Revelation 1

¹ This is the revelation given by God to Jesus Christ so that he could tell his servants about the things which are now to take place[*a] very soon; he sent his angel to make it known to his servant John,

² and John has written down everything he saw and swears it is the word of God guaranteed by Jesus Christ.

³ Happy the man who reads this prophecy, and happy those who listen to him, if they treasure all that it says, because the Time is close.

⁴ From John, to the seven churches of Asia: grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come, from the seven spirits in his presence before his throne,

⁵ and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-born from the dead, the Ruler of the kings of the earth. He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood,

⁶ and made us a line of kings, priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

⁷ It is he who is coming on the clouds; everyone will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. This is the truth. Amen.

⁸ ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’ says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

⁹ My name is John, and through our union in Jesus I am your brother and share your sufferings, your kingdom, and all you endure. I was on the island of Patmos[*c] for having preached God’s word and witnessed for Jesus;

¹⁰ it was the Lord’s day and the Spirit possessed me, and I heard a voice behind me, shouting like a trumpet,

¹¹ ‘Write down all that you see in a book, and send it to the seven churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea’.

¹² I turned round to see who had spoken to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands

¹³ and, surrounded by them, a figure like a Son of man,[*d] dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a golden girdle.

¹⁴ His head and his hair were white as white wool or as snow, his eyes like a burning flame,

¹⁵ his feet like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of the ocean.[*e]

¹⁶ In his right hand he was holding seven stars, out of his mouth came a sharp sword, double-edged, and his face was like the sun shining with all its force.

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell in a dead faint at his feet, but he touched me with his right hand and said, ‘Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One,

¹⁸ I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of the underworld.

¹⁹ Now write down all that you see of present happenings and things that are still to come[*f]

²⁰ The secret of the seven stars you have seen in my right hand, and of the seven golden lamp-stands is this: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamp-stands are the seven churches themselves.