A, the first letter in almost all alphabets. In Hebrew it is called aleph, which signifies ox, from the shape of it in the old Phoenician alphabet, where it somewhat resembles the head and horns of that animal. (Plutarch. Quaest. Sympos. ix. 2. Gesenii Thesaur. Heb. p. 1 ) This Hebrew name has passed over along with the letter itself, into the Greek alpha. Both the Hebrews and Greeks employed the letters of their alphabets as numerals ; and A, therefore, (aleph or alpha) denoted one, the first. Hence our Lord says of himself, that he is (ra a) Alpha and Omega, i. e. the first and the last, the beginning and the ending, as he himself explains it, Rev. i. 8, 11 ; xxi. 6 ; xxii. 13.