The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his
servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by
sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word
of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he
saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy,
and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it,
for the time is near.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to
come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and
from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be
glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming
with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced
him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even
so. Amen.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and
who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the
kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the
island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the
testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I
heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you
see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to
Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to
Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on
turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the
lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with
a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white,
like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his
feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his
voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held
seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his
face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid
his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the
last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive
forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Write
therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those
that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven
stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden
lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches,
and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
