Revelation 1 — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Chapter 1
The revelation and its readers
Verse 1:1
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His slaves the things that must take place soon. He made it known by sending through His angel to His slave John,
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Revelation renders apokalypsis, an unveiling. Of Jesus Christ can denote the source or the subject of the revelation. Slaves renders douloi, retained throughout as a service relation.
Reception: R001 (Victorinus tradition; scope 1:1,1:3).
Verse 1:2
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
who testified to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, all that he saw.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: John's testimony includes all he saw; the two genitives retain the relation to God and Jesus without replacing testimony with a later creed.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 1:3
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things written in it, for the time is near.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: One who reads is singular and those who hear plural, retaining the setting of a reader and hearers. Soon and near are not converted into a dated forecast.
Reception: R001 (Victorinus tradition; scope 1:1,1:3).
Greeting and doxology
Verse 1:4
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
John, to the seven Churches in Asia: grace to you and peace from the One who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven spirits before His throne,
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The divine title remains nominative after the Greek preposition from, an unusual construction rendered intelligibly in English. Seven spirits is retained without expanding it into a particular interpretation. Asia names the ancient region. Churches renders ekklēsiai for these Christian communities, following the contextual project convention without implying a later institutional structure.
Reception: R002 (Victorinus tradition; scope 1:4).
Verse 1:5
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
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 freed us from our sins in His blood—
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Freed translates lysanti, not washed. The source distinguishes the three descriptions of Jesus and the doxology to Him.
Reception: R003 (Victorinus tradition; scope 1:5); R088 (John Bunyan; scope 1:5).
Verse 1:6
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and dominion for the ages of the ages. Amen.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: A kingdom and priests is the accessed wording, not kings and priests.
Reception: R004 (Victorinus tradition; scope 1:6).
Verse 1:7
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Look, 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 mourn over Him. Yes, amen.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Every eye and all tribes make the vision universal in scope; even the piercers are expressly included. Mourning is not replaced by an explanation of their response.
Reception: R005 (Victorinus tradition; scope 1:7).
Verse 1:8
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Alpha and Omega name the first and last Greek letters. No added beginning and end phrase appears here in the accessed text.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
The vision on Patmos
Verse 1:9
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
I, John, your brother and fellow partner in the affliction and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, came to be on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: John shares affliction, kingdom and endurance with his hearers. Because of gives the stated reason for Patmos without supplying an unmentioned sentence of exile.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 1:10
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
I came to be in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The Lord’s day preserves kyriakē hēmera without inserting a weekday or replacing it with the differently phrased day of the Lord.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 1:11
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
saying, “What you see, write in a scroll and send to the seven Churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: One scroll is sent to seven named Churches. The text does not add the Alpha-and-Omega declaration found in some familiar versions of this verse.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 1:12
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands,
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: See the voice is the source's striking expression for turning toward the speaker; seven separate lampstands remain visible objects.
Reception: R006 (Victorinus tradition; scope 1:12–13).
Verse 1:13
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and in the midst of the lampstands One like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded around the chest with a golden belt.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Like a son of man preserves the comparison; the visible figure is identified through His own speech in 1:17–18. The robe is explicitly described as reaching to the feet.
Reception: R006 (Victorinus tradition; scope 1:12–13).
Biblical connection — Apocalyptic imagery: Daniel 7:13-14. The figure like a son of man recalls Daniel's vision; Revelation develops the image within its own account of the risen Christ.
Reception — Direct exposition: Irenaeus interprets the long garment as priestly and the vision as revealing Christ's glory. St. Irenaeus of Lyons · Against Heresies IV.20.11.
Verse 1:14
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And His head and hair were white like white wool, like snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire,
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The repeated comparisons concern whiteness and fiery eyes. Neither wool nor snow is changed into a literal material composing the figure.
Reception: R007 (Victorinus tradition; scope 1:14).
Verse 1:15
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and His feet like burnished bronze, as refined in a furnace, and His voice like the sound of many waters.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Burnished bronze is a provisional rendering of the rare chalkolibanon; the exact alloy is uncertain. The accessed feminine genitive participle pepyrōmenēs is grammatically irregular; as refined gives its furnace image without claiming to resolve its agreement.
Reception: R008 (Victorinus tradition; scope 1:15).
Verse 1:16
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And He held seven stars in His right hand, and from His mouth a sharp two-edged sword was coming out, and His appearance was like the sun shining in its strength.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The sword proceeds from His mouth, not His hand. Its two edges and the sun comparison are retained as distinct images.
Reception: R009 (Victorinus tradition; scope 1:16).
Verse 1:17
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He placed His right hand upon me, saying, “Do not fear. I am the first and the last,
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: As dead describes John's collapse without saying he died; the same right hand that bears the stars touches him reassuringly.
Reception: R079 (C. S. Lewis; scope 1:17).
Verse 1:18
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and the living One. I became dead, and look, I am living for the ages of the ages, and I have the keys of death and Hades.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Hades is retained as the named realm of the dead, distinct from the later lake of fire.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 1:19
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore write the things you saw, and the things that are, and the things that are to take place after these.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Saw, are and are to take place distinguish the wording's temporal expressions without turning the verse into a complete chronological outline.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.
Verse 1:20
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
The mystery of the seven stars you saw upon My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are angels of the seven Churches, and the seven lampstands are seven Churches.”
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The verse itself interprets stars and lampstands. Angel renders angelos; whether a Church’s angel is heavenly or a human messenger is not settled by adding an office title.
Reception: No passage-specific reception verified in this review.