Revelation 1
1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending it through his angel to his servant John.
2 He bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ: everything he saw.
3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep what is written in it, because the time is near.
4 John, to the seven churches in Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits before his throne,
5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
6 he made us a kingdom, priests for his God and Father. To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
7 Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Yes, amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.”
9 I, John, your brother and companion in suffering, in the kingdom, and in endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
10 On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.
11 It said, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12 I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and as I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.
13 Among the lampstands I saw someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and wearing a golden sash across his chest.
14 His head and hair were white like white wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire.
15 His feet were like polished bronze, glowing as if in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.
16 In his right hand he held seven stars; from his mouth came a sharp, double-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in all its strength.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. He laid his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last,
18 and the Living One. I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and Hades.
19 So write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after these things.
20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
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