Revelation 1:12-20

Contemporary English Version

¹² When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. ^13 (A) There with the lampstands was someone who seemed to be the Son of Man.^[a] He was wearing a robe that reached down to his feet, and a gold cloth was wrapped around his chest. ^14 (B)(C) His head and his hair were white as wool or snow, and his eyes looked like flames of fire. ^15 (D) His feet were glowing like bronze being heated in a furnace, and his voice sounded like the roar of a waterfall. ¹⁶ He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword was coming from his mouth. His face was shining as bright as the sun at noon.

^17 (E) When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead person. But he put his right hand on me and said:

Don't be afraid! I am the first, the last, ¹⁸ and the living one. I died, but now I am alive forever, and I have the keys to death and the world of the dead.^{[b] 19} Write what you have seen and what is and what will happen after these things. ²⁰ I will explain the mystery of the seven stars you saw at my right side and the seven gold lampstands. The seven stars are the angels^[c] of the seven churches, and the lampstands are the seven churches.