The use of Arche in Rev 3:14?

Rev 3:14?

"And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God"

The context shows that the "Amen" is a reference to Jesus, who is said to be:

"the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God"

"...the beginning of the creation of God"

The expression "of God" is in the Subjective Genitive, not the Objective Genitive!

Why is this important and why is it problematic for both Oneness (Modalists) and Trinitarians?

Being in the Subjective Genitive means that the "Amen" (Jesus) is a result or conclusion of an Act or Action by another person, thus, because of this, the "Amen" (Jesus) is "the beginning of the creation of God". (by God - NWT)

If however, the above "...the beginning of the creation of God" was in the Objective Genitive, it would mean (no matter how absurd) that "God" was the result or conclusion of an Act or Action by some one else, thus, because of this, it would have to be concluded that "God" was a created being!

Here we see "Arche" followed by the Genitive (of God).

It is of interest to note, that in Prov 8:22 (LXX) the same Greek is used!

"The LORD created me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old." NASB.

As in Rev 3:14 we likewise see "Arche" followed by the Genitive (the beginning of His way).

What does all this mean?

For my fellow JWs, here is an older paper I did some time ago in response to Trinitarians, but it equally applies to Oneness (Modalists).

This is a short but powerful paper, as it exposes Oneness and Trinitarian theologies as absurd, weak and non-biblical and the JW position correct in understanding Rev 3:14 correctly !
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Was Jesus a creation?

Rev 3:14 is it "ruler, source, originator, Origin..."?

Here are some Rev 3:14 examples from different translations:

"And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God" ASV

"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation." NIV

"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: “This is the message from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the origin of all that God has created." GNT

"To the angel of Messiah’s community in Laodicea write: “Thus says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Originator of God’s creation." TLV

“This is what you must write to the angel of the church in Laodicea: I am the one called Amen! I am the faithful and true witness and the source of God's creation. Listen to what I say.” CEV

"To the angel of the Messianic Community in Laodicea, write: ‘Here is the message from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the Ruler of God’s creation." CJB

Here we see, that we have “beginning, origin, source, originator and ruler”

Below, is an extract from the NET bible (translators and translating team, and the Trinitarian Prof. Dan Wallace being one of them) and some of my own comments:
[My comments) “The letters of the apostle John, tells the reader, which “genitive” belongs to Rev 3:14. Scholars acknowledge that the Greek of Rev 3:14 “arche” by the apostle is derived from the Greek of Prov 8:22 “The LORD created me as the beginning of his works…” (End).

Net Bible - it would seem rather odd and out of place to have Prov 8:22 read, either “ruler, originator or source”, for “arche” since what is obviously meant is something like ‘first one’ or the ‘first or beginning of God’s ways, first to be created, formed…’ also, as in Rev 3:14 “arche” in Prov 8:22 is followed by a genitive expression “of” we see the sense of “beginning, start or commencement…” (NET bible)

In Math 24:8; Mark 1:1 and other texts, followed by the genitive “of”, these examples and clearly demonstrate that the noun “God” [theou] in Rev 3:14 is the “Subjective Genitive”, thus, Jesus was the first of the creations, the only one directly created by God, who is the Final Cause, the Efficient Cause…who used His Son as the agent or instrumental cause in bringing about the existence of the rest of creation!

Of course a quick check on the use of Arche in the original Greek will show that arche can have other meanings other than “beginning” in the NT.

When arche precedes a genitive, such as we see in Math 24:8; Mark1:1 and Rev 3:14 indicated that arche always denotes the commencement, start or beginning of some Act or Action.

When arche is used without a genitive it can still have the meaning of commencement, start or beginning of some Act or Action.

Arche without a genitive can mean “commencement, start or beginning” 32 times; arche is used 2 times to denote the 4 corners of the earth, the other 11 times arche is used to denote “rulers and governments”, and these two expressions are always connected to terms such as “”authority and power”.

Examples of Arche used with a genitive to mean “beginning…”
Math 24:8; Mark 1:1; 13:8, 19; John 2:11; Phil 4:15; Heb 5:12; 6:1; 7:3; 2 Pet 3:4…

Examples of Arche used without a genitive and still means “beginning…”
Math 19:4, 8; 24:21; Mark 10:6; Luke 1:2; John 1:1, 2; 6:64; 8:25, 44.

Examples of Arche used without a genitive and used to denote “rulers and governments”, and that these two expressions are always connected to terms such as, “authority and power”.

Luke 12:11; 20:20; Rom 8:38; 1 Cor 15:24; Eph 1:21; 3:10; 6:12; Col 1:16; 2:10; 2:15; Tit 3:1.
Examples of Arche used without a genitive and used to denote “rulers and governments”, and that these two expressions are always connected to terms such as, “authority and power”.

When arche is used without a genitive and used as a stand-alone term in order to denote “rulers and governments”, and coordinated with “authority and power”, Trinitarian translators then cannot take that same stand-alone arche, which denotes the above and then use it in Rev 3:14 to denote “ruler of God’s creation." NIV, “the Originator of God’s creation." TLV, “the source of God's creation…” CEV to do so would be out of context and the result of theological bias and special theological pleading!

As a reminder of what the Translators of the NET bible said, one of which was the Trinitarian Prof. Dan Wallace:

Net Bible -

"it would seem rather odd and out of place to have Prov 8:22 read, either “ruler, originator or source”, for “arche” since what is obviously meant is something like ‘first one’ or the ‘first or beginning of God’s ways, first to be created, formed…’ also, as in Rev 3:14 “arche” in Prov 8:22 is followed by a genitive expression “of” we see the sense of “beginning, start or commencement…” (NET bible)

NB,

Like Prov 8:22, Rev 3:14 is the same grammatically, where we read in Prov 8:22 NASB
"The Lord created me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old."

"...beginning (arche) occurs before the genitive "of", just as we see in Rev 3:14, yet, there are those Trinitarian translators that would go out of their way to deliberately distort those two texts by inserting out of context terms; it also show that Trinitarian translators contradict other Trinitarian translators who are no so biased and see what the text is actually saying, just like the translating team behind the NET bible in it above comments!