Prologue

(Daniel 12:1-13)

1A revelation of Jesus Christ, that God gave to him, to shew to his servants what things it behoveth to come to pass quickly; and he did signify [it], having sent through his messenger to his servant John, 2who did testify the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, as many things also as he did see. 3Happy is he who is reading, and those hearing, the words of the prophecy, and keeping the things written in it—for the time is nigh!

John Greets the Seven Churches

4John to the seven assemblies that [are] in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, from Him who is, and who was, and who is coming, and from the Seven Spirits that are before His throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born out of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth; to him who did love us, and did bathe us from our sins in his blood, 6and did make us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him [is] the glory and the power to the ages of the ages! Amen. 7Lo, he doth come with the clouds, and see him shall every eye, even those who did pierce him, and wail because of him shall all the tribes of the land. Yes! Amen!

8‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and end, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is coming—the Almighty.’

John's Vision on Patmos

9I, John, who also [am] your brother, and fellow-partner in the tribulation, and in the reign and endurance, of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, because of the word of God, and because of the testimony of Jesus Christ; 10I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s-day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, 11‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last;’ and, ‘What thou dost see, write in a scroll, and send to the seven assemblies that [are] in Asia; to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.’

12And I did turn to see the voice that did speak with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lamp-stands, 13and in the midst of the seven lamp-stands, [one] like to a son of man, clothed to the foot, and girt round at the breast with a golden girdle, 14and his head and hairs white, as if white wool—as snow, and his eyes as a flame of fire; 15and his feet like to fine brass, as in a furnace having been fired, and his voice as a sound of many waters, 16and having in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword is proceeding, and his countenance [is] as the sun shining in its might.

17And when I saw him, I did fall at his feet as dead, and he placed his right hand upon me, saying to me, ‘Be not afraid; I am the First and the Last, 18and he who is living, and I did become dead, and, lo, I am living to the ages of the ages. Amen! and I have the keys of the hades and of the death. 19‘Write the things that thou hast seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to come after these things; 20the secret of the seven stars that thou hast seen upon my right hand, and the seven golden lamp-stands: the seven stars are messengers of the seven assemblies, and the seven lamp-stands that thou hast seen are seven assemblies.