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Bookends of the Bible
ADAM's BIBLE - Genesis 1-3
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was unformed and unfilled,
darkness was over the surface of the deep,
and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said,
“Let there be light,”
and there was light.
God saw that the light was good, and
he separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light “day,” and
the darkness he called “night.”
And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
And God said,
“Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.”
So God made the vault and
separated the water under the vault from the water above it.
And it was so. God called the vault “sky.”
And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
And God said,
“Let the water under the sky
be gathered to one place, and
let dry ground appear.”
And it was so.
God called the dry ground “land,”
and the gathered waters he called “seas.”
And God saw that it was good.
Then God said,
“Let the land produce vegetation:
seed-bearing plants and trees on the land
that bear fruit with seed in it,
according to their various kinds.”
And it was so.
The land produced vegetation:
plants bearing seed according to their kinds and
trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.
And God saw that it was good.
And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
And God said,
“Let there be lights in the vault of the sky
to separate the day from the night,
and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times,
and days and years,
and let them be lights in the vault of the sky
to give light on the earth.”
And it was so.
God made two great lights—
the greater light to govern the day and
the lesser light to govern the night.
He also made the stars.
God set them in the vault of the sky
to give light on the earth,
to govern the day and the night,
and to separate light from darkness.
And God saw that it was good.
And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
And God said,
“Let the water teem with living creatures,
and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.”
So God created the great creatures of the sea and
every living thing with which
the water teems and that moves about in it,
according to their kinds,
and every winged bird according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good.
God blessed them and said,
“Be fruitful and increase in number and
fill the water in the seas,
and let the birds increase on the earth.”
And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
And God said,
“Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds:
the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals,
each according to its kind.”
And it was so.
God made the wild animals according to their kinds,
the livestock according to their kinds, and
all the creatures that move along the ground
according to their kinds.
And God saw that it was good.
Then God said,
“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,
so that they may rule
over the fish in the sea and
the birds in the sky,
over the livestock and
all the wild animals, and
over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them,
“Be fruitful and increase in number;
fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish in the sea and
the birds in the sky and
over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Then God said,
“I give you every seed-bearing plant
on the face of the whole earth and
every tree that has fruit with seed in it.
They will be yours for food.
And to all the beasts of the earth and
all the birds in the sky and
all the creatures that move along the ground
—everything that has the breath of life in it—
I give every green plant for food.”
And it was so.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing;
so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up,
for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and
there was no one to work the ground,
but streams came up from the earth and
watered the whole surface of the ground.
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden;
and there he put the man he had formed.
The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—
trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
In the middle of the garden
were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden;
from there it was separated into four headwaters.
The name of the first is the Pishon;
it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.
(The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.)
The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.
The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur.
And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden
to work it and take care of it.
And the Lord God commanded the man,
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
The Lord God said,
“It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground
all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky.
He brought them to the man to see what he would name them;
and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
So the man gave names to all the livestock,
the birds in the sky and
all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and
while he was sleeping,
he took one of the man’s ribs and
then closed up the place with flesh.
Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib
he had taken out of the man,
and he brought her to the man.
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and
is united to his wife, and
they become one flesh.
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Now the serpent was more crafty than
any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman,
“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent,
“We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
but God did say,
‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden,
and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.
“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and
you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree
was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also
desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and
they realized they were naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God
as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to the man,
“Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden,
and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he said,
“Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me—
she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman,
“What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
So the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly and
you will eat dust all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
To Adam he said,
“Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree
about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Adam named his wife Eve,
because she would become the mother of all the living.
The Lord God made garments of skin
for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
And the Lord God said,
“The man has now become like one of us,
knowing good and evil.
He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and
take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden
to work the ground from which he had been taken.
After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth
to guard the way to the tree of life.
BACK BOOKEND OF THE BIBLE - Revelation 20-22
And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven,
having the key to the Abyss and
holding in his hand a great chain.
He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent,
who is the devil, or Satan, and
bound him for a thousand years.
He threw him into the Abyss, and
locked and sealed it over him,
to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore
until the thousand years were ended.
After that, he must be set free for a short time.
I saw thrones
on which were seated
those who had been given authority to judge.
And I saw the souls of those
who had been beheaded
because of their testimony about Jesus and
because of the word of God.
They had not worshiped the beast or
its image and
had not received its mark
on their foreheads or their hands.
They came to life and
reigned with Christ a thousand years.
(The rest of the dead
did not come to life
until the thousand years were ended.)
This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection.
The second death has no power over them,
but they will be priests of God and of Christ and
will reign with him for a thousand years.
When the thousand years are over,
Satan will be released from his prison
and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth
—Gog and Magog—
and to gather them for battle.
In number they are like the sand on the seashore.
They marched across the breadth of the earth and
surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves.
But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
And the devil, who deceived them,
was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur,
where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown.
They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.
The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and
there was no place for them.
And I saw the dead, great and small,
standing before the throne, and
books were opened.
Another book was opened, which is the book of life.
The dead were judged
according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and
death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and
each person was judged according to what they had done.
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
The lake of fire is the second death.
Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life
was thrown into the lake of fire.
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and
there was no longer any sea.
I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and
he will dwell with them.
They will be his people, and
God himself will be with them and be their God.
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death'
or mourning or crying or pain,
for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said,
“I am making everything new!”
Then he said,
“Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
He said to me:
“It is done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the Beginning and the End.
To the thirsty I will give water
without cost
from the spring of the water of life.
Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and
I will be their God and they will be my children.
But the cowardly, the unbelieving,
the vile, the murderers,
the sexually immoral,
those who practice magic arts,
the idolaters and all liars—
they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
This is the second death.”
One of the seven angels
who had the seven bowls
full of the seven last plagues
came and said to me,
“Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
And he carried me away in the Spirit
to a mountain great and high, and
showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God.
It shone with the glory of God, and
its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel,
like a jasper, clear as crystal.
It had a great, high wall
with twelve gates,
and with twelve angels at the gates.
On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.
There were three gates on the east,
three on the north,
three on the south and
three on the west.
The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and
on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The angel who talked with me
had a measuring rod of gold
to measure the city, its gates and its walls.
The city was laid out like a square,
as long as it was wide.
He measured the city with the rod and
found it to be 12,000 stadia [~1380 miles, 2221 km] in length,
and as wide and high as it is long.
The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and
it was 144 cubits thick [~216 ft, 66 m].
The wall was made of jasper, and
the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.
The foundations of the city walls were decorated
with every kind of precious stone.
The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire,
the third agate, the fourth emerald,
the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby,
the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl,
the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise,
the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.
The twelve gates were twelve pearls,
each gate made of a single pearl.
The great street of the city was of gold,
as pure as transparent glass.
I did not see a temple in the city,
because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God gives it light, and
the Lamb is its lamp.
The nations will walk by its light, and
the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
On no day will its gates ever be shut,
for there will be no night there.
The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
Nothing impure will ever enter it,
nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful,
but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life,
as clear as crystal,
flowing from the throne of God and
of the Lamb
down the middle of the great street of the city.
On each side of the river stood the tree of life,
bearing twelve crops of fruit,
yielding its fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
No longer will there be any curse.
The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city,
and his servants will serve him.
They will see his face, and
his name will be on their foreheads.
There will be no more night.
They will not need the light of a lamp or
the light of the sun,
for the Lord God will give them light.
And they will reign for ever and ever.
The angel said to me,
“These words are trustworthy and true.
The Lord, the God who
inspires the prophets,
sent his angel
to show his servants
the things that must soon take place.”
“Look, I am coming soon!
Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.
And when I had heard and seen them,
I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me.
But he said to me, “Don’t do that!
I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and
with all who keep the words of this scroll.
Worship God!”
Then he told me,
“Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll,
because the time is near.
Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong;
let the vile person continue to be vile;
let the one who does right continue to do right; and
let the holy person continue to be holy.”
“Look, I am coming soon!
My reward is with me, and
I will give to each person according to what they have done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End.
“Blessed are those who wash their robes,
that they may have the right
to the tree of life and
may go through the gates into the city.
Outside are the dogs,
those who practice magic arts,
the sexually immoral,
the murderers, the idolaters and
everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches.
I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and
the bright Morning Star.”
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”
And let the one who hears say, “Come!”
Let the one who is thirsty come; and
let the one who wishes
take the free gift of the water of life.
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll:
If anyone adds anything to them,
God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll.
And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy,
God will take away from that person
any share in the tree of life
and in the Holy City,
which are described in this scroll.
He who testifies to these things says,
“Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people.
Amen.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.