Revelation 1

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 to the testimony of Jesus Christ—everything he saw.

3Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear them 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 Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,

6and has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the glory and the might 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, who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.

9I, John, your brother and your partner in the affliction, the kingdom, and the endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony 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, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

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

13and in the middle of the lampstands was one like a son of man, dressed in a robe that reached to his feet, with a golden sash wrapped around his chest.

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

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

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

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

18and the Living One. I was dead, and look, I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of Hades.

19So write what you have seen, and what is, and what is going to take place after this.

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.