Friday, September 24, 2010

Idioms 5: Hidden In Secret, Speaking Out Loud

Μαθθαῖον 10·27 ὃ λέγω ὑμῖν ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ εἴπατε ἐν τῷ φωτί, καὶ ὃ εἰς τὸ οὖς ἀκούετε κηρύξατε ἐπὶ τῶν δωμάτων. 
What I say to you in the dark, speak it in the light, and what you hear in your ear, proclaim it on the housetop.  Matthew 10:27
Here are two* wonderful idioms that refer to something being told in secret.  The first one may be close to our idiom "behind closed doors" and the second one is very close to our idiom “whisper in your ear”.  The key to understanding this verse comes in the prior verse (26)  So, if we were to put this into our own idiomatic way to speaking, we may say, 
“What I say to you behind closed doors, proclaim it openly, and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim it out loud.”


*There are really four idioms in this verse.

3 comments:

  1. The key to understanding this verse is learning 3rd grade English. I'm not being rude, Russell, I love you as a brother in Christ. But come on, do you really need to go to the Greek for this verse? Be rational... Why change what the Bible says in order to clarify the meaning when you don't have to?

    JD

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  2. Well, maybe we all would benefit a bit from some serious, and I mean real, study of Biblical Greek as a living language with all the idiomatic style. check out the method at academyofclassicallanguages.com Even the kids on the video are speaking Biblical Greek!

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