¹⁸ and the living one. I was dead, and look! I am alive forever and ever. I have the keys of death and Hades. ¹⁹ Now write what you see, both the things that already are, and also the things that are going to happen subsequently. ²⁰ The secret meaning of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, by the way, and the seven golden lampstands, is this. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches themselves.