who testified about this message from God and the testimony about Jesus the Messiah.

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

and has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father; to him be glory and might from age to age. Amen.

and I turned to see from whence the voice came that spake to me. and turning about, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

In His right hand He held seven stars, and from His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword [of judgment]; and His face [reflecting His majesty and the Shekinah glory] was like the sun shining in [all] its power [at midday].

and I am he that lives; and I was dead, and be hold, I am alive from age to age: and I have the keys of hades and of death.

"To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write the following: "This is the solemn pronouncement of the one who has a firm grasp on the seven stars in his right hand -- the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands:

But I have this against you, that you are turned away from your first love.

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will grant to him to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.'

I know thy tribulation, and destitution, nevertheless, thou art, rich, and the profane speech from among them who affirm that they themselves are, Jews, and they are not, but a synagogue of Satan.

Fear nothing from the things which thou shalt suffer: lo! the devil will cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have a ten day's tribulation: be thou faithful until death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

Let him who has ears hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches. He who conquers shall suffer no hurt from the Second Death."

I have knowledge that your living-place is where Satan has his seat: and you are true to my name, and were not turned away from your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my true witness, who was put to death among you, where Satan has his place.

Therefore repent! But if you do not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war with them with the sword from my mouth.

He who is having an ear -- let him hear what the Spirit saith to the assemblies: To him who is overcoming, I will give to him to eat from the hidden manna, and will give to him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, that no one knew except him who is receiving it.

and I did give to her a time that she might reform from her whoredom, and she did not reform;

Listen carefully, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her [I will bring] into great anguish, unless they repent of her deeds.

But hold firm what ye have until I come.

'And the conqueror, he who till the end lays to heart what I enjoin, I will give him authority over the nations ??27 aye, he will shepherd them with an iron flail, shattering them like a potter's jars ??as I myself have received authority from my Father;

and he shall shepherd them with an iron rod; as vessels of pottery are they broken in pieces, as I also have received from my Father;

as I also have received from my Father, and I will give him the morning star.

Rouse yourself and keep awake, and strengthen those things which remain but have well-nigh perished; for I have found no doings of yours free from imperfection in the sight of My God.

He who is overcoming -- this one -- shall be arrayed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the scroll of the life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before His messengers.

Take note! I will make those from the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews and are not, but are lying—note this—I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I have loved you.

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

I am coming quickly: cling to that which you already possess, so that your wreath of victory be not taken away from you.

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

I counsel thee to buy from me gold fired by fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white garments that thou mayest be arrayed, and the shame of thy nakedness may not be manifest, and with eye-salve anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see.

Immediately, I was in [i.e., under the influence of] the Holy Spirit [See 1:10], and there before me was situated a throne in heaven, with Someone sitting on it [Note: From the following description, this appears to have been God].

And around God's throne there were twenty-four [other] thrones, with twenty-four elders sitting on them. [Note: These "elders" are generally considered to represent all the saved of both covenants. The number twenty-four is thought to be derived from the twelve patriarchs and the twelve apostles]. They were dressed in white clothing and had golden crowns on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning and [rumbling] sounds and peals of thunder. Seven lamps of fire were burning in front of the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God;

And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him that sits on the throne, who lives from age to age,

the twenty-four elders fall down before him that sits on the throne, and worship him that lives from age to age, and throw their crowns before the throne, saying: Thou art worthy, Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and by thy will they exist, and were created.

And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who deserves to break the seals on it and open the book?" [Note: This "book" was probably a rolled up scroll written on both sides, with wax seals keeping it from unrolling and its contents from being exposed].

Then one of the elders said to me, “Stop crying. Look! The Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has been victorious so that He may open the scroll and its seven seals.”

And He came and took the scroll from the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.

And they sang a new song [of glorious redemption], saying,

“Worthy and deserving are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slain (sacrificed), and with Your blood You purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

And every creature that is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are on the sea, even all that are in them, I heard saying: To him that sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and strength from age to age.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

And I heard something like a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius (a day’s wages), and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard a voice from the fourth living creature saying, "Come!"

and they were crying with a great voice, saying, 'Till when, O Master, the Holy and the True, dost Thou not judge and take vengeance of our blood from those dwelling upon the land?'

And the stars of heaven were falling to the earth, like green fruit from a tree before the force of a great wind.

The sky was split [separated from the land] and rolled up like a scroll, and every mountain and island were dislodged and moved out of their places.

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

After that I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds from blowing on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

And I heard the number of the ones who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand sealed, from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand,

from the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand,

from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand,

from the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand, from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed.

After these things I looked, and this is what I saw: a vast multitude which no one could count, [gathered] from every nation and from all the tribes and peoples and languages [of the earth], standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Christ), dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands;

And they called out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation comes from [or, "belongs to"] our God, who sits on His throne, and from [or, "to"] the Lamb."

saying, Amen: blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God from acre to acre. Amen.

Then one of the elders responded, saying to me, “These who are dressed in the long white robes—who are they, and from where did they come?”

And I said to him, My Lord, you know. And he said to me, These are those who come out from great affliction, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

And the smoke and fragrant aroma of the incense, with the prayers of the saints (God’s people), ascended before God from the angel’s hand.

And the angel took the censer, and filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast it on the earth: and there were voices, and thunders and lightnings, and an earthquake.

And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

The name of the star is Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the waters, because they had become bitter (toxic).

Then the fourth angel sounded [his trumpet], and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and a third of the daylight would not shine, and the night in the same way [would not shine].

And I saw, and I heard one messenger, flying in the mid-heaven, saying with a great voice, 'Woe, woe, woe, to those dwelling upon the land from the rest of the voices of the trumpet of the three messengers who are about to sound.'

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

and he did open the pit of the abyss, and there came up a smoke out of the pit as smoke of a great furnace, and darkened was the sun and the air, from the smoke of the pit.

And from the midst of the smoke there came locusts on to the earth, and power was given to them resembling the power which earthly scorpions possess.

And orders were given them not to put them to death, but to give them great pain for five months: and their pain was as the pain from the wound of a scorpion.

And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

And this is how I saw the horses and their riders in my vision: the riders had breastplates [the color] of fire and of hyacinth (sapphire blue) and of brimstone (yellow); and the heads of the horses looked like the heads of lions; and from out of their mouths came fire and smoke and brimstone (burning sulfur).

by these three were the third of men killed, from the fire, and from the smoke, and from the brimstone, that is proceeding out of their mouth,

and the rest of men, who were not killed in these plagues, neither did reform from the works of their hands, that they may not bow before the demons, and idols, those of gold, and those of silver, and those of brass, and those of stone, and those of wood, that are neither able to see, nor to hear, nor to walk,

yea they did not reform from their murders, nor from their sorceries, nor from their whoredoms, nor from their thefts.

And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:

And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.

and swore by him that lives from age to age, who created the heaven and the things that are in it, and the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, That time should no longer intervene,

And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.

So I took the little book from the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey; but once I had swallowed it, my stomach was bitter.

And if anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.

These witnesses have authority to close the heavens in order to keep rain from falling while they are prophesying. They also have authority to turn bodies of water into blood and to strike the earth with any plague, as often as they desire.

And when they have completed their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war with them and will conquer them and will kill them.

And from among the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations do men look upon their dead bodies three days and a half, and suffer not their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.

And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying: The kingdom of the world has become our Lord's and his Christ s, and he shall reign from age to age.

She was pregnant and was crying out from her labor pains, the agony of giving birth.

And his tail swept away a third of the stars from heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, in order that whenever she gave birth to her child he could devour [it].

and the woman did flee to the wilderness, where she hath a place made ready from God, that there they may nourish her -- days a thousand, two hundred, sixty.

And the great dragon was forced down, the old snake, who is named the Evil One and Satan, by whom all the earth is turned from the right way; he was forced down to the earth, and his angels were forced down with him.

But they have gained the victory over him because of the blood of the Lamb and of the testimony which they have borne, and because they held their lives cheap and did not shrink even from death.

And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

And from his mouth the serpent spouted water like a river after the woman, in order that he could make her swept away by a river.

But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon had hurled out of his mouth.

{ And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw coming up from the sea a wild beast, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.}

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If anyone is meant for captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed by the sword, then by the sword he must be killed. This requires steadfast endurance and faith from the saints.

And I saw another beast coming up from the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he was speaking like a dragon.