I am first and last, the Living One, who was dead, and now, behold! I am alive, never to die again. And in my hands I hold the power to free people from the Dark Underworld of Death (Hades).
“Write this to the messenger of the sacred family that gathers in Village of Bitter Herbs (Smyrna): These are the words of the one who is the first and last, who died and came back to life.
There is another way to see what I am saying. Our tribes pay a tenth to holy men who die, but here a tenth is paid to a holy man who, we are told, continues to live.