Aleph-Tav

The "Aleph-Tav" (Hebrew first and last letters) is a special code made up from the first and the last letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet.

Nobody seems to know for sure what the exact meaning of these codes are.

The "Aleph-Tav" is likely translated as "Alpha and Omega" in the Greek manuscripts of the Bible which is used as a title for God.

Aleph-Tav as "the crucifixion"

Some speculate that this is a reference to Jesus because the "Tav" ancient Hebrew pictogram looks like a cross. If you slightly adjust the cross then it looks like the Christians cross symbol. This supports the Trinity doctrine that Jesus is God Himself and was omnipresent since the beginning. They often link it to the Alpha and Omega in the Book of Revelations as evidence. However, there are a few flaws with this reasoning.

• "Tav" cannot mean "crucifixion" as this type of public punishment was not invented until the Romans came along.
• It does not make sense that "Tav" would mean "crucifixion" for this one code, but to all the other words the meaning changes to mark / sign / signal / monument
• The "Alpha and Omega" is not Jesus. John clearly wrote in his book of Revelations that the "Alpha and Omega" is "God Almighty" (Revelation 1:8) and Jesus Christ is addressed separately in Revelation 1:4-5.

Aleph-Tav as grammatical purpose

Some Hebrew experts claim:

The aleph-tav expression serves a grammatical purpose in that it points to the direct object of the sentence, but these two letters do not actually form a word.

Strong's Concordance also supports this understanding:

eth               : untranslatable mark of the accusative case.
Original Word     : אֵת
Part of Speech    : Untranslatable mark of the accusative; mark of accusative
Transliteration   : eth
Phonetic Spelling : (ayth)
Definition        : untranslatable mark of the accusative case

Aleph-Tav as a marker

Some reason that each letter has a meaning so based on the meanings the code should mean something like:

strong/powerful/leading mark/sign/signal/monument

But, then the question would be why are these "powerful markers" placed throughout the Hebrew scriptures and what do they represent?

Some suggested that these are markers of:

• total completeness - Criticism: is this relevant to every scripture where the marker appears?
• a blood covenant - Criticism: was there a blood covenant made each time the marker appears?
• God's presence - Criticism: is God absent in the other scriptures?

Whatever this marker represents, the meaning should be consistent throughout the scriptures. One cannot simply cherry-pick certain verses to support a theory.

A list of "Aleph-Tav" scriptures was compiled by My Hebrew Bible, translated to English so that you can read the relevant scriptures yourself.

Aleph-Tav as "Jesus"

Some reason that the Aleph-Tav is Jesus because it looks like a Christian cross.

Alpha and Omega

"Alpha and Omega" found in Revelation 1:8, 21:6-7, 22:12-13 are the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet which do not exist in the Hebrew text. The New Testament were originally written in Greek, the Old Testament in Hebrew.

From the text of Revelation it is clear that this title belongs to God Almighty, but in addition to that:

• Some belief that this is the Greek translation of the Hebrew title "the first and the last" found in Isaiah 41:4, 44:6, 48:12. However, the phrase "the first and the last" does not necessary have the same meaning as the code "Alpha and Omega". There are no proof to support this theory.
• Some belief that this is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew "YHVH", but there are no proof to support this theory.
• Some belief that this is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew "Aleph-Tav", but there are also no proof to support this theory and even if it was true, nobody knows what exactly the Aleph-Tav means which makes it a dangerous doctrine that is open for multiple different interpretations.