Prologue
1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God
1gave him
2to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.
3He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,
2
4who bore witness to the word of God and to
5the testimony of Jesus Christ, even
6to all that he saw.
3
7Blessed 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,
8for the time is near.
Greeting to the Seven Churches
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from
9him
10who is and
11who was and who is to come, and from
12the seven spirits who are before his throne,
5
and from Jesus Christ
13the faithful witness,
14the firstborn of the dead, and
15the ruler of kings on earth. To
16him who loves us and
17has freed us from our sins by his blood
6
and made us
18a kingdom,
19priests to
20his God and Father, to him be
21glory and
22dominion forever and ever. Amen.
7
Behold,
23he is coming with the clouds, and
24every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
8
25"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God,
26"who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
Vision of the Son of Man
9 I, John, your brother and
27partner in
28the tribulation and
29the kingdom and
30the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos
31on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
10
32I was in the Spirit
33on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice
34like a trumpet
11
saying,
35"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."
12
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw
36seven golden lampstands,
13
and in the midst of the lampstands
37one like
38a son of man,
39clothed with a long robe and
40with a golden sash around his chest.
14
41The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.
42His eyes were like a flame of fire,
15
43his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and
44his voice was like the roar of many waters.
16
45In his right hand he held seven stars,
46from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and
47his face was like the sun shining
48in full strength.
17
49When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But
50he laid his right hand on me,
51saying,
"Fear not, 52I am the first and the last,
18
and the living one. 53I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and 54I have the keys of Death and Hades.
19
55Write therefore 56the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.
20
As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and 57the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and 58the seven lampstands are the seven churches.