I work with a guy who studies Hebrew. He used to be a Messianic Christian pastor for a while.
He clued me in on something very, very, very interesting a while back.
The "et" you speak of is a very intriguing word in the Hebrew language. It is composed of the 'Alef' and 'Tav'. These two letters happen to be the first and the last letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
In other words, all Hebrew words are composed of these two letters along with the letters between them.
Now think about Revelation 22:13;
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
Is Christ being redundant here? Or is He stating something? This guy I work with says that there is a WEALTH of treasure when you contemplate the word "et" in the Old Testament. For in all reality it speaks of Christ each and every time it is written; from beginning - to end.
He says that Jewish scholars still have a hard time with this. They do not see this in the light it is shown only through the recognition of Christ as Messiah. What they do is acknowledge its presence, but not that it is specifically significant to anything in particular. Primarily because it is used one way in one passage, and then another way in another passage. But when you look at it, study it, with Christ in mind - then it takes on a whole meaning of its own and resounds with intense depth.
I would suggest to you the simple fact that it is included in this verse is simply as a statement of reflecting to who this is speaking of. Nothing more, and nothing less. But of course, I am not a scholar and certainly not stating this to be the absolute truth. But it would be an interesting place to begin looking into the validity of what this guy I work with says about this "word". (In the beginning was
the Word...)
...Whats interesting is the fact that this "et" is in the very first verse in the Bible.