In Greek verses 10-11 are one sentence; but it is easy to make two sentences, as Good News Translation has done, inasmuch as verse 11 begins with the present participle “saying.”

I was in the Spirit: this expression describes being possessed by God’s Spirit (as also in 4.2; 17.3; 21.10). Bible en français courant has “the Holy Spirit took hold of me,” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “I was overcome by the power of the Spirit,” and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “I was seized by the Spirit.” But New Jerusalem Bible has “I was in ecstasy,” and An American Translation and Barclay “I fell into a trance.” This is possible but seems less likely. The idea of “ecstasy” or “trance” is better expressed by the Greek noun ekstasis, which does not occur here (see Acts 10.10; 11.5; 22.17). New American Bible, Revised “I was caught up in spirit” and New Revised Standard Version “I was in the spirit” do not make much sense in English. For many translators it will be essential here to translate Spirit as “God’s Spirit” and say, for example, “God’s Spirit took control…,” “God’s Spirit came upon me,” “God’s Spirit led me,” or “I fell under the power of God’s Spirit,” or even idiomatically, “I was grabbed by the Holy Spirit.” For other comments on the translation of Spirit, see Rev. 1.4.

Lord’s day: this is the Christian day of worship, the first day of the week, the day of Christ’s resurrection (see Acts 20.7; 1 Cor 16.2). Only here in the New Testament is the expression the Lord’s day used, but it is found in early Christian literature: Didache (the end of the first century), and Ignatius (early second century). The same adjective that is translated the Lord’s is used in the phrase “the Lord’s Supper” (1 Cor 11.20).

I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet: as one commentator puts it: “loud and clear.” The comparison may be expressed variously: “as loud as a trumpet” (New American Bible, Revised), or “like a trumpet blast” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy), or even “as loud as the sound of a trumpet,” or “that sounded like the loud noise that a trumpet makes.” In certain languages that employ ideophones, here is a good place to use one for the sound that a trumpet makes. A trumpet in the Old Testament was a ram’s horn, but in New Testament times it was most likely a metal instrument something like a modern trumpet. In cultures where trumpets don’t exist, one may use a general word for an animal “horn” (not the horn of an automobile), or else any other kind of loud musical instrument. However, it may be necessary in certain cultures that do not use wind instruments at all to transliterate the English word “trumpet” and have a glossary note describing this instrument.

The text here does not say whose voice it is, but the speaker is clearly identified in the following verses. Another translation model for this final sentence is “I heard a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, speaking (or, coming) from behind me….”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .