Prologue

1The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

2who testified to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he ⁰saw.

3Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

Greeting to the Seven Churches

4John to the seven churches in Asia: Grace to you and peace from ¹God, 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 from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who ²loves us and ³washed us from our sins with his blood

6and made us ⁴to be a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the glory and the power forever ⁵and 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 wail on account of him. So shall it be! Amen.

8“I am the Alpha and the ⁶Omega,” says the Lord ⁷God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

John's Vision of Christ

9I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation, kingdom, and endurance that are ⁸in Christ Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus ⁹Christ.

10I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like that of a trumpet,

11saying, “ ¹⁰Write what yoʋ see in a book and send it to the ¹¹seven ¹²churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

12Then I turned ¹³in that direction to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands,

13and in the midst of the ¹⁴seven lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed with a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash wrapped around his chest.

14His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire,

15his feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

16In his right hand he held seven stars, out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength.

17When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though I were dead. But he placed his right hand upon me and ¹⁵said, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last,

18the living one. I was dead, but behold, I am alive forevermore. ¹⁶Amen. I have the keys of ¹⁷Death and Hades.

19¹⁸Therefore write what yoʋ have seen, what is now and what will take place after this.

20This is the mystery of the seven stars that yoʋ saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven ¹⁹lampstands are the seven churches.