Revelation 1

The revelation of Jesus Christ

¹The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants the things that must soon happen; and He made it known by signs, sending it through His angel to His servant John,^•²who testified to the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ, all that he saw.^•³Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep what is written in it, for the time is near.^•

Grace and peace to the seven churches

⁴John, to the seven churches that are in Asia:^•Grace to you and peace^•from Him Who Is, and Who Was, and Who Is Coming,^•and from the Seven Spirits who are 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 Him who loves us^•and freed us from our sins by His blood,^•⁶and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father,^•to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.^•⁷Behold, He is coming with the clouds,^•and every eye will see Him,^•and also those who pierced Him;^•and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.^•Yes, amen.^•⁸I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God,^•He Who Is, and Who Was, and Who Is Coming, the Almighty.^•

Christ among the lampstands

⁹I, John, your brother and companion in the tribulation and the kingdom and the perseverance in Jesus, was on 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 like a trumpet,^•¹¹saying: 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.^•

¹²And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,^•¹³and in the midst of the lampstands One like a Son of Man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded at the chest with a golden sash.^•

¹⁴His head and hair were white like white wool, like snow;^•and His eyes were like a flame of fire;^•¹⁵His feet were like gleaming bronze, as though refined in a furnace;^•and His voice was like the voice of many waters.^•¹⁶In His right hand He held seven stars,^•and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword;^•and His face was like the sun when it shines in its strength.^•

¹⁷When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. Then He laid His right hand on me, saying: Do not fear; I am the First and the Last,^•¹⁸and the Living One. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of the grave.^•¹⁹Write, therefore, the things that you saw, and the things that are, and the things that are about to happen after these things.^•²⁰As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in My right hand, and of the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.^•

Notes

1:1 Gr. δούλοις, lit. “slaves”. “Made it known by signs”: Gr. ἐσήμανεν, a verb related to σημεῖον, “sign”; the book communicates through symbols. ↩
1:2 The μαρτυρ- family is always rendered testify / testimony / Witness (cf. 12:17; 19:10). ↩
1:3 A single “blessed” (μακάριος) covers the reader, in the singular (the one who reads aloud in the assembly), and a single group that hears and keeps; one article governs both participles. τηρέω = “keep” throughout the book (cf. 12:17; 14:12). ↩
1:4 Gr. ἀπὸ ὁ ὤν: the divine name stays in the nominative after the preposition, as an indeclinable name (cf. Ex 3:14). “Who Is Coming”: present tense (ὁ ἐρχόμενος), the same verb as “He is coming” in 1:7. “Seven Spirits”: the capital follows their place in the greeting, between Him Who Is and Jesus Christ, as the source of grace and peace; alternative reading: seven angelic spirits (cf. 8:2). ↩
1:5 Variants: the Textus Receptus reads “loved us”; it and the Byzantine text read “washed us” (λούσαντι). The SBLGNT is followed, with Papyrus 18 and codices Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus and Ephraemi: “loves us” (ἀγαπῶντι) and “freed us” (λύσαντι). ↩
1:6 Variant: the Textus Receptus reads “kings and priests”; the SBLGNT, “a kingdom, priests” (cf. Ex 19:6). “Forever and ever” (εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, lit. “to the ages of the ages”): the formula is rendered the same way throughout the book. ↩
1:7 Cf. Dan 7:13; Zech 12:10. “Yes, amen”: Gr. ναί (Greek) + ἀμήν (Hebrew), a double affirmation. ↩
1:8 “Almighty”: Gr. παντοκράτωρ, which in the Septuagint usually renders “LORD of Hosts” (e.g. Amos 4:13) and, in Job, “Shaddai”. Variant: the Textus Receptus adds “the Beginning and the End” and reads “says the Lord”, without “God”. ↩
1:9 “Was” renders ἐγενόμην, a verb repeated in 1:9, 1:10 and 1:18. ὑπομονή = “perseverance” (cf. 14:12). Variant: the Byzantine text reads “in Christ Jesus”, and the Textus Receptus “of Jesus Christ”; both read “the Testimony of Jesus Christ”. ↩
1:10 Gr. ἐν τῇ κυριακῇ ἡμέρᾳ, with the adjective κυριακός, “belonging to the Lord”; the text does not name the day. Cf. Ex 20:10; Isa 58:13; Mark 2:28. ↩
1:11 Gr. βιβλίον, a scroll; “book” is kept for consistency with 5:1ff. Variant: the Textus Receptus begins the speech with “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last” and adds “that are in Asia”. ↩
1:12 Gr. λυχνία; cf. the lampstand of the sanctuary, Ex 25:31–37. ↩
1:13 Cf. Dan 7:13; “a Son of Man”: Gr. υἱὸν ἀνθρώπου, without the article, as in Daniel. “Robe reaching to the feet”: Gr. ποδήρη, the term for the high priest’s garments in the Septuagint (Ex 28:4; 28:31 [LXX 28:27]; cf. Zech 3:4). The capital follows the self-identification in 1:17–18. Variant: the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus read “the seven lampstands”. ↩
1:14 Cf. Dan 7:9 (the Ancient of Days). ↩
1:15 Gr. χαλκολίβανον, a metal of uncertain identification. “Refined”: the same verb as in 3:18 (πυρόω). Cf. Ezek 43:2. ↩
1:16 Cf. Isa 49:2; Judg 5:31. ↩
1:17 “Right hand”: Gr. τὴν δεξιάν, “the right”, without the word “hand” (also in 1:20); in 1:16 the Greek has “right hand”. Variant: the Textus Receptus adds “hand” here. Cf. Isa 44:6; 48:12. ↩
1:18 “The grave”: Gr. ᾅδης (Hades), equivalent to Heb. sheol (cf. Hos 13:14). Variant: the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus add “Amen” after “forever and ever”; the Textus Receptus reads “of the grave and of death”. ↩
1:19 Or: “the things that you saw, that is, the things that are and the things that are about to happen after these things”. ↩
1:20 Gr. ἄγγελοι, or “messengers”. ↩