1 ⁹ I, 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. 1 ¹⁰ It 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, 1 ¹¹ which 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.'

1 ¹² I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me; and when I turned I saw seven standing lamps of gold, 1 ^{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. 1 ^{14 [ Dn.7.9, Dn.10.6. ]} The hair of his head was white as snow-white wool, and his eyes flamed like fire; 1 ¹⁵ his feet gleamed like burnished brass refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 1 ¹⁶ In 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.

1 ¹⁷ When 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, 1 ¹⁸ and 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. 1 ¹⁹ Write down therefore what you have seen, what is now, and what will be hereafter.

1 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.