Aleph-Tav

In the Hebrew bible manuscripts is a "code" found written with as את ("Aleph-Tav") which is the first and the last letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet which is commonly pronounced "et".

Modern Hebrew literature no longer includes the "Aleph-Tav" in their sentences. The "Aleph-Tav" is almost exclusively only found in ancient bible manuscripts. Therefore, some consider it a special code that mark a spiritual significance, but there are no clear evidence for or against this view.

Alpha and Omega

The Aleph-Tav cannot be directly translated any non-Hebrew language that does not use the same letter symbols.

Therefore, some assume that "Alpha and Omega" in the Greek manuscripts was intended to be a translation of the Hebrew "Aleph-Tav" in Revelation 1:8, 21:6-7, 22:12-13.

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", because the title "the first and the last" also refers to human kings and leaders who were not gods, for example:

• David (1 Chronicles 29:29 KJV)
• Solomon (2 Chronicles 9:29 KJV)
• Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 12:15 KJV)
• Asa (2 Chronicles 16:11 KJV)
• Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:34 KJV)
• Amaziah (2 Chronicles 25:26 KJV)
• Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:22 KJV)
• Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:26 KJV)
• Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:27 KJV)

The book of Revelation is also the only book that uses the title "Alpha and Omega" to refer to God.

If the "Alpha and Omega" was a translation of "Aleph-Tav", then we would have a big problem, because "Aleph-Tav" means:

• Cain's wife (Genesis 4:17)
• immoral women (Genesis 6:2)
• rebellion (Genesis 11:5)
• shame (Genesis 9:24)
• enemy (Judges 1:4,5,21)
• curse (Malachi 2:2)

... and so forth. Therefore, "Aleph-Tav" would be a blasphemous title for God.

Aleph-Tav as "the crucifixion"

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

The ancient tav 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. However, there are a few flaws with this reasoning.

• The Jews never crucified anyone. Therefore, it makes no sense that the ancient Hebrews would have associated a cross symbol with some sort of crucifixion.
• Crucifixion was not invented until the Romans civilization was founded.
• Tav does not mean "crucifixion" in any other Hebrew word which also contains a tav.

According to this theory, all these people were also marked to be "crucified":

• Adam (Genesis 1:27, 2:7,8,15)
• Eve (Genesis 4:1)
• Cain (Genesis 4:1)
• Abel (Genesis 4:2)
• Cain's descendants who were not of the bloodline of Christ (Genesis 4:18)
• Ham (Genesis 5:32, 6:10) who was cursed by Noah
• Nimrod (Genesis 10:8) who rebelled against God
• The Egyptian whom Moses stroke to death (Exodus 2:12,14)
• ... and so forth

Aleph-Tav as spiritual marker

The letters mean of the "Aleph-Tav":

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?

TheWord bible software detected 5672 instances in the Hebrew Interpolated Study Bible.

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?
• what God had approved - Criticism: did God approve Noah's nakedness (Genesis 9:22), Ham's sin (Genesis 9:24), the tower of Babel which was built in rebellion (Genesis 11:5), Egypt's oppression (Exodus 3:7,9), the enemy which God ordered to destroy (Judges 1:4,5,21)? The marker did disappear after Ham had sinned, but it also disappeared in front of Noah, Shem and Japheth's names (Genesis 9:23).

Whatever this marker represents, the meaning should be consistent throughout the scriptures. One cannot simply cherry-pick certain verses to support a theory. If the marker's meaning changes throughout the Bible, then it means we cannot reliably trust the marker.

The marker should also have a purpose in each scripture and indicate something that should improve our understanding of the text instead of causing confusion, debate and criticism.

Scriptures containing the Aleph-Tav

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As you can see this incomplete list already debunk all the "spiritual marker" theories listed above.

Aleph-Tav a direct object marker

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

A Hebrew experts teach:

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.

Another expert teach:

This word is sometimes translated into English as a preposition, but it actually has no equivalent in other languages.

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In English the indirect object is indicated by “a” (a book), but in Hebrew no equivalent of “a” is needed in front of the verb.

In instances where there are more than one object, or when it’s perhaps not clear which of the objects in a sentence is the direct object, the Hebrew word “et” will be inserted in front of the object - either as a separate word or attached to the object with a maqqef.