The Revelation of Jesus Christ

1The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His slaves the things which must soon happen; and He indicated this by sending it through His angel to His slave [†]John, 2who bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near.

Message to the Seven Churches

4John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from the One who is and who was and who [†]is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins [†]by His blood— 6and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to [†]His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen. 7BEHOLD, 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 OVER HIM. Yes, amen.

8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the [†]Lord God, “who is and who was and who [†]is to come, the Almighty.”

The Vision of the Son of Man

9I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and [†]perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the witness of Jesus. 10I was [†]in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11saying, “Write in a scroll what you see, 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.”

12Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; 13and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like [†]a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. 14And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters, 16and having in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp two-edged sword which comes out of His mouth, and His face was like the sun [†]shining in its power.

17And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not fear; I am the first and the last, 18and the living One; and I [†]was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. 19Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. 20As for the mystery of the seven stars which 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.