A.D. 96.
Revelation 1, 1-3; 9-20.
THE Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him: sent unto his servant John: who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
¶I, John, was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, †
What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
And I turned to see the voice that spake:
I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
He laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me,
Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
151:† Here (following) are set down those sayings only which John has ascribed to Christ, along with so much of John's context as barely to establish the sequences. The Revelation contains a series of prophetic visions—it is the only prophetic book in the New Testament. Its date is supposed to be A.D. 96.
