What Does Luke 1:24 Mean?
And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,
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
And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,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 bones are not hidden from you, as I am made in the hiding place, and embroidered in the lowest depths of the earth.and he sleeps and wakes night and day, and the seed sprouts and stretches up, and he does not know how.THE THREAD
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and you will 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.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us