1The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew his servants the things which must shortly come to pass: and he sent and signified them by his angel to his servant John, 2Who hath testified the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, all things which he saw. 3Happy is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein: for the time is near. 4John to the seven churches which are in Asia; Grace be unto you, and peace from him who is, and who was, and who cometh, and from the seven Spirits that are before the throne, 5And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth: 6To him that loved us, and hath washed us from our sins with his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto his God and Father, to him be the glory and the might for ever. 7Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they who have pierced him: and all the tribes of the earth shall wail because of him. 8Yea. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who cometh, the Almighty. 9I John, your brother and companion in the affliction, and in the kingdom, and patience of Jesus, was in the island Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus. 10I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, 11and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, Saying, what thou seest, write in a book and send to the seven churches, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. 12And I turned to see the voice that spake with me; and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one, 13like a son of man, cloathed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breast with a golden girdle. 14His head and hair were white as white wool, as snow, 15and his eyes as a flame of fire, And his feet like fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the voice of many waters. 16And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. 17And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead: and he laid his right-hand upon me, saying, Fear not, I am the First and the Last, 18And he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of death and of Hades. 19Write the things which thou hast seen, and which are, and which shall be hereafter: 20The mystery of the stars which thou sawest in my right hand and of the seven golden candlesticks. The stars are angels of the churches: and the candlesticks are seven churches.