What Does Luke 1:24 Mean in the King James?
And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Greek names conception with a verb built on “take” or “receive,” then places it beside concealment: life is already present before it is seen.
THE MEANING
A real beginning can remain unseen. The verse holds conception and five months of hiding together, while leaving the reason for the concealment unstated.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what remains unseen has not begun: hiddenness can coexist with life already underway.
THE ROOT
συνέλαβεν
synelaben
GROWS FROM
λαμβ- (lamb-), from λαμβάνω (lambanō)
The Greek stem means “take” or “receive”; the verb here combines it with συν- (syn-, “together”).
“conceived” in this verse is synelaben. The verb συλλαμβάνω (syllambanō) is used for conception here, and elsewhere can mean taking or seizing. Its stem carries the sense of taking or receiving, giving this beginning a sense of life received into being before it becomes visible.
ALSO GROWS
lambanō: Take or receive.
λαμβάνω
This is the base verb within “conceived,” bringing its sense of receiving into the verse.
katalambanō: Seize, grasp, or overtake.
καταλαμβάνω
This compound shares the same stem and shows its range of taking hold; here the context gives συλλαμβάνω its specific sense of conception.
paralambanō: Receive or take along.
παραλαμβάνω
This compound also carries the stem’s sense of receiving, echoing the new life named in the verse.
περιέκρυβεν ἑαυτήν
periekryben heautēn
GROWS FROM
κρυπ- (krypt-), from κρύπτω (kryptō)
Hide or conceal.
“hid herself” in this verse is periekryben heautēn. The verb makes Elisabeth the subject of the hiding: she keeps herself concealed. The verse gives the duration, five months, but no reason, leaving the concealment itself beside the life already begun.
ALSO GROWS
kryptos: Hidden or secret.
κρυπτός
This adjective shares the concealment stem, making visible the hiddenness that surrounds the conception in the verse.
apokryptō: Hide away or conceal.
ἀποκρύπτω
This compound shares the stem and likewise describes something kept out of sight.
THE PATTERN
Life may be underway before it can be seen or understood.
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.THE THREAD
And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.Both verses use συλλαμβάνω (syllambanō, “conceive”), linking Elisabeth’s conception with the conception announced to Mary. The same word holds the two beginnings together while the verses distinguish what is already present from what is yet to come.
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