at Jeremiah 1:11, 12, where the word “almond” [sha·qedhʹ] is followed by the expression “keeping awake” [sho·qedhʹ]. The tree may grow up to sixteen feet (4.87 meters) in height and, when blossoming, is covered with lovely pink and sometimes white flowers arranged in pairs. At Ecclesiastes 12:5 the blossoming almond tree is used to picture the white-headedness of old age. The leaves are oval-shaped and serrated on the edges. The almond fruit has an oblong shape rounded on one end and pointed on the other. It has always been considered a delicacy and was used by Jacob as part of a gift sent to Egypt with his returning sons. (Gen. 43:11) The kernel is a source of desirable oil, a hundred pounds (45.4 kilograms) of the fruit producing some forty-five pounds (20.4 kilograms) of oil.

Doubtless due to their delicate beauty, the flowers of the almond were used as a pattern for the cups on the branches of the tabernacle lampstand. (Ex. 25:33, 34; 37:19, 20) Aaron’s rod was also an almond branch and miraculously budded overnight, producing ripe almonds as proof of God’s approval on him as anointed high priest.—Num. 17:8.

At Genesis 30:37 the Hebrew word luz occurs and is translated “almond” in later translations. (The same word in Arabic means “almond tree.”)

ALMON-DIBLATHAIM

(Alʹmon-dib·la·thaʹim) [hidden fig cakes].

A place between Dibon-gad and the plains of Moab, where the Israelites encamped in the fortieth year of their going out from Egypt (1473 B.C.E.). It was one of the last encampments during their wanderings. (Num. 33:46, 47) Usually identified with Khirbet Deleilat el-Gharbiyeh, a double ruin controlling three roads two and a half miles (4 kilometers) NE of Khirbet Libb. Possibly identical with Beth-diblathaim.—Jer. 48:22.

ALMUG

[Heb., ʼal·mogʹ].

A tree included by Solomon in his request to Hiram of Tyre for timbers for the construction of the temple and from which stairs and supports were constructed as well as harps and stringed instruments.—2 Chron. 2:8, 9; 9:10, 11; 1 Ki. 10:11, 12.

The almug tree of this account cannot be identified with certainty. It is traditionally suggested to be the red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus) now found in India and Ceylon, although some favor the white sandalwood (Santalum album), perhaps due to Josephus’ statement that it is like pinewood, “but . . . whiter, and more shining.” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VIII, chap. VII, par. 1) The red sandalwood grows to heights of about twenty-five or thirty feet (7.6 or 9.1 meters) and has a hard, fine-grained, reddish-brown wood that takes a high polish. It is suggested as suitable for musical instruments of the type mentioned in the Bible account. The wood has a sweet scent and is highly resistant to insects. The red sandalwood does not grow in Lebanon at the present time. However, the record is not definite as to whether the “almug” trees were native to Lebanon or not. At any rate, Hiram later saw fit to bring them from Ophir, and, here again, the timbers may have been imports even in Ophir, as it was in position to act as a trading center dealing with India, Egypt and other places in Africa. (1 Ki. 10:22) The rarity and preciousness of the wood delivered by Hiram is indicated by the statement that “timbers of almug trees like this have not come in nor have they been seen down to this day.”—1 Ki. 10:12.

In view of the uncertainty involved it appears best to simply transliterate the Hebrew name as “almug” until such time as more certain identification becomes possible.

ALOE, ALOESWOOD

[Heb., ʼaha·limʹ (plural) and ʼaha·lohthʹ (plural), ʼaha·lohthʹ q^etsi·ʽohthʹ; Gr., a·loʹe].

A name applied to a variety of tree containing a fragrant or aromatic substance used as a perfume in the Biblical period. (Ps. 45:8; Prov. 7:17; Song of Sol. 4:14) Most commentators consider the aloe tree of the Bible to be the Aquilaria agallocha, sometimes called the “eaglewood tree” and now found principally in India and neighboring regions. The tree is large and spreading, at times reaching a height of over 100 feet (30.5 meters). The inner core of the trunk and branches is impregnated with resin and an odoriferous oil, from which comes the highly prized perfume. Apparently attaining its most aromatic state when in decay, the wood is sometimes buried in the ground to hasten the decaying process. In a finely powdered condition it is then sold commercially as “aloes.”

The prophet Balaam’s comparison of the tents of Israel with “aloe plants that Jehovah has planted, like cedars by the waters,” may relate to the spreading shape of these lofty trees, a cluster of aloe trees resembling an encampment of tents. (Num. 24:6) This text, however, has occasioned some discussion, since the Aquilaria agallocha trees usually identified with the aloes of the Bible are not found in Palestine. Their absence today, of course, would not necessarily prove that such trees were not present in that land over 2,500 years ago. On the other hand, Balaam’s reference to the trees does not require that they be growing right in the area where he spoke. If the “cedars” mentioned immediately afterward in this text were cedars of Lebanon, then they would be trees growing outside that area, and the same could be true of the aloes. Balaam could have been acquainted with them from the place of his residence near the Euphrates River (Num. 22:5), although they are evidently not now indigenous to that region either. Whatever the case, the other texts dealing with aloes refer only to their aromatic qualities and would allow for them to have been foreign imports.

Following the death of Christ Jesus, Nicodemus brought “a roll of myrrh and aloes” weighing about a hundred pounds (45.4 kilograms), to be used in preparing Jesus’ body for burial. (John 19:39) Since Herodotus, the Greek historian, states that aloeswood at one time was worth its weight in gold, Nicodemus’ contribution must have represented a considerable outlay of money on his part, although the proportion of the less expensive myrrh included in the one hundred pounds is not stated. While some apply the term “aloes” in this text to the plant of the lily family that now bears the botanical name of Aloe vera or Aloe succotrina, the product of this plant (a thick juice from the leaves) is mainly employed as a purgative, used today by veterinarians for treating horses. Thus most modern commentators consider the aloes brought by Nicodemus to be the same aloeswood product as that referred to in the Hebrew Scriptures.

ALPHA

[Α, α].

The first letter in the Greek alphabet, from which the English “a” is derived. It originates from the Hebrew ʼaʹleph but differs in that alʹpha is a vowel while ʼaʹleph is a consonant.

The vowel alʹpha can be either long or short; however, at the time of Christ this distinction was disappearing.

It appears three times in the Bible in conjunction with o·meʹga to make up a title referring to Jehovah.—Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13; see ALPHA AND OMEGA; ALPHABET.

ALPHA AND OMEGA

These are the names of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and are used as a title three times in the book of Revelation. The occurrence of this phrase in the Authorized Version rendering of Revelation 1:11, however, does not receive support from some of the oldest Greek manuscripts, including the Alexandrine, Sinaitic and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus. It is, therefore, omitted in many modern translations.

While many commentators apply this title both to God and to Christ, a more careful examination of its use restricts its application to the supreme God. The first verse of Revelation shows that the revelation was given originally by God and through Jesus Christ, hence the one speaking (through an angelic representative) at times is God himself and at other times Christ Jesus. (Rev. 22:8) Thus Revelation 1:8, RS, says: “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God [AT; “Jehovah God,” NW], who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Although the preceding verse speaks of Christ Jesus, it is clear that in verse 8 the application of the title is to the “Almighty” God. In this regard Albert Barnes in Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament observes: “It cannot be absolutely certain that the writer meant to refer to the Lord Jesus specifically here . . . There is no real incongruity in supposing, also, that the writer here meant to refer to God as such.”

The title occurs again at Revelation 21:6, and the following verse (21:7) identifies the speaker by saying: “Anyone conquering will inherit these things, and I shall be his God and he will be my son.” Inasmuch as Jesus referred to those who are joint heirs with him in his kingdom as “brothers,” not “sons,” the speaker must be Jesus’ heavenly Father, Jehovah God.—Matt. 25:40; compare Hebrews 2:10-12.

The final occurrence of the title is at Revelation 22:13, which states: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” It is evident that a number of persons are represented as speaking in this chapter of Revelation; verses 8 and 9 show that the angel spoke to John, verse 16 obviously applies to Jesus, the first part of verse 17 is credited to “the spirit and the bride,” and the one speaking in the latter part of verse 20 is manifestly John himself. The “Alpha and the Omega” of verses 12-15, therefore, may properly be identified as the same one who bears the title in the other two occurrences: Jehovah God. The expression, “Look! I am coming quickly,” in verse 12, does not require that these aforementioned verses apply to Jesus, inasmuch as God also speaks of himself as “coming” to execute judgment. (Compare Isaiah 26:21.) Malachi 3:1-6 speaks of a joint coming for judgment on the part of Jehovah and his “messenger of the covenant.”

The title “the Alpha and the Omega” carries the same thought as “the first and the last,” and it is appropriately applied to Jehovah God in an unlimited way as being the first of all things, their Beginner, and also the Almighty whose power is capable of bringing all things to a successful end or realization.—Compare Isaiah 44:6.

ALPHABET

This English name of the system of letters employed to set down in writing the phonetic sounds used in speech derives from the first two Greek letters alʹpha and beʹta, which, in turn, come from the Hebrew ʼaʹleph and behth.

ORIGIN

There are many theories as to the origin of the alphabet; the Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform the “Hittite” hieroglyphs, and the Egyptian forms of writing all being suggested as possible sources. However, a prominent authority, Dr. David Diringer, states in his book The Story of the Aleph Beth (1958, p. 31): “It is now generally agreed that all existing alphabets, and those no longer used, derived from one original alphabet.” On page 39 he quotes G. R. Driver as saying: “It was one, and only one, of the gifts of the Semites to mankind,” and then states: “It was this alphabet which became the ancestor of all alphabetic scripts the world has known.”

With regard to archaeological discoveries, among the earliest preserved examples of the alphabet, according to the methods of dating used by archaeologists, are the inscriptions discovered at Serabit elKhadem on the Sinai Peninsula, believed to be from the nineteenth or eighteenth century B.C.E., the Ugaritic clay tablets found at Ras Shamra in Syria, containing a cuneiform alphabet and assigned to the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries B.C.E., and the inscriptions at Byblos in Phoenicia, considered as dating from about 1100 B.C.E. The Phoenician letters are nearly identical with those of the early Hebrew alphabet, whereas those from Sinai have considerable variation. The earliest preserved Hebrew inscriptions include a fragmentary inscription from Lachish ascribed to the twelfth or eleventh century B.C.E., the so-called “Gezer Calendar” (see CALENDAR) thought to be of the eleventh or tenth century B.C. E., the beautifully written Samarian ostraca recorded in cursive style or running hand and ascribed to the reign of Jeroboam II (844-803 B.C.E.), and the Siloam tunnel inscription evidently from the reign of King Hezekiah (745-716 B.C.E.). It is not until about the third century B.C.E. that a wealth of material of early Jewish scripts becomes available.

On the basis of these discoveries the tendency is to view the Phoenician and Sinaitic alphabets as antedating the Hebrew. This, of course, does not of necessity logically follow, and in the above-mentioned publication Dr. Diringer asks the question: “Is it possible that the ancient Hebrews who presented the world with the Bible and Monotheism, also gave it the Alphabet? The possibility certainly exists.” (The Story of the Aleph Beth, p. 37) The relative scarcity of ancient Hebrew inscriptions does not argue against this, inasmuch as the Hebrews were not given to the erection of monuments or the making of plaques memorializing the feats of kings and heroes, as were other ancient peoples. The climate and soil of Palestine likewise are not such as contribute to the preservation of papyrus writings, as is the case with the land of Egypt.

The Hebrew order of the letters of the alphabet is clearly indicated in acrostic writings in the Psalms (34, 111, 112, 119 and others), Proverbs 31:10-31, and Lamentations chapters 1-4 (except for a reversal of the letters ʽaʹyin and peʼ in chaps. 2-4). In these writings the letters of the alphabet appear in consecutive order as the initial letters of each successive verse, section or stanza. The Hebrew alphabet, then as now, consisted of twenty-two letters, all consonants, and probably represented some twenty-eight sounds. It appears that it was not until about the sixth century C.E. that a system of signs was developed to indicate vowel sounds. Some seven different “vowel points” were employed, singly and in combination, by the Jewish scholars known as Masoretes, to represent the Hebrew vowel sounds.

PICTOGRAPHIC-WRITING THEORY

The common theory is that the Hebrew alphabet derived from pictographic writing. This theory seeks support in the fact that the names for the Hebrew letters are often the same as or similar to the Hebrew names of certain objects, ʼaʹleph meaning “bull,” behth meaning “house,” giʹmel being similar to the Hebrew ga·malʹ or “camel,” and so forth. However, difficulties arise in following this through with all the letters, and the supposed similarity between the form of the letters and the suggested meaning of the name is often such as requires considerable imagination. Thus, while some believe that the letter giʹmel originally represented a camel (or a camel’s neck), others suggest that it originally pictured a “throw stick”; some, that daʹleth represented a door, others, perhaps originally a fish; zaʹyin, a weapon or perhaps an olive tree; tehth, a serpent or perhaps a basket, and so forth. It is, therefore, interesting to note Dr. Diringer’s statement on page 40 of The Story of the Aleph Beth, where, after showing that the phonetic value of each Hebrew letter corresponds to the initial sound of the name applied to it he points out: “It would be wrong to assume that [this] necessarily indicates the use of pictorial representations of the objects whose names the letters bore: in other words, there is no clear evidence that the symbols were originally pictographic.” Thus, in teaching someone the English alphabet the teacher might say that A stands for “apple,” B stands for “boat,” C stands for “cat,” and by that merely mean