Revelation 1
1
Prologue and Doxology
1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His servants the things which must soon occur. And He indicated it by sending it through His angel to His servant John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written in it, for the time is near.
Greeting and Doxology
4 John, to the seven churches in Asia:
Grace to you, and peace from the One* who is, and the One who was, and the One who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To the One who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood, 6 and has made us a kingdom, priests to His* God and Father.
To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.* Amen. 7 Behold, 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 lament because of Him. Yes. Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, * says the Lord God , the One who is, and the One who was, and the One who is to come, the Almighty.”
Vision of the Son of Man
9 I, John, your brother and co-participant in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account 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,* “What you see, write on a scroll 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 which was speaking with me. And after turning, I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a robe extending to the feet and girded around His chest with a golden belt, 14 and His head and His hair* were white, like white wool, like snow, and His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 and His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters, 16 and He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword coming from His mouth, 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 and He laid His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid. * I am the First and the Last, 18 and the One who lives, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever; ** and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
19 “Write, therefore, the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which are going to occur after these things. 20 Regarding * 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.
Notes
4 Some ancient manuscripts read God
6 Greek the . Here, the Greek definite article assumes a pronominal role, contextually equivalent to the English possessive pronoun His
6 Greek to the ages of the ages
8 Some ancient manuscripts insert [the] beginning and [the] end at this point
11 Some ancient manuscripts insert I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last at this point
14 Greek the hairs
17 Three ancient Greek manuscripts omit the imperative sentence Do not be afraid
18 Some ancient manuscripts insert Amen at this point
18 Greek to the ages of the ages
20 The word Regarding is contextually supplied for clarity
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Revelation 1: AFINTLIT
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
