In Greek heard is a participle, rather than a finite verb, and has no expressed object. Most translations render it as a finite verb and supply an object (Good News Translation the voice; Revised Standard Version “it”). New English Bible does not render the object explicitly, but assumes the information to be implicit: “28 … A voice sounded from heaven: … 29 The crowd standing by said it was thunder.” Said it was thunder is also indirect discourse in Greek, and is retained as such in most translations. In earlier editions of Good News Translation direct discourse was used: “and said, ‘It was thunder.’ ” In the second sentence in this verse direct discourse is used in Greek as well as in Good News Translation. In the Old Testament thunder is frequently spoken of as the voice of God (see, for example, 2 Sam 22.14; Job 37.4; Psa 29.3; Jer 10.13). Perhaps John intends his readers to assume that the sound of the voice was mistaken for thunder, or that thunder accompanied the voice. Evidently the people who said An angel spoke to him! recognized that the sound was speech, though they did not recognize the origin. But it seems obvious that, in either case, neither group of persons understood the content of what was said, and so Jesus’ words in the following verse, where he says that the voice spoke for the benefit of the people, and not for his own benefit, are difficult to understand.

Thus it may be difficult to employ a literal translation of heard the voice, for it would suggest that the people actually heard the words and understood their meaning. A more appropriate equivalent in some languages would be “the crowd standing there heard the sound.”

The Greek mentions only two groups, “the crowd” and “others.” However, “others” are actually included within “the crowd,” and so Good News Translation translates The crowd … heard the voice … some of them said … Others said. In this type of context An angel could be rendered “a heavenly messenger” or “a messenger from heaven” or “one of God’s messengers.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .