What Does Revelation 2:17 Mean in the King James?
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
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
The gift hidden from the crowd is also a new nature, given and known by the one who receives it.
THE MEANING
This word meets you as one who hears: nourishment and a new nature are given by the speaker, not made by public recognition. What you receive is known from within even when no one else can name it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your truest identity must be visible and validated by everyone: the new name is given, and the receiver knows it even when others do not.
THE ROOT
ὄνομα
onoma
GROWS FROM
ὀνοματ-
onomat-
Name; the nature and identity by which someone is known.
“new name” in this verse is onoma. Here the name is more than a public label: it is the receiver’s nature, given by the speaker and known through receiving. Its secrecy means that other people’s recognition does not define it.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name, call, or designate.
ὀνομάζω
The act of naming belongs to the same word family: the name is an identity conferred and spoken, not just a label.
anōnymos: Nameless, without a name.
ἀνώνυμος
Its opposite sharpens the promise: the receiver is not left without an identity, even when others cannot know the name.
λαμβάνων
lambanōn
GROWS FROM
λαβ-
lab-
Take, receive, grasp.
“receiveth” in this verse is lambanōn. The promise turns on receiving: the person is not merely watching a prize but taking in what is given. Hidden nourishment and identity become known through reception, not public inspection.
ALSO GROWS
antilambanomai: To take hold of; to help or support.
ἀντιλαμβάνομαι
This related word shows how taking hold can become support, echoing the way what is received sustains the receiver.
antilēmpsis: Help, support.
ἀντίλημψις
The same family connects receiving with support: the gift is something the receiver can take hold of.
κεκρυμμένου
kekrymmenou
GROWS FROM
κρυπ-
krypt-
Hide, conceal.
The word for hidden comes from a family of concealment, so the manna is kept out of view. Yet the verse makes receiving the point of access, joining concealment with intimate knowing rather than public proof.
ALSO GROWS
kryptos: Hidden, secret.
κρυπτός
This adjective carries the same hidden quality, showing that the manna’s concealment is part of the image.
apokryptō: To hide away, conceal.
ἀποκρύπτω
This related verb makes the act of concealment explicit: what is hidden remains out of sight until it is received.
THE PATTERN
What sustains and names is given by God, then made known in the one who receives it.
And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:THE THREAD
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.The same word for name appears here, written on the one who overcomes alongside God’s name and the city’s name. That opens the private name in 2:17 toward a fuller identity of belonging, joined to the names of God and the new Jerusalem.
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