He carried me away in the Spirit: in 1.10 and 4.2 John says “I was in the Spirit”; here and in 21.10 he describes how one of the seven angels who had the bowls carried him away in the Spirit (or, “spirit”). John is describing an ecstatic experience (like the one Paul talks about in 2 Cor 12.1-3). An American Translation and Barclay use the expression “in a trance.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “Then, in the vision that the Spirit made me see, the angel took me to the desert.” This is better than “in a trance.” Or a translation may choose to follow Good News Translation and Translator’s New Testament and say “The Spirit possessed me, and the angel carried me off.” If a translation prefers to say “in the spirit” (as New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible have it), care must be taken not to say that the angel carried John’s spirit off. John is talking about a vision. See 1.4, 10 for comments on the translation of Spirit. In many languages translators may say “God’s Spirit” if readers are likely to misunderstand.

A wilderness: in 12.6, 14 the word is used of the desert to which the woman fled from the dragon; here it is not the same desert but some deserted place, not identified.

A scarlet beast: this beast, with seven heads and ten horns, is the first beast, the one that came up out of the sea (13.1). Only here is it said to be scarlet (in 12.3 the dragon is said to be red). Some languages distinguish between scarlet, which is a vivid red color, and ordinary red; others may not have such distinctions.

Full of blasphemous names: as in 13.1, these are words and titles that should be used only of God. Here it is not said that these names are on the beast’s heads. The translation can say “it had all over it (or, over its body) names that are insulting to God.”

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 .