1THIS IS THE REVELATION given by God to Jesus Christ. It was given to him so that he might show his servants what must shortly happen. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2who, in telling all that he saw, has borne witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ.
3Happy is the man who reads, and happy those who listen to the words of this prophecy and heed what is written in it. For the hour of fulfilment is near.
4JOHN TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES in the province of Asia.
Grace be to you and peace, from him who is and who was and who is to come, from the seven spirits before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed us from our sins with his life's blood, 6who made of us a royal house, to serve as the priests of his God and Father—to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever! Amen.
7 [ Dn.7.13, Zch.12.10. ] Behold, he is coming with the clouds! Every eye shall see him, and among them those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the world shall lament in remorse. So it shall be. Amen.
8'I am the Alpha and the Omega', says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the sovereign Lord of all.
9I, John, your brother, who share with you in the suffering and the sovereignty and the endurance which is ours in Jesus—I was on the island called Patmos because I had preached God's word and borne my testimony to Jesus. 10It was on the Lord's day, and I was caught up by the Spirit; and behind me I heard a loud voice, like the sound of a trumpet, 11which said to me, 'Write down what you see on a scroll and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.' 12I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me; and when I turned I saw seven standing lamps of gold, 13 [ Dn.7.3, Eze.9.2, Dn.10.5. ] and among the lamps one like a son of man, robed down to his feet, with a golden girdle round his breast. 14 [ Dn.7.9, Dn.10.6. ] The hair of his head was white as snow-white wool, and his eyes flamed like fire; 15his feet gleamed like burnished brass refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and his face shone like the sun in full strength.
17When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me and said, 'Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, 18and I am the is living one; for I was dead and now I am alive for evermore, and I hold the keys of Death and Death's domain. 19Write down therefore what you have seen, what is now, and what will be hereafter.
20'Here is the secret meaning of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and of the seven lamps of gold: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamps are the seven churches.
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