What Does Hebrews 4:13 Mean?
And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.
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
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.THE KEY
Our word and account are directed toward the one before whom nothing is hidden.
THE MEANING
Nothing created remains unseen before him; all things stand bare and exposed to his sight. The phrase translated “with whom we have to do” carries the Greek word logos, meaning “word” or “account”: even our account is directed toward the one before whom everything is open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is concealed from other people can also be concealed from God: no created thing is unseen before him.
THE ROOT
ἀφανής
aphanēs
GROWS FROM
φαν-
phan-
Appear; become visible.
“manifest” in this verse is aphanēs. The Greek aphanēs means “unseen,” with a- negating phan-: no created thing is invisible before him. The word family centers the verse on visibility, everything comes into view before his sight.
ALSO GROWS
phainō: Appear; come into view.
φαίνω
The verse says no creature stays outside what appears before him.
phaneroō: Make visible; reveal.
φανερόω
This is the word family behind the unveiling of hidden things in 1 Corinthians 4:5.
phaneros: Visible; apparent.
φανερός
It names the state of being in view that the verse describes for all things.
ὁ λόγος
ho logos
GROWS FROM
λεγ-/λογ- (leg-/log-)
Say, speak; by extension, a word or account.
The phrase is literally “toward whom our logos”, our word or account, is directed. The verse ends by placing not only what is exposed, but the reader’s own account, before the same gaze.
ALSO GROWS
legō: Say; speak.
λέγω
The verb behind logos connects the account to what is said or expressed.
logizomai: Reckon; consider; account.
λογίζομαι
This related word makes the accounting sense of logos concrete.
THE PATTERN
Nothing remains hidden from God’s sight, and what is concealed from people can still be brought into the open.
Even darkness does not darken from you; the night lights up like day, and darkness is as light to you.The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the harm and the good.Therefore, judge nothing before its season, until the Lord comes, who will light up the hidden things of darkness, and will make visible the plans of the hearts. And then the praise will come to each one from God.THE THREAD
Therefore, judge nothing before its season, until the Lord comes, who will light up the hidden things of darkness, and will make visible the plans of the hearts. And then the praise will come to each one from God.Both verses use the φαν- (phan-) word family: Hebrews calls no creature aphanēs, “unseen,” while 1 Corinthians says the Lord will phanerōsei, “make visible,” the heart’s counsels. The second verse shows that this same visibility reaches what people still hold hidden.
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