What Does 1 Timothy 5:25 Mean?
In the same way also, the good works are in plain sight beforehand, and those that are otherwise cannot stay hidden.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise can not be hid.THE KEY
Some good works are plain from the start; the rest cannot remain hidden.
THE MEANING
Some good works are already visible; others are less apparent, yet they cannot remain concealed. What you do not see at once is not thereby absent: the verse holds hidden goodness and manifest goodness in the same field of reality.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a good work has no meaning unless it is noticed immediately does not hold here; delayed visibility is not the same as disappearance.
THE ROOT
κρυβῆναι
krybēnai
GROWS FROM
κρυπ-
kryp-
To hide or conceal.
“cannot stay hidden” in this verse is krybēnai. The Greek says these works cannot be hidden. It does not say every good work is immediately noticed: some are evident early, while the rest cannot stay concealed.
ALSO GROWS
kryptos: Hidden, secret.
κρυπτός
This is the hidden state the verse says good works cannot remain in.
apokryptō: To hide away, conceal.
ἀποκρύπτω
It carries the same root into the act of keeping something out of sight.
πρόδηλα
prodēla
GROWS FROM
δηλ-
dēl-
Clear, evident, plain.
“manifest beforehand” in this verse is prodēla. The word joins “before” (pro) with “clear” (dēlos): some works are already evident in advance. The verse places this early visibility beside the works that become apparent later.
ALSO GROWS
dēlos: Clear, evident.
δῆλος
It supplies the sense of plain visibility within “manifest beforehand.”
dēloō: To make clear, show.
δηλόω
It extends the root from what is evident to the act of making something evident.
THE PATTERN
Goodness may be visible at once or concealed for a time, but it moves toward disclosure.
He will bring out your alignment like the light, and your judgment like the noonday.Let your light shine like this before people, that they may perceive your good works and give weight to your Father in the heavens.For nothing is hidden that will not be made visible, nor anything concealed that will not be known and come into the light.THE THREAD
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.Both verses use κρυβῆναι (krybēnai), “to be hidden.” In Matthew, the city cannot be hidden; here, even works that are not immediately evident cannot stay concealed.
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