Revelation 1

Common^{(i) 1} The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what must soon take place. And he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, ² who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. ³ Blessed is he who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near. ⁴ John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and has made us a kingdom and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. ⁷ Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Even so. Amen. ⁸ "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." ⁹ I, John, your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, ¹¹ saying, "Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea." ¹² Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and in the midst of the lampstands one like a Son of Man, clothed with a robe down to the feet and girded round his chest with a golden band. ¹⁴ His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire; ¹⁵ his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters; ¹⁶ he held in his right hand seven stars, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength. ¹⁷ And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, ¹⁸ and the Living One; I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore! And I have the keys of death and Hades. ¹⁹ Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place after this. ²⁰ The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.