Passage

Revelation 1.18

"and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades." (Revelation 1:17b-18, NASB95)

Book: Revelation · NASB95

Immediate context (4 public-domain translations)

ASV (ASV)

"16. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. 17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last,"

"18. and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."

"19. Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter; 20. the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks are seven churches." (Revelation 1:16-20, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"16. He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest. 17. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last,"

"18. and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades."

"19. Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter; 20. the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamp stands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven assemblies. The seven lamp stands are seven assemblies." (Revelation 1:16-20, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"16. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. 17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:"

"18. I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."

"19. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; 20. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." (Revelation 1:16-20, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"16. and having in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword is proceeding, and his countenance [is] as the sun shining in its might. 17. And when I saw him, I did fall at his feet as dead, and he placed his right hand upon me, saying to me, 'Be not afraid; I am the First and the Last,"

"18. and he who is living, and I did become dead, and, lo, I am living to the ages of the ages. Amen! and I have the keys of the hades and of the death."

"19. 'Write the things that thou hast seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to come after these things; 20. the secret of the seven stars that thou hast seen upon my right hand, and the seven golden lamp-stands: the seven stars are messengers of the seven assemblies, and the seven lamp-stands that thou hast seen are seven assemblies." (Revelation 1:16-20, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: the risen, glorified Christ in vision; the Apostle John records it
Audience: John of Patmos and, through him, the seven churches of Asia Minor (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea)
Location: the island of Patmos, off the western coast of Asia Minor; Christ appears among the seven golden lampstands in the inaugural vision (Revelation 1:9-20)
Time period: composed c. AD 95 under Domitian (most common dating); Neronic dating c. AD 65-68 is a minority alternative

Synthesis

Revelation 1:18 is one of the strongest deity-of-Christ texts in the New Testament. Three claims are stacked into a single self-identification: Christ is the "living One" (an OT divine title), he was dead and is now alive forevermore (the resurrection as a permanent state, not a return to mortal life), and he holds the keys of death and Hades (sovereign authority over the grave and the realm of the dead). The verse immediately precedes Christ's commission to John to write the book of Revelation and frames every judgment, promise, and vision that follows.

Theological reading

The "first and the last" title in v. 17 is the explicit self-identification of YHWH in Isaiah 44:6 ("I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me") and Isaiah 48:12. By taking this title for himself, the risen Christ claims the very identity Yahweh reserved as exclusive. This is the apocalyptic counterpart to the Johannine "I AM" sayings of John 14.6, John 8.24, and John 8.58: Jesus does not merely speak for God or work on God's behalf, he speaks as the one whose self-naming is the divine self-naming.

The resurrection clause "I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore" makes a stronger claim than the Gospel resurrection narratives by themselves. Lazarus was raised and died again. Christ was raised and the resurrection is permanent. Death has no further claim on him, which is the foundation for Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 that Christ's resurrection is the firstfruits of the general resurrection. The Christ-cult emerged precisely because the disciples encountered this permanent, embodied resurrection life, not a resuscitation or a visionary survival of the soul.

The keys of death and Hades function christologically and pastorally. Christologically: in Second Temple Judaism the keys of the underworld belong to God alone (cf. the imagery in 3 Baruch, 1 Enoch, and the Targumim). Christ claiming them is a claim of cosmic jurisdiction. Pastorally: for churches facing Domitianic pressure or the slower attrition of life under imperial Rome, the message is that the one who holds the keys to the grave is the one who suffered and conquered it. Martyrdom does not escape his jurisdiction; it enters it. This grounds the steadfastness motif that runs through the letters to the seven churches in chapters 2-3.

Key words

G2198 - zao, zao (Strong's G2198), "to live, to be alive"; the participial form here echoes the OT divine epithet "the living God."
G1510 - eimi, eimi (Strong's G1510), "I am"; ties the self-identification to the Septuagint Yahweh-name pattern.
G3498 - nekros, nekros (Strong's G3498), "dead"; the past-tense state Christ once inhabited but no longer does.
G0086 - hades, hades (Strong's G86), "Hades," the realm of the dead; KJV translates as "hell" but the term is technically the underworld, not Gehenna.
G2288 - thanatos, thanatos (Strong's G2288), "death" as personified power; paired with Hades as the two domains Christ holds the keys to.
G0165 - aion, aion (Strong's G165), "age, forever"; the doubled phrase "ages of the ages" (YLT) emphasizes the unending duration of Christ's resurrection life.

Theological themes

Deity of Christ. Christ takes the Isaiah 44:6 "first and last" title that Yahweh reserved as exclusive; this is one of the clearest NT texts for high Christology.
Permanent resurrection. Not a return to mortal life like Lazarus or Jairus's daughter, but resurrection life that death has no further claim on.
Cosmic jurisdiction. Authority over death and Hades was a divine prerogative in Second Temple Jewish thought; Christ claims it directly.
Pastoral steadfastness. Frames the letters to the seven churches: the risen, undying Christ commands the churches from a position of sovereignty over the very death their members face.

Cross-references

Isaiah 44.6, Yahweh's exclusive "first and last" self-identification that Christ takes for himself here.
Isaiah 48.12, second occurrence of the "first and last" Yahweh title.
Revelation 22.13, Christ repeats the title in the book's closing vision: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
Revelation 2.8, Christ uses "the first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life" as his self-introduction to the church at Smyrna.
John 8.58, the Johannine "before Abraham was, I AM" parallel for divine self-identification.
1 Corinthians 15:20-28, Paul's resurrection-as-firstfruits argument that depends on Christ's permanent resurrection life.
Acts 3.15, Peter calls Jesus the "Author of life" whom God raised from the dead.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.