How can Jesus NOT be a created being, but the Creator himself? [duplicate]

Question

These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. (Rev 3:14)

How can Jesus NOT be a created being, but the Creator himself?

Answer 1

The OP is correct - Jesus cannot be both the creator and the beginning of God's creation as some have suggested about Rev 3:14.

The important/pivotal word in Rev 3:14 is ἀρχὴ (arche) which has two distinct sets of meanings (see BDAG):

• when it refers to either an inanimate object or an abstract idea, it always means "beginning or start", eg, John 2:11, Heb 7:3, Matt 24:8, Mark 13:8, etc.
• however, when it refers to a person, the word means "originator", "one with whom a process begins" (BDAG), eg, Col 1:18, Rev 1:8, 3:14, 21:6, 22;13, OR, the authority figure who initiates activity or a process, eg, Luke 20:20, 12:11, Titus 3:1, etc.

Thus, Rev 3:14 cannot mean that Jesus is the beginning of God's creation; but must refer to Jesus being the initiator or originator of God's creation.

Thus, the "problem" here is only with those that insist (incorrectly) that Jesus was the beginning of God's creation, ie, the first person ever created. The text does NOT say that - quite the opposite - Jesus was the creator and the initiator or originator of the whole creation.

This is consistent with other references such as John 1:3, 10, Col 1:16, 17, Heb 1:2, 10.

Answer 2

Just as God the Father is Creator and yet “the Beginning and the Ending” (Rev 1:8; 21:6), Jesus is Creator and yet “the Beginning and the Ending” (Rev 22:13).

Just as Yahweh God is Creator and yet “the First and the Last” (Isaiah 41:4; 48:12), Jesus is Creator and yet “the First and the Last” (Rev 1:17-18; 2:8).

In other words, if God the Father can be "the Beginning (Arche)" without the sense of being created, then Jesus definitely also can be "the Beginning (Arche)" without the sense of being the first created!

If Yahweh God can be "the First (Protos)" without the sense of being created, then Jesus definitely also can be "the First (Protos)" without the sense of being the first created!

Answer 3

The "ἀρχή" here is better to be translated as "principle" or "source". The Logos is the Principle, the Source of creation, that is to say the Cause of the creation, the co-Cause and the co-Creator with the Father.

Were, thus, not the Lord Jesus Christ but the Father the referent of those words, the Father would also be named "the Source/the Principle of the creation".

But Dottard answered it well and with pertinent references.

Answer 4

A careful and simple reading of the verse shows that it does not say that Jesus is both Creator and the beginning of creation. Some say that the word "arkhe" does not mean beginning and claim that it means source, ruler or origin.

Examining "arkhe", there is no verse where John used the word "arkhe" to mean ruler, source or originator. Thus, to say that arche mean ruler, originator or source is false. Those that use BDAG to justify originator are telling half-truths and are deceptive. Note the following from BDAG.

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 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." -

Jesus himself ascribed creation to his God not himself, Mark 13:19, Matthew 19:4 Mark 10:6. How can Jesus be the originator of creation he himself pointed to God as the source of his life. John 5:26.

Mark 13:9 Literal Standard Version

And He answering said to them, “Did you not read that He who made [them] from the beginning, made them a male and a female

Mattew 19:4 Literal Standard Version

And He answering said to them, “Did you not read that He who made [them] from the beginning, made them a male and a female,

Mark 10:6 Literal Standard Version

but from the beginning of the creation God made them a male and a female;

John 5:26 Literal Standard Version

for as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave also to the Son to have life in Himself.

Thus, Jesus cannot both be the Creator and the beginning of creation.