John was given this vision ἐν τῇ κυριακῇ ἡμέρᾳ (en tē kyriakē hēmera, on the Lord’s Day), a phrase found only here in the NT. Three options have been suggested for its meaning: (1) It may be a reference to the eschatological day of the Lord, so that John is transported to the time of the eschaton (so Bullinger 1909: 12; Walvoord 1966: 42); but neither the language here nor the contents of 1:12—20 make that likely, for the NT commonly uses the genitive Kupiov (kyriou, Lord’s) to designate the “day of the Lord,” while John here has the adjective. (2) It may refer to Easter Sunday as the day of the parousia within the confines of Easter liturgy (M. Shepherd 1960; Strand 1966—67); but this is highly speculative, and this view did not arise until at least a century later. (3) Most likely this phrase refers to Sunday, chosen by the early church on the basis of the resurrection as the day of worship (Stott 1965—66; Bauckham 1982: 221—50). Stott (73—74) argues that κυριακῇ was originally associated with the resurrection and then with the eschatological triumph of the Lord of lords and thereby came to be used of the “Lord’s Day.” It is likely that the Jewish-Christian church worshiped in the synagogues on the Jewish Sabbath and in their own assemblies from the earliest times on Sunday, celebrating the Eucharist and worshiping Christ together (cf. Acts 2:42). While this is the first appearance of “the Lord’s Day” as a technical term for Sunday worship, it became a common term for such in the second century. John was worshiping on that day and received this vision.