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¹ The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his slaves, [even] the things which must shortly come to pass: and he sent and signified [it] by his angel to his slave John;² who bore witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, [even] of all things that he saw.

³ Blessed is he that reads, and those that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.⁴ John to the seven churches that 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 that are before his throne;⁵ and from Jesus Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him that loves us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood;⁶ and he made us [to be] a kingdom, [to be] priests to his God and Father; to him [be] the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.⁷ Look, he comes with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and those that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over 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 partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience [which are] in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for 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 great voice, as of a trumpet¹¹ saying, What you see, write in a book 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 And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks;¹³ and in the midst of the candlesticks one like a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle.¹⁴ And his head and his hair were white as white wool, [white] as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;¹⁵ and his feet like burnished bronze, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters.¹⁶ And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shines in his strength.¹⁷ And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand on me, saying, Don't be afraid; I am the first and the last,¹⁸ and the Living one; and I became dead, and look, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.¹⁹ Write therefore the things which you saw, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass after these things;²⁰ the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks are seven churches.