And he carried me away in the Spirit
John was in an ecstasy, as in ( Revelation 1:10 ) ( 4:2 ) ( 17:3 ) and in the thoughts and apprehensions of his mind and spirit, it seemed to him as if he was carried away from one place to another; for this was not a corporeal sight, nor were any of the visions he had, but what was represented to his mind or spirit; it being with him as it was with the Apostle Paul when he was caught up to the third heaven, who knew not whether he was in the body or out of the body. The Ethiopic version renders it, "the Spirit brought me"; not the evil spirit Satan, who took up our Lord corporeally, and carried him to an exceeding high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of this world, and their glory, ( Matthew 4:8 ) but either a good angel, or the Spirit of God:
to a great and high mountain;
to such an one was Ezekiel brought in the visions of God, when the frame of a city and temple was shown him, with their dimensions, ( Ezekiel 40:2 ) as here a city is shown to John, with its wall, gates, foundations, and their measures: and he was brought to such a place, partly that he might have the more plain and full view of it; and partly to suggest unto him, that now the church of Christ was established upon the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills, and was a city on a hill, which could not be hid, ( Isaiah 2:2 ) .
And showed me that great city;
which is no other than the church, the bride, the Lamb's wife; just as the apostate church, all along in this book before, is called the great city, ( Revelation 11:8 ) ( 14:8 ) ( 17:18 ) ( Revelation 18:10 Revelation 18:16 Revelation 18:18 ) but now that being demolished, there is no other great city in being but the church of Christ, called a city before; ( Revelation 21:2 ) here a "great one", not only because of its prodigious large dimensions, ( Revelation 21:16 ) but because of the number of its inhabitants, being such as no man can number; and because it is the residence of the great King, the tabernacle of God will be in it; though this epithet is left out in the Alexandrian copy, and in the Vulgate Latin and all the Oriental versions: "the holy Jerusalem"; called "the new Jerusalem", ( Revelation 21:2 ) here "holy", in allusion to the city of Jerusalem, which was called the holy city, ( Matthew 4:5 ) on account of the temple in it, the place of divine worship; but here this city is so called, because it is the residence of the holy God, Father, Son, and Spirit, inhabited only by holy men, made perfectly so, and encompassed by holy angels.
Descending out of heaven from God; (See Gill on Revelation 21:2).