Revelation 1

1The revelation of Jesus the Messiah, which God gave him to show his servants what must happen soon, and he made it known by sending it through his angel to his servant John,

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

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

4John, to the seven churches in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is, and who was, and who is coming, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,

5and from Jesus the Messiah, the faithful witness, the firstborn 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—

6and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

7Look, 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, “the one who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.”

9I, John, your brother and fellow participant in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

10I came to be in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

11saying, “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.”

12And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands,

13and in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded across the chest with a golden sash.

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

15and his feet were like burnished bronze, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters,

16And he had seven stars in his right hand, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his appearance was like the sun shining in its strength.

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—I became dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever—and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

19Therefore write what you have seen, and what is, and what is about to happen after these things.

20As for the mystery of the seven stars that 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.