1 Joshua Christ’s revelation, which God gave Him to show to His bondservants things which must happen in a short time. And He communicated it, sending it by His messenger to His bondservant Johanan, 2 who reported God’s word and the testimony of Joshua Christ, everything that he saw, both the things that are and those that must happen after these.
3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, because the time is near!
4 Johanan, to the seven assemblies that are in the province of Asia: Favor to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is coming; and from the seven spirits which are† in front of His throne; 5 and from Joshua Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and washed us from our sins in his own blood— 6 and has made us a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the recognition and the dominion forever and ever. May it be so.
7 Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. And all the clans of the land will cry bitterly over him. Yes, may it be so!
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Master God, “He who is and who was and who is coming, the ruler of all.”
9 I, Johanan, your brother and partner in the trouble and Kingdom and perseverance in Christ Joshua, was on the island called Patmos because of God’s word and because of the testimony of Joshua Christ. 10 I came to be, in spirit, in the Day of the Master, and I heard a voice behind me, loud as a ram’s horn, 11 saying, “What you see, write in a book and send to the seven congregations: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
12 And there I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. 13 And in between the seven lampstands someone like a son of man, clothed with a full-length robe, and having around his chest a golden belt. 14 And his head and his hair were white like wool, white like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire; 15 and his feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the voice of many waters; 16 and he held seven stars in his right hand and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword going out, and his face was like the sun shining at its brightest. 17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet, like dead, and he put his right hand on me, saying,“Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last, 18 and the living, and I became dead—and look—I am living forever and ever! Really! I hold the keys of death and of the grave. 19 Write then the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen after these. 20 The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the messengers of the seven congregations, and the seven lampstands which you saw are seven congregations.