I am The Aleph and the Tav

[TesphanYah May]

In the Beginning . . . Was the Aleph and the Tav. . .

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.

Beresheet 1:1
בראשׁית ברא אלהים את השׁמים ואת הארץ

The New Testament translated from the original language of the first century.

http://www.aent.org

About 18 months ago I learned something I had never known before
which brought me much excitement and a deeper desire
to learn and understand the mysteries and oracles of the Word of our
Creator, YHWH. Shortly after receiving my copy of the Aramaic English
New Testament (www.aent.org) I learned
an incredible truth and
revelation not often talked about in mainstream Christianity. For the
first time it was brought to my attention that Y’shua did not say the
following words in His native tongue when speaking to John in Revelation
1:8

“I am the alpha and the omega. . .”

Rather when He spoke to John, he said the following:

“I am the ‘Alephʼ and the ‘Tawʼ, Beginning and End,” says יהוה “who is
and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

As a result I sought to learn more relative to the essence and meaning
of the words “Aleph” and “Tav”? Needless to say volumes have been
written on this subject both from the Christian perspective and also
from the Netzari/Messianic Hebraic perspective. What is interesting
though about this statement is what the Aleph and the Tav represent in
the scriptures in the Hebrew language and how there is a subtle but
rather extraordinary absence of the word “את” in the standard English
translations of our scriptures.

The Aleph is on the right – א and in Paleo Hebrew the Aleph is the “ox”

The Tav is on the left – ת and in Paleo Hebrew the Tav is the Cross

As a word the את or the et is listed as word #H853 in the Strong’s
Concordance. So if you have a good computer based study bible such as
e-sword a word search for H853 will help you to quickly find all 6800+
mentions of the את in scripture.


DISCLAIMER – I do not have any formal training in this subject
matter, and I do not by any means pretend or presume to have expertise
in the Hebrew language. In fact, I may be wrong about this so if I am, I
fully expect those who are much more educated than I am on this subject
to let me know with corresponding evidence. What I do know, is that I
am on a never-ending journey of learning that is taking me further into
a passionate love relationship with our Father YHWH through the
redemptive work of Y’shua and a love inspired obedience to the Word of
YHWH.

Continuing. . . I would like to draw your attention not to what
is written in the English translation of Genesis 1:1 but rather what is
not written and translated into the English language. For many of you
reading this, this is not new so please be patient with me for a moment.
According to Strong’s Concordance the את is found over 6800 times in
the Hebrew Scriptures (aka Old Testament) and it is never translated
into the English language except in a few small instances which we will
look at later. When learning the Hebrew language we are taught that the
את (et) is an untranslatable word used to indicate that "a definite
direct object is next" (thus there needs to be an et before the heavens
and the earth). So why is the et in scripture? Why is it not
translated into English? What was Y’shua trying to tell us about this?
And is there a conspiracy to keep the את somewhat of a mystery to us
all?

So why is the et in scripture?

My personal opinion is that to fully understand the purpose of the et,
one is to look at this mysterious word through the lens of statement
made by Y’shua when He told John that he is the את. In essence He was
telling John that throughout history, Y’shua was ONE with the Father as
the right hand of the Most High doing the work of creation , or doing
the speaking to His people , or doing the delivering of His people , or
speaking the words of judgment , or sadly, being the one who was
forsaken by His people . My interpretation In other words was that He
was saying “John, do you not realize that throughout history I WAS THE
את there all along as YHWH doing it all. . .” It’s pretty clear that
John knew this as we are told in John 1:1

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the
Word was Elohim.”

Interestingly enough, in the Aramaic and Hebrew versions of John
(Yochanan) we see the evidence of the את being there in the statement
“and the word was with (את) Elohim.”

Joh 1:1 בראשית היה הדבר והדבר היה את האלהים ואלהים היה הדבר׃

In the Hebrew version of John1:1 notice the את in the middle of
that phrase.

I hope this demonstrates the beauty of the Hebrew and Aramaic languages
and to inspire each of us to dig deeper to understand the meaning behind
every word that is written in scripture from its original Hebraic
context.

So back to the picture at the top of the page.

In the first line we read the first few words of Genesis 1:1 in Paleo
Hebrew. Isn’t it interesting that we see in the Paleo Hebrew in Genesis
1:1 what could be the first hint of the plan of salvation that
was in existence and prepared for us from or in the beginning. In other
words “In the beginning Elohim created את (the ox with the cross)”.
What is the significance of the “ox”? According to Leviticus 16, the
“ox” for the sin offering was to be brought outside the camp. Y’shua
was crucified outside of the city. At the same time a possible double
meaning was “in the beginning Elohim created (את) the heavens and (את)
the earth.” In other words it was Y’shua himself as the Almighty YHWH
doing the creative act of establishing the heavens and the earth.

As I mentioned earlier, there are a few instances in the Hebrew
scriptures where the את is clearly a reference to Y’shua as Messiah.
For example Zechariah 12:10 states:

“And I shall pour on the house of Dawiḏ and on the inhabitants of
Yerushalayim a spirit of favour and prayers. And they shall look on
“ME” (את - H853) whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one
mourns for his only son. And they shall be in bitterness over Him as a
bitterness over the first-born.”

This is a clear indication of the את, Y’shua being spoken of in this
particular prophecy. There are several other examples of this where in
each case the את is actually translated into a specific word indicating a
pointing towards Y’shua as Messiah.

I hope that you have enjoyed this short lesson. Please feel free to
express your points, opinions, corrections (with evidence), or
additional thoughts. I would like to publically thank David and Sonya
Bowling of Mark 16 Ministres for sharing their updated free version
of e-sword which contains the Middle Hebrew and Ancient PaleoHebrew texts.

As I learn more about this subject I will update this note.

In His Shalom,
TsephanYah.