Prologue
(Daniel 12:1–13)

1The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him to show to His servants what is necessary to take place in quickness.† And He signified it through having sent His angel to His servant John, 2who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, as much as he saw.†

3Blessed is the one reading and those hearing the words of the prophecy and keeping the things written in it; for the time is near.

John Greets the Seven Churches

4John,

To the seven churches in Asia:†

Grace to you⁺ and peace from the One who is† and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits† before His throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To the One loving us and releasing us from our sins in His blood— 6and He made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion to the ages of the ages.† Amen.

7Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail because of Him. Yes! Amen.

8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,”† says the Lord God, the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.

John’s Vision on Patmos

9I, John, your⁺ brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, was in the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.† 10I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, 11saying,† “What you see, write in a book and send to the seven churches:† to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

12And† I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and in the midst of the† lampstands, One like the Son of Man,† dressed to the foot, and girded around at the breasts with a golden sash. 14And His head and the hairs were white as wool, white as snow, and His eyes as a flame of fire, 15and His feet like burnished bronze, as having been refined in a furnace, and His voice as a voice of many waters, 16and having in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp two-edged sword is going forth out of His mouth; and His face is as the sun shining in its power.

17And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He placed His right hand upon me, saying,† “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, 18and the Living One. And I became dead, and behold I am living to the ages of the ages,† and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.†

19Therefore† write the things that you saw, and the things that are, and the things that are about to take place after these. 20The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw on 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.

Footnotes:

1 Or in suddenness; or soon
2 ALT and F35 saw, what is now, and what must take place after this.
4 Or in the province of Asia; Asia was a Roman province in what is now western Turkey.
4 RP from God who is
4 Or the sevenfold Spirit
6 WH dominion to the ages.
8 TR the Alpha and the Omega, Beginning and End
9 BYZ and TR the testimony of Jesus Christ
11 TR saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and,
11 TR includes in Asia.
12 RP And there
13 BYZ and TR include seven.
13 Or one like a son of man; see Daniel 7:13.
17 TR saying to me
18 BYZ and TR include Amen.
18 TR the keys of Hades and of Death
19 TR does not include Therefore.
20 ALT, F35, and TR lampstands that you saw