Revelation 1

1 A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his slaves what must happen quickly; and he signified it, sending it through his messenger to his slave John, [a] 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ — to everything he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things written in it, for the time is near. [c]

4 John, to the seven gatherings that are in Asia: favor to you and peace from the One who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven spirits that are before his throne, [d] 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood — [e] 6 and he made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father — to him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen. [f]

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.” [h]

9 I, John, your brother and fellow sharer in the affliction and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, came to be on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. [i] † † 10 I came to be in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, [j] 11 saying, “What you see, write in a scroll and send to the seven gatherings: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

12 And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me; and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the middle of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed in a robe down to the feet and wrapped around at the breasts with a golden sash. [k] 14 His head and his hair were white like white wool, like snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire, 15 and his feet like burnished bronze, as when it has been fired in a furnace, and his voice like the voice of many waters, [l] 16 and having in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword going out, and his face like the sun shining in its power. [m]

17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. And he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one — and I became dead, and look, I am living forever and ever — and I have the keys of death and of Hades. [n] 19 Write, then, the things you saw, and the things that are, and the things that are about to happen after these. 20 As for the secret of the seven stars that you saw on my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are messengers of the seven gatherings, and the seven lampstands are seven gatherings. [o]