8. “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.”
9. I, John, your brother, who share with you the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus, found myself on the island called Patmos because I proclaimed God’s word and gave testimony to Jesus.
10. I was caught up in spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a voice as loud as a trumpet,
11. which said, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12. Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and when I turned, I saw seven gold lampstands
13. and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, wearing an ankle-length robe, with a gold sash around his chest.
14. The hair of his head was as white as white wool or as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame.