Shared Word Translation
Revelation 1
Prologue
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
Greeting to the Seven Churches
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from the one who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 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 wail on account of him. So it is. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, the one who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
The Vision of the Son of Man
I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction and kingdom and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches—to Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamum and Thyatira and Sardis and Philadelphia and Laodicea.”
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair of his head was white, like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars; from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and Hades. Write therefore what you have seen, what is, and what is about to take place after these things. As for the mystery of the seven stars that 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.