1 A REVELATION of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, to show his servants [things] which must shortly occur, and he sent and made them known by his angel to his servant John,
2 who declared the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ which he saw.
3 Blessed is he that reads, and those that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written in it; for the time is at hand.
4 John, to the seven churches in Asia. Grace and peace be to you, from the Is and the Was and the Is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne,
5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him that loved us and washed us from our sins with his blood,
6 and made us a kingdom, priests to God even his Father, to him be the glory and the power forever; amen.
7 Behold, he comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see him and those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of him. Yes, amen.
8 I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God; the Is, and the Was, and the Is to come, the Almighty.
9 I, John, your brother and companion in the affliction and kingdom and patience in Christ Jesus, was in the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
10 I was 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 to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamus and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.
12 And I turned to see the voice which spoke with me; and having turned around I saw seven golden candlesticks,
13 and in the midst of the candlesticks one like the Son of man, clothed with a robe extending down to his feet, girded about the breasts with a golden girdle;
14 and his head and hairs were white as white wool, as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire,
15 and his feet like fine brass as if they were burned in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of many waters,
16 and he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword, and his face shone like the sun in his strength.
17 And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead; and he put his right hand on me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last
18 and the living, and I was dead, and behold, I am living forever and ever; and I have the keys of death and of hades.
19 Write therefore the things which you saw, and which are, and which are about to appear hereafter,
20 the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks the seven churches.