---
title: Revelation 1:11
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-1-11/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-1-11.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Revelation 1:11
testament: NT
section: Prophecy
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Revelation 1:11

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "What you see, write in a scroll and send it to the seven congregations: in Ephesus, in Smyrna, in Pergamum, in Thyatira, in Sardis, in Philadelphia, and in Laodicea."

## JW Usage

Read as the commission to write to the seven congregations, with no Christological weight attached. Because the NWT — like every modern translation — does not carry the "I am the Alpha and the Omega" clause here, a Witness has no reason to see anything contested in this verse.

## Protestant Usage

A word of caution first, because it protects you. Some older Bibles in the King James tradition begin this verse "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." Those words are not in the earliest manuscripts of Revelation; they entered the printed Greek text late and have been removed from modern editions, the NWT included. Do not build an argument on them. If you quote the clause from a King James Bible and a Witness opens their NWT and cannot find it, you have handed them a reason to distrust everything else you say. The genuine Alpha and Omega texts are elsewhere in the same book and they are quite sufficient. Revelation 1:17 — "I am the First and the Last," spoken by the one who was dead and is alive for ever. Revelation 21:6 and 22:13 carry the full title. And Isaiah 44:6 has Jehovah say "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no God." Use verse 17 rather than verse 11. It is on solid textual ground, it is in their Bible, and it says the same thing. Compare Revelation 1:13, Revelation 21:6.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Incarnation Is Addition, Not Compression](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/word-became-flesh-not-michael.md) — Why the Logos-to-Michael-to-Jesus-to-Michael cycle does not match the New Testament [Deity of Christ]