What Does Acts 26:26 Mean?
For the king knows of these things, before whom I also speak with every word. For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him, for this was not done in a corner.
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
For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.THE KEY
The speaker’s freedom rests on the claim’s visibility: none of it has escaped the king’s notice, and the event is not hidden away.
THE MEANING
The king knows these things, and the speaker addresses him freely because he is persuaded that none have escaped the king’s notice. The event is not tucked away in a corner; it stands in the open where it can be examined.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the assumption that the account depends on private knowledge unavailable to the king: he knows these things.
THE ROOT
λανθάνειν
lanthanein
GROWS FROM
λανθ-
lanth-
To escape notice; to be unseen or unnoticed.
“hidden” in this verse is lanthanein. The Greek casts hiddenness as escaping notice: the question is whether these things have slipped past the king’s awareness. The related λήθη (lēthē), meaning forgetfulness or oblivion, shows how what escapes notice can fade from knowing.
ALSO GROWS
lathra: Secretly, by stealth.
λάθρᾳ
This branch makes the contrast with the verse’s open testimony concrete: what happens λάθρᾳ takes place out of view.
lēthē: Forgetfulness, oblivion.
λήθη
It connects being unnoticed with being forgotten, sharpening the speaker’s claim that none of these things have slipped from the king’s awareness.
γωνίᾳ
gōnia
GROWS FROM
γων-
gōn-
An angle or corner, where lines meet.
The Greek word for “corner” also appears in the compound for “chief corner stone.” The same word family can name a place associated with concealment and a defining point in a structure.
ALSO GROWS
akrogōniaios: Chief corner stone.
ἀκρογωνιαῖος
This compound appears in the connected verse, where the corner becomes a structural point of alignment.
tetragōnos: Four-cornered; square.
τετράγωνος
This branch keeps the concrete geometry of γωνία visible beneath the English word “corner.”
THE PATTERN
What is hidden or kept secret can be brought into the open and made known.
He uncovers the deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light rests with him.For there is nothing hidden that will not be brought to light, nor has anything become hidden away, but that it come into the open.For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.THE THREAD
Having been built upon the foundation of the sent ones and the prophets, the Anointed One, Jesus, himself being the head of the corner.The Greek phrase “in a corner” uses γωνία (gōnia), and “chief corner stone” is built from the same word. The shared root lets the corner shift from a place out of sight to a defining point in a structure.
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