and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead, and the prince over the kings of earth; to him who loves us and has loosed us from our sins by shedding his blood ??6 he has made us a realm of priests for his God and Father, ??to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever: Amen.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man; but he laid his hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and Last,

I was dead and here I am alive for evermore, holding the keys that unlock death and Hades.

But I have this against you: you have given up loving one another as you did at first.

Now, remember the height from which you have fallen; repent and act as you did at first. If not, I will come to you [very soon] and remove your lamp stand, unless you repent.

Then to the angel of the church at Smyrna write thus: ??These are the words of the First and Last, who was dead and came to life:

I know your doings, your love and loyalty and service and patient endurance; I know you are doing more than you did at first.

Then to the angel of the church at Sardis write thus: ??These are the words of him who holds the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your doings, you have the name of being alive, but you are dead.

Lo, I will make those who belong to that synagogue of Satan, who style themselves Jews (no Jews are they, but liars!) ??lo, I will have them come and do homage before your feet and learn that I did love you.

But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands and give up worshipping daemons and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which cannot either see or hear or stir;

nor did they repent of their murders or of their magic spells or of their sexual vice or of their thefts.

Then I took the small scroll from the hand of the angel and swallowed it; it did taste sweet, like honey, but when I had eaten it, it was bitter to digest.

the nations were enraged, but thine anger has come; the time has come for the dead to be judged, the time for rewarding thy servants the prophets, and the saints who reverence thy name, both low and high, the time for destroying the destroyers of the earth."

But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they had to die for it, but they did not cling to life.

Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: ??'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth! Even so, it is the voice of the Spirit ??blessed in resting from their toils; for what they have done goes with them.'"

As for the rest of the dead, they did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.

And I saw the dead, high and low, standing before the throne, and books were opened ??also another book, the book of Life, was opened ??and the dead were judged by what was written in these books, by what they had done.

The sea gave up its corpses, Death and Hades gave up their dead, and all were judged by what each had done.