1 A REVELATION of Jesus Christ which God gave to him, to make known to his servants things which must soon take place. He sent and made it known through his angel to his servant John,
2 who bears witness to the message of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ \'97 everything that he saw.
3 Blessed is he who reads, and blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep in mind what is written in it; for the time is near.
4 John to the seven Churches in Asia: Grace be to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits that are before his throne,
5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood,
6 and made us a kingdom, priests to God his Father, to him be glory and power for the ages of the ages! Amen.
7 He is coming with clouds and every eye will see him, even of those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will beat their breasts because of him. Yes, Amen.
8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who shall be, the Almighty."
9 I, John, your brother and fellow sharer in the distresses and the kingdom and the endurance in Jesus, came to the island called Patmos, for the sake of the message of God and the testimony of Jesus.
10 I became in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,
11 saying, "What you see write 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 I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and upon turning I saw seven golden lampstands
13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed in a robe that reached his feet, and girded across the breast with a golden girdle.
14 His head and his hair were white, like white wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire,
15 and his feet were like fine brass when molten in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.
16 He had in his right hand seven stars, and from his mouth there issued a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in full strength.
17 When I saw him I fell at his feet as if dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said: "Do not fear. I am the first and the last
18 and the living one. I became dead, but now I am living for the ages of the ages, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
19 Write what you have seen, and what is and what is to be hereafter \'97
20 the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are seven churches.