Is The Aleph-Tav Jesus’ Signature?

The Jesus’ Signature Theory claims that the Aleph-Tav is Jesus’ signature in the Bible.

What is the Aleph-Tav?

The Aleph-Tav is a Hebrew word that is made up of two letters:

1. The Aleph (א), the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and
2. the Tav (ת), the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

The Aleph-Tav is used more than ten thousand times in the Hebrew text of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament). It is first used in the first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1:

In the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:1, the middle word of the verse is the Aleph-Tav, and it is not translated in English Bible translations. Many Jesus’ Signature theorists claim that this is because Bible scholars do not know the true meaning of the Aleph-Tav. In reality, the Aleph-Tav is a basic feature of the Hebrew language, and the Jesus’ Signature Theory is false.

Counterexamples

The best argument against the Jesus’ Signature Theory is that there are places in the Bible where the theory simply would not work. Consider the following passages where the Aleph-Tav is used:

Exodus 17:14 says,

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out {Aleph-Tav} the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” (ESV)

Was the Lord promising to utterly blot out Jesus from under heaven? Of course not! That makes no sense.

First Chronicles 21:1 says,

Then Satan stood against Israel and incited {Aleph-Tav} David to number {Aleph-Tav} Israel. (ESV)

Did Satan successfully incite Jesus to number Israel, resulting in the destructive plague that followed (vv. 7–14)? Of course not! That makes no sense.

The True Significance of the Aleph-Tav

The Aleph-Tav is not translated in English Bible translations because there is no equivalent feature in the English language. It is not because Bible scholars do not know what the Aleph-Tav is.

According to Hebrew grammar, the Aleph-Tav is a definite direct object marker. This means that it marks out the definite noun which the action of a verb is being done to.

Consider the following two English sentences:

John loves Simon.

Simon loves John.

In English, the direct object of a verb is determined by word order. In the first sentence, we know that the action of the verb “loves” is being done to “Simon” because of the order of the words in the sentence. Likewise, in the second sentence, we know from the order of the words that the action of the verb “loves” is being done to the noun “John”.

In Hebrew, the direct object of a verb is not determined by word order, but by the Aleph-Tav, if the noun is definite. For example, if we want to say “John loves Simon” in Hebrew, we would say,

יוחנן אוהב את שמעון

John loves {Aleph-Tav} Simon.

In this sentence, the action of the verb “loves” is being done to the noun “Simon”, and names are definite nouns in Hebrew. This is why there is an Aleph-Tav before the name “Simon”.

The Aleph-Tav allows Hebrew speakers to change the word order of a sentence for stylstic reasons. The word order in our example sentence could be changed as follows:

את שמעון אוהב יוחנן

{Aleph-Tav} Simon loves John.

Even though the word order is different, this sentence still means, “John loves Simon.” This is because the Aleph-Tav is still before “Simon”. This indicates that the action of the verb “loves” is still being done to “Simon”.

Conclusion

The Aleph-Tav is one of the most basic features of the Hebrew language. Anyone who actually studies Biblical Hebrew would learn about the Aleph-Tav within the first few lessons of a total beginner’s course. Therefore, it is embarrassing how Jesus’ Signature theorists arrogantly claim that Bible scholars do not know the true meaning of the Aleph-Tav—when they themselves have not even learnt the basics of the Hebrew language.

O the hypocrisy!

Postscript: “I am the Aleph-Tav”?

Some Jesus’ Signature Theorists suggest that the Aleph-Tav is Jesus’ signature, based on their interpretation of Jesus’ saying in Revelation 1:8:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (ESV)

The Alpha and the Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek Alphabet, just as the Aleph and the Tav are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. According to the Jesus’ Signature Theorists, Jesus was speaking to John in Hebrew and not in Greek, and so Jesus must have been saying that he is the Aleph-Tav as found in the Hebrew Bible.

However, this can hardly what Jesus meant. Notice that Jesus did not say “I am the Alpha-Omega”, but “I am the Alpha and the Omega”—both definite articles are present in the original Greek text. Therefore, even if Jesus had been speaking to John in Hebrew and not in Greek, he would have been saying, “I am the Aleph and the Tav,” rather than, “I am the Aleph-Tav.”

Furthermore, Jesus himself qualifies what he means by “I am the Alpha and the Omega” by his very next words: “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Thus, Jesus was saying that he is eternal, and not that the Aleph-Tav is his signature. This is confirmed by other places in the Book of Revelation where Jesus likewise calls himself “the Alpha and the Omega” (Revelation 22:13).