A

A

A, A. This is what we meet with in several Places of the Vulgate Bible, viz. Jer. i. 6. and xiv. 13. in Ezek. iv. 15. xx. 49. and in Joel i. 15. In all which Passages, A, a, a, are to be understood in the Way of Exclamation, as if it were said, Alas, alas, alas! In Jer. i. 6. Et dixi a, a, a, Domine Deus, ecce nescio loqui qui puer ego sum. This one might think to be the stammering of a Child that cannot speak distinctly. But the Hebrew reads only ahah, or heu, once without Repetition; and after the same Manner, in ch. xiv. 13. as well as in the Places above cited from Ezekiel and Joel. So that in all these Passages the Translation should be Alas! without saying any thing more. A. The Apocryphal Gospel concerning the Infancy of Jesus Christ¹, informs us that the Schoolmaster who had requested our Saviour might be sent to him, was preparing to shew him his Alphabet, but that Jesus repeated it all entire to him before he had learnt it of him, and began even to explain the Prophets to him. Another Copy of the same Gospel imports, that his Master having pointed out to him the Letter a, or Aleph, Jesus desired to know of him what the Letter Aleph meant; that is to say, he asked him the mysterious Signification of it; and as his Master was reproving him with Threats, Jesus discoursed to him concerning the several Letters of the Alphabet, of their Figures, Power and Signification, in a Manner which so much surprized him that he sent him back to his Parents.

A and Ω. Alpha and Omega, the first and last Letter of the Greek Alphabet. Jesus Rev. i. 8. xxi. 6. xxii. 13.Christ, in the Revelations, says that he is A and Ω, the Beginning and End; he who gives Being to all things, and to whom every thing should be refer’d.

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