“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” ¹  says the Lord God – the one who is, and who was, and who is still to come – the All-Powerful! ² 

Now ¹  I heard the angel of the waters saying: “You are just ²  – the one who is and who was, the Holy One – because you have passed these judgments, ³ 

The ¹  beast that was, and is not, is himself an eighth king and yet is one of the seven, and is going to destruction.

As for ¹  the woman you saw, she is the great city that has sovereignty over the kings of the earth.”

Now on ¹  one of those days, while he was teaching, there were Pharisees ²  and teachers of the law ³  sitting nearby (who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem), ⁴  and the power of the Lord was with him ⁵  to heal.

Then, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not stay on the crosses on the Sabbath ¹  (for that Sabbath was an especially important one), ²  the Jewish leaders ³  asked Pilate to have the victims’ legs ⁴  broken ⁵  and the bodies taken down. ⁶ 

The beast you saw was, and is not, but is about to come up from the abyss ¹  and then go to destruction. The ²  inhabitants of the earth – all those whose names have not been written in the book of life since the foundation of the world – will be astounded when they see that ³  the beast was, and is not, but is to come.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, ¹  she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

After listening to the king they left, and once again ¹  the star they saw when it rose ²  led them until it stopped above the place where the child was.

He stayed there until Herod ¹  died. In this way what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet was fulfilled: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” ² 

Now John wore clothing made from camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his diet consisted of locusts and wild honey. ¹ 

The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed; it was utterly destroyed!” ¹ 

how he entered the house of God and they ate ¹  the sacred bread, ²  which was against the law ³  for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? ⁴ 

For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish ¹  for three days and three nights, ²  so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with ¹  three measures ²  of flour until all the dough had risen.” ³ 

Where did John’s baptism come from? From heaven or from people?” ¹  They discussed this among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner ¹  who planted a vineyard. ²  He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then ³  he leased it to tenant farmers ⁴  and went on a journey.

The Son of Man will go as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for him if he had never been born.”

Now when the centurion ¹  and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were extremely terrified and said, “Truly this one was God’s Son!”

But as the man ¹  went out he began to announce it publicly and spread the story widely, so that Jesus ²  was no longer able to enter any town openly but stayed outside in remote places. Still ³  they kept coming ⁴  to him from everywhere.