﻿Revelation.
Chapter 1.
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his slaves what must take place soon. He made it known by sending his angel to his slave John, 
who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all that he saw. 
Blessed is the one who reads, and blessed are those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep what is written in it, for the time is near. 
John, to the seven churches in Asia: grace and peace to you from the one who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood— 
and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 
Look, 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 because of him. Yes, amen. 
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.” 
I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 
saying, “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” 
And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 
and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 
His head and his hair were white, like white wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. 
His feet were like burnished bronze, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 
In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength. 
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, 
and the Living One. I was dead, and look, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and Hades. 
Write therefore what you saw, what is, and what is to take place after these things. 
As for the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are seven churches.” 
