This note is interpretation, not translation. “The first and the last” is God’s own title in Isaiah, and Revelation gives it to Jesus. This note sets the two side by side; the green note marked at those verses is Isaiah 44:6.
God’s title in Isaiah. “Who has done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, the first, and with the last, I am He” (Isaiah 41:4). “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides Me there is no God” (44:6). “I am He; I am the first, I am also the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens” (48:12–13). It is a title of the one God, said against every other god, and tied to creation.
God says it in Revelation. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the One Who Is and Who Was and Who Is Coming, the Ruler over everything” (1:8). And at the end, from the throne: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (21:6). Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.
And Jesus says it. To John, fallen at His feet: “Stop being afraid. I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead — and look, I am alive into the ages” (1:17–18). To Smyrna: “These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came back to life” (2:8). And near the end: “Look — I am coming soon, and my reward is with me … I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (22:12–13). The book does not name the speaker of 22:13, but “I am coming soon” is Jesus’ line at 22:7 and 22:20, and the grey note on chapter 22 sets out the speaker breaks. In 1:17 and 2:8 the speaker is the one who was dead, and that is Jesus.
What it means. Isaiah ties the title to “besides Me there is no God” and to the hand that laid the earth’s foundation. The New Testament says the same of the Son: “all things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being” (John 1:3); “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17); and Hebrews gives the Son the psalm’s words to the LORD, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands” (Hebrews 1:10). Thomas, seeing His hands and side, said, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). The title that in Isaiah belongs to God alone is His.
Why it matters to the one reading. The first time Jesus says it in this book, He says it with His right hand on a man lying at His feet like the dead: “Stop being afraid.” The one who was there at the beginning and will be there at the end has already been through death, and holds its keys (1:18). Whatever comes between the first and the last is held by Him.