What Does Luke 12:2 Mean?
For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.
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 there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.THE KEY
The word for revealed grows from the same Greek root as covered: disclosure is the cover coming off.
THE MEANING
Concealment does not make anything disappear from what can be seen and known. What is covered remains on a path toward disclosure, and what is kept secret does not become unknowable simply by being hidden. The verse speaks now of a reality in which a covering cannot erase what lies beneath it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is: If I keep it hidden, it can never be seen or known.
THE ROOT
συγκεκαλυμμένον
synkekalymmenon
GROWS FROM
καλυπ- (kalypt-), from καλύπτω (kalyptō)
Cover, conceal.
“uncovered” in this verse is synkekalymmenon. The same seed stands beneath covered and revealed: ἀποκαλύπτω (apokalyptō, uncover or reveal) adds ἀπό (apo, away), making revelation the removal of a cover. English can make concealment and disclosure sound like separate events; Greek holds them in one word-family.
ALSO GROWS
kalyptō: Cover, conceal.
καλύπτω
This is the seed shared by the verse’s covered and revealed words.
apokalyptō: Uncover, reveal.
ἀποκαλύπτω
The prefix marks the cover being taken away, so revealing is an uncovering.
kalymma: Covering, veil.
κάλυμμα
A veil is a covering that can be removed, making visible what was already there.
γνωσθήσεται
gnōsthēsetai from
GROWS FROM
γινωσκ-
ginōsk-
Know, recognize, perceive.
The word carries knowing as recognition or perception, not merely a fact stored away. It completes the verse’s movement: what is hidden comes into what can be known.
ALSO GROWS
ginōskō: Know, recognize, perceive.
γινώσκω
This is the verb behind the promise that the hidden thing will be known.
gnōsis: Knowledge.
γνῶσις
The related noun names the knowing into which what is concealed comes.
epiginōskō: Recognize, know fully.
ἐπιγινώσκω
This related form makes recognition explicit: what was hidden is no longer outside perception.
κρυπτόν
krypton from
GROWS FROM
κρυπτ-
krypt-
Hide, keep out of sight.
The word for what is hid names a state of concealment, not a thing that has ceased to exist. The verse pairs that hiddenness with future knowing, so secrecy does not have the last word.
ALSO GROWS
kryptō: Hide, conceal.
κρύπτω
This verb gives the hidden thing its sense of being kept out of sight.
kryptos: Hidden, secret.
κρυπτός
This adjective names what is concealed in the verse.
apokryptō: Hide away, conceal.
ἀποκρύπτω
This related verb intensifies the act of keeping something hidden, yet the verse says even such concealment is not final.
THE PATTERN
Concealment cannot put anything beyond the reach of sight, recognition, or disclosure.
Even darkness does not darken from you; the night lights up like day, and darkness is as light to you.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.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.THE THREAD
For nothing is hidden that will not be made visible, nor anything concealed that will not be known and come into the light.Luke 8:17 uses the same Greek roots for hidden or secret (κρυπτός, kryptos) and known (γινώσκω, ginōskō). The lamp image around it makes the shared movement visible: what is concealed does not remain outside sight or recognition.
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