1 A revelation given by Jesus Christ which God gave to Him, to make known to His slaves what must very soon take place. He sent and communicated it through His angel to His slave John,
2 who testifies to what he saw, the message of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the man who reads them and the people who hear the messages of this prophecy read, and heed what is written in it, for the time is near.
4 John to the seven churches in Asia: spiritual blessing and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven spirits that are before His throne,
5 and from Jesus Christ the trustworthy witness, the First-born of the dead, and the Sovereign of the kings of the earth. To Him who ever loves us and once for all released us from our sins by His blood,
6 and has made us a kingdom of priests for His God and Father: to Him be glory forever. Amen.
7 See! He is coming on the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even the men who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will lament over Him. Even so. Amen.
8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come, the Almighty.
9 I, John, your brother and companion with you in the trouble, the kingdom, and the patient endurance which Jesus gives, found myself on the island called Patmos, for preaching God's message and testifying to Jesus.
10 On the Lord's day I was in the Spirit's power, and I heard a voice like a trumpet behind me say:
11 "Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea."
12 I turned to see who it was that was speaking to me, and as I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
13 and among the lampstands One resembling the Son of Man, wearing a robe that reached to His feet, and with a belt of gold around His breast.
14 His head and hair were as white as white wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like coals of fire;
15 His feet were like bronze refined to white heat in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters.
16 In His right hand He was holding seven stars, and a sharp, double-edged sword was coming out of His mouth, and His face was shining like the sun at midday.
17 So when I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He laid His right hand upon me and said: "Do not be afraid any more. I am the First and the Last;
18 yea, the ever-living One. I once was dead, but now I live forever and ever. I carry the keys of death and the underworld.
19 So write what you have seen, what is and what is to take place hereafter.
20 The open secret of the seven stars that you have seen in my right hand, and of the seven golden lampstands, is this: The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.