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¶ THE Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his servants those things which must soon come to pass;
he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John,
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Who bore record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw.
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Blessed is he who reads and they who listen to the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it;
for the time is at hand.
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John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come;
and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
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And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first to arise from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.
To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
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And has made us a spiritual kingdom to God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
Amen.
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Behold he will come with the clouds;
and every eye shall see him, even the men who pierced him;
and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail over him.
Even so, Amen.
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I am Aleph and Tau, the beginning and the ending says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
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¶ I, John, your brother and companion in suffering and in the hope of Jesus Christ, was in the island which is called Patmos because of the word of God and because of the testimony of Jesus Christ.
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The Spirit of prophecy came upon me on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying,
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What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.
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And I turned to see the voice that spoke to me.
And as I turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks,
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And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one resembling the Son of man, wearing a long vestment and girded round his breast with a golden girdle.
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His head and his hair were white as wool, as white as snow;
and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
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And his feet were like the fine brass of Lebanon, as though they were burned in a furnace;
and his voice was as the sound of many waters.
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And he had in his right hand seven stars;
and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword;
and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.
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And 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;
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I am he who lives, and was dead;
and, behold, I am alive for evermore.
Amen.
And I have the keys of death and of Sheol.
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Write, therefore, the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter,
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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 the seven churches.