Pope Shenouda III
The Lord Jesus Christ said that He is the First and that He is the Alpha, This means that there is none before Him. This phrase can not be interpreted other than that He is God Himself, otherwise God would not have been existing because there is none before the First and none before the Alpha. How can the saying of Christ that He is the First fall in with the saying of God: "I am He, before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me"? The only conformity is that the two sayings were said by the same Speaker.