Revelation 1:10, in the Spirit, a voice like a trumpet - Echoes of Revelation

Revelation 1:10

Revelation 1:10, in every translation this tool compares.

First, in plain English

A new judge who takes the oath with the old wording is saying the office has not changed. John describes his call in the words of earlier prophets. Like Ezekiel, he is in the Spirit and hears a loud voice behind him. The voice sounds like a trumpet, as on the day God came down on Sinai to speak with Moses. John is claiming the place of a prophet like them.

What matches

From Ezekiel 3:12, the Spirit takes the prophet, and he hears behind him a great sound. The Greek is close: ekousa opiso mou phonen (John) and ekousa katopisthen mou phonen (Ezekiel). From Exodus 19:16, a trumpet that sounds very loud as God comes down on the mountain.

Why it doesn't match exactly

Two scenes are joined in one sentence. In Ezekiel the sound behind him is a great rumbling; in Exodus the loud thing is a trumpet. John hears one loud voice like a trumpet. Beale notes that John's grammar bends here too: the word saying agrees with trumpet instead of voice, which may stress the Sinai trumpet. The setting is new as well: John is on Patmos on the Lord's day.

What John does with it

John says his book comes the way the prophets' books came. The Spirit seizes him as it seized Ezekiel. The voice he hears is like the voice at Sinai, where God gave his word through Moses. Beale adds that commands to write in the prophets often carried judgment, a hint of what is coming.

What this echo is not

Not a claim that John is Moses or Ezekiel. The echo puts John in their line as a messenger, with the same authority.

Go deeper

Beale says John's commission uses the language of Ezekiel's repeated rapture in the Spirit (Ezekiel 2:2; 3:12, 14, 24; 11:1; 43:5), giving him prophetic authority like that of the Old Testament prophets. The great voice as a trumpet evokes the voice Moses heard at Sinai (Exodus 19:16, 19-20). In Greek, the participle legouses (saying) should agree with the voice but is genitive, agreeing with the trumpet; Beale suggests the bend underlines the Exodus 19 background, and finds the same bend in 4:1. Keener says the trumpet sound may allude to Exodus 19:16, and notes Ezekiel's visionary state; the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible and the ESV Study Bible cite Ezekiel 3:12 for in the Spirit. The CSB Study Bible's cross-references list both. The grade is drawn here by Beale's definitions: the phrasing is traceable to these scenes, but no single text supplies all of it.

Where the sources disagree

Jeske, as Beale reports, sees Micah 3:8 as the only background for in the Spirit; Beale thinks Ezekiel at least as likely. Keener allows that in the Spirit may mean charismatic worship rather than a vision.

The ancient world behind this passage

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Sources

G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 1:10a and 1:10b-11
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 1:10
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:10
ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:10
CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 1:10
Septuagint, Ezekiel 3:12 and Exodus 19:16, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 1:10-11