What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.
Parallel translations
- WEB What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops.
- KJV What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.
- NKJV “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.
- NASB What I tell you in the darkness, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim on the housetops.
- NLT What I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ear, shout from the housetops for all to hear!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
What Jesus teaches privately, the disciples are to proclaim publicly and boldly. The gospel is meant to be openly declared, not hidden.
Overview
Jesus commissions His disciples to broadcast His teaching from the housetops, refusing secrecy out of fear. What was first entrusted to the few is to reach the many. The verse undergirds the church's mandate to proclaim Christ openly, trusting that the message given in the intimacy of discipleship is for all the world.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Acts 5:20“Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.”
- John 16:13However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.
- John 16:1“I have told you these things so that you will not fall away.
- Prov 1:20–23Wisdom calls out in the street, she lifts her voice in the square;
- Matt 13:34–35Jesus spoke all these things to the crowds in parables. He did not tell them anything without using a parable.
- Luke 8:10He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’
- Matt 13:1–17That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.
- Prov 8:1–5Does not wisdom call out, and understanding raise her voice?
- John 16:29His disciples said, “See, now You are speaking plainly and without figures of speech.
- Acts 5:28“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us responsible for this man’s blood.”
- 2 Cor 3:12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
- Acts 17:17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace with those he met each day.
- John 16:25I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you this way, but will tell you plainly about the Father.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 10:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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