The Revelation of John (American Standard Version, 1901) · 1 of 22 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)
1:1-1:19
[1:1] The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show unto his servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass: and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John;
[1:2] who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw.
[1:3] Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.
[1:4] John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from him who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits that are before his throne;
[1:5] and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood;
[1:6] and he made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
[1:7] Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him. Even so, Amen.
[1:8] I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
[1:9] I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
[1:10] I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet
[1:11] saying, What thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches: unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
[1:12] And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks;
[1:13] and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
[1:14] And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
[1:15] and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters.
[1:16] And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
[1:17] And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last,
[1:18] and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
[1:19] Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter;
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The vision of Christ is thoroughly anthropomorphic: a 'son of man' with a head, hair, eyes, feet, right hand, mouth, and countenance—embodied divine imagery in explicit detail.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
The vision is saturated with luminous imagery: eyes as a flame of fire, feet like burnished brass, countenance as the sun shineth in its strength, golden candlesticks and stars—divine light as the medium of revelation is clearly present.
The doctrine that the divine or a spiritual principle takes on a specific, bounded material or bodily form — descending from an unconditioned state into individual, corporeal existence — as a discrete act rather than a diffuse pervading presence. The Christian Word made flesh, the Hindu avatara, the Egyptian pharaoh as living Horus, the Vajrayana tulku. Distinct from divine_immanence (the general claim that the divine pervades all of creation diffusely, not a specific embodiment-event) and separation_from_source (the felt exile FROM origin, the opposite motion) in describing a specific, individuated descent INTO a particular body or form.
The title 'one like unto a son of man' (v. 13) and the reference to Jesus as 'the firstborn of the dead' who 'loosed us from our sins by his blood' point to the divine taking on specific bodily, historical existence—a discrete embodiment-event.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
John 'was in the Spirit' and perceives a non-physical dimension populated by the seven Spirits, the throne, and Christ in his transcendent glory—clearly a realm interpenetrating the physical but ordinarily imperceptible.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
The divine is described as actively speaking, sending, coming with clouds, and holding the keys of death and Hades—'the Living one' who 'was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore'—a vividly personal, dynamic, and responsive deity.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The number seven pervades the passage structurally (seven churches, seven candlesticks, seven stars, seven Spirits), functioning as a symbol of divine completeness and cosmic order, making number a significant structural element of the revelation.
Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.
The passage is dense with divine titles and self-declarations that carry ontological weight: 'Alpha and Omega,' 'the first and the last,' 'the Living one,' 'the faithful witness,' 'the firstborn of the dead,' 'the Almighty'—each name asserting a specific aspect of divine power and identity.