the one who was actually dead. The uncreated one, who is before and after all things, entered death and came out the other side. No intermediary figure in any Jewish text is described that way; no created being can be "the First." The argument does not need a chain of six steps — it needs this sentence.
The Delegation Objection
"Jesus was given this title as God's supreme agent"
A Unitarian or Muslim reply: Isaiah 44:6's "besides me there is no god" is aimed at idols, and Revelation 3:21 shows the exalted Christ sharing the Father's throne — so "First and Last" could be a supreme honour bestowed on a non-divine agent.
Response — Richard Bauckham's divine-identity argument (Jesus and the God of Israel; The Theology of the Book of Revelation). Second-Temple Judaism did have exalted intermediary figures — great angels, glorified patriarchs, personified Wisdom. But three things were never given to any of them: (1) a share of God's throne, (2) the agency of creation, (3) the worship due to God. Revelation gives Jesus all three: he sits on "the throne of God and of the Lamb" (22:1, 3), "all things were created" through the Word (echoed in the Lamb who is "the beginning of God's creation," 3:14), and "every creature" worships "him who sits on the throne and the Lamb" together (5:13–14). "First and Last" sits inside that cluster. It is not one honour among the honours a servant might receive — it is part of a pattern that, taken together, means inclusion in who God is.
And the phrase itself resists delegation. "The first" is not a rank you can be promoted to — it is a statement that nothing preceded you. A being who began to exist cannot be granted the title "the First" any more than a person born in 1990 can be granted the title "the one who existed before 1980." The title, unlike a throne or a name, describes eternity — which is not transferable.
Response — Richard Bauckham's divine-identity argument (Jesus and the God of Israel; The Theology of the Book of Revelation). Second-Temple Judaism did have exalted intermediary figures — great angels, glorified patriarchs, personified Wisdom. But three things were never given to any of them: (1) a share of God's throne, (2) the agency of creation, (3) the worship due to God. Revelation gives Jesus all three: he sits on "the throne of God and of the Lamb" (22:1, 3), "all things were created" through the Word (echoed in the Lamb who is "the beginning of God's creation," 3:14), and "every creature" worships "him who sits on the throne and the Lamb" together (5:13–14). "First and Last" sits inside that cluster. It is not one honour among the honours a servant might receive — it is part of a pattern that, taken together, means inclusion in who God is.
And the phrase itself resists delegation. "The first" is not a rank you can be promoted to — it is a statement that nothing preceded you. A being who began to exist cannot be granted the title "the First" any more than a person born in 1990 can be granted the title "the one who existed before 1980." The title, unlike a throne or a name, describes eternity — which is not transferable.
How the Church Read It
Victorinus, and the Arian controversy
Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse (late 3rd century, the oldest surviving Latin commentary on Revelation), on 1:8 and 1:17: "He is the Beginning and the End… He who was dead and lives… this is the First and the Last." Victorinus reads the title straightforwardly as a statement of the Son's eternity and deity.
In the fourth-century Arian debate, this verse was raised; the standard answer (recorded in the classic commentaries, e.g. Jamieson–Fausset–Brown at Revelation 1:17) was simply to point out that "the same title is applied to God the Father" in Revelation 21:6 — so if the phrase is compatible with full deity when the Father speaks it, it is compatible with full deity when the Son speaks it, and the two are not thereby made one person.
In the fourth-century Arian debate, this verse was raised; the standard answer (recorded in the classic commentaries, e.g. Jamieson–Fausset–Brown at Revelation 1:17) was simply to point out that "the same title is applied to God the Father" in Revelation 21:6 — so if the phrase is compatible with full deity when the Father speaks it, it is compatible with full deity when the Son speaks it, and the two are not thereby made one person.
💡 First and Last — Reasonable Summary"Isaiah coined 'the first and the last' to exclude every other god (44:6; 48:12). The risen Jesus says it of himself three times in Revelation (1:17; 2:8; 22:13), and Revelation shares 'Alpha and Omega' between the Father (1:8; 21:6) and the Son (22:13) without collapsing them into one person. The strongest single form is Revelation 1:17–18: 'the First and the Last… who died and came to life' — YHWH's eternity-title on the one who was actually dead. The 'delegated honour' objection is answered by Bauckham's divine-identity argument: no Jewish intermediary figure is ever given God's throne, the agency of creation, or divine worship, and Revelation gives Jesus all three — 'First and Last' belongs to that pattern. And 'the First' is not a rank that can be conferred: it means nothing preceded you, which cannot be delegated. Victorinus (Commentary on the Apocalypse, c. 280) read it as a plain statement of the Son's eternity."
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