Rev. 3:14 - 'Beginning' or 'Ruler'
The Watchtower Society says that when Jesus called himself “the
beginning [Greek –
arkhe/arche, ἀρχὴ] of the creation by God” - Rev. 3:14,
KJV,
ASV,
RSV, NASB,
NKJV, MLB, Douay, Byington, Rotherham, Lattimore, Lamsa, Phillips, Darby, Webster, etc. - he meant “the
first thing created by God.”
Some trinitarians, however, insist that the word
arkhe (sometimes written in English as
arche) here does not mean “beginning” but should be rendered “
source” or “origin.” A few even suggest that John meant “the
ruler of the creation of God.”
...................................................
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the
ruler [
arche] of God’s creation. -
NIV.
"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the
Beginning [
arche]of the creation of God, says this:" -
NASB.
““To the messenger of the church in Laodicea, write: The amen, the witness who is faithful and true, the
source of God’s creation, says: -
GW.
The BAGD,
A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature by Walter
Bauer, William F.
Arndt (Translator), F. Wilbur
Gingrich, and Frederick W.
Danker (Editor), has been revised as the BDAG. On page 138, the interpretation of Rev 3:14 that `ARXH
[arche] of creation' means that Christ was
created ['
beginning of God's creation'] has been upgraded from poss. [possible] to prob. [
probable].
"BDAG states that the meaning `beginning = first created' for ARXH in Rev 3:14 `is linguistically
probable.' The sense `origin' or `source' hardly seems to fit the context of Rev 3:14. This meaning of the word does not seem to figure in biblical usages here or elsewhere. See Job 40:19." -
https://onlytruegod.org/defense/revelation3.14.htm
Greg Stafford writes on this: "...a check of all the occurrences in NT of
arkhe followed by a genitive expression ... show that it
always denotes a beginning or first part of something." Further on he writes, "Thus the use of
arkhe in general, and when used with a genitive expression specifically, favors (statistically at least) the meaning 'beginning' [rather than 'originator'] in Revelation 3:14." -
Jehovah's Witness Defended, An Answer to Scholars and Critics, 1st ed.p.109.
It is because of this common Bible metaphor ("begotten," "born") that "
father" was considered as synonymous (whether as "creator" or "procreator") with "
source"! - See p. 190,
Thayer's Greek-
English Lexicon of the New Testament, Baker Book House, 1984.
The famous Biblical Hebrew authority, Gesenius, tells us that "Father" [
ab] means:
"Of the
author, or
maker, of anything,
specially of the creator.... And in this sense God is said to be `the father of men,' Is. 63:16; 64:8; [etc.]. All these ... come from the notion of
origin." - p. 2, Gesenius'
Lexicon.
Trinitarian Robert Young in his
Young's Analytical Concordance, p. 331, also shows this meaning for the Hebrew word
ab: "
Father, ancestor, source, inventor."
God's people have used "Father" synonymously with "source" or "origin" for thousands of years. When they wanted to use a word that denotes absolute "source" they most often used "
Father." Obviously the Son is not the "
source of creation" - his
Father is! (And what could be more appropriate than the Father's very
first creation being called his "Firstborn Son"?)
In all the writings of John you will find that he never uses
arkhē (ἀρχὴ) to mean “
ruler” but, more properly, always uses
arkhōn (ἄρχων). If you will check the
New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1981), you will find that even the very trinitarian
New American Standard Bible (NASB) never translates John’s uses of
arkhe as “ruler” but does translate
arkhon for “ruler” eight times: John 3:1;
7:26;
7:48; 12:31;
12:42; 14:30; 16:11; and
Rev. 1:5. Not only is this word
(arkhon) always used with the meaning of “ruler” by John, but it is the
only word he uses for “ruler”! (underlined verses use the plural form).
Notice that the
only use of “ruler” in Revelation by John, is, of course,
arkhon: “from Jesus Christ, ... the first-born of the dead, and the
ruler [arkhon] of the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5,
NASB; cf.
ASV; JB; NEB; REB; CEB; CEV; RSV; NRSV; NAB; NCV; NIV; NKJV; NLT; ERV; ESV; GNB (TEV); GW; HCSB; ISV; LEB; MEV; Mounce; ETRV; WEB; YLT; Barclay’s translation; and a number of others (such as
KJV which render it “
prince of the kings...”). And it is highly significant that it is applied to Jesus in a way that most likely would have been duplicated at Rev. 3:14
if he had also meant “ruler” to describe himself there.
To pretend that “
ruler” was intended by John in Rev. 3:14 not only ignores John’s strict adherence to
always using forms of
arkhon to mean “ruler,” but also ignores the clear scriptural Messianic use of the terms
arkhon and
arkhe! The well-known Messianic scripture of Micah 5:2 sets the pattern for uses of
arkhon as applied to the Messiah. The ancient Septuagint version, often quoted by the NT writers, renders Micah 5:2, “out of thee [Bethlehem] shall one come forth to me, to be a
ruler [arkhonta, a form of
arkhon] of Israel; and his goings forth were from the
beginning [arkhe]...”. Clearly, if John wanted to use the term ‘ruler’ to apply to the Messiah, it would have been the already scripturally-established
arkhon NOT
arkhe! Arkhe was also scripturally-established as meaning “beginning” when applied to the pre-existent Messiah.
Conversely, the
only NT word John has used when he intended the meaning of “beginning” is
arkhe. (The only apparent exception to this is
archomai (arkhomai) found at John 8:9 - see p. 139 in the
New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. However, even trinitarian scholars admit that this verse is spurious, not written by John but added by a later copyist! - [Jn 9:32 should be more literally translated “from of old”.])
“ARCHE
(ἀρχὴ) means a
beginning. The root
arch- primarily indicated what was of worth. Hence the verb
archō meant ‘to be first,’ and
archōn denoted a
ruler.” - p. 103,
An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, W. E. Vine (trinitarian), Thomas Nelson Publ., 1984.
The NWT's rendering is not only honest, but the most likely intended by the original inspired writer.