¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though I was dead.

He touched me with his right hand. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I am the first and the last 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.