Text:

ti ‘anything’ in v. 22 is omitted by Westcott and Hort, Lagrange, and Taylor, but retained by Textus Receptus and the great majority of modern editions of the Greek text.

Exegesis:

The two parallel clauses, in Semitic style, both state the same truth: ‘if something is hidden, it is in order that it (eventually) be manifested; if something is covered up, it is in order that it (eventually) be brought out into the open.’

krupton (only here in Mark) ‘hidden.’

phanerōthē (16.12, 14) ‘that it be revealed,’ ‘that it be manifested.’

apokruphon (only here in Mark) ‘covered up,’ ‘secret.’

elthē eis phaneron (cf. 3.12) ‘that it come into the open,’ ‘that it become known.’

For v. 23 see 4.9.

Translation:

It is often quite difficult to treat the double negatives in verse 22, literally ‘nothing … if not.’ In some languages such a construction must be rendered by positives (e.g. Cashibo-Cacataibo and Guerrero Amuzgo) ‘everything that is hidden is that way in order that it may be made to be seen.’

In the word ‘hid’ there is no implication that such objects were purposely hidden. The Greek does not imply in this first instance any process, only a state of being. On the other hand, in the second form of essentially this same concept (typical of Hebrew parallelism) the Greek verb egeneto may imply that something ‘has become hidden,’ e.g. ‘if there is anything that has become hidden, it is that way in order that it will be put out in the light’ or ‘everything that has become hidden….’ On the other hand, egeneto may be only a stylistic variant of the previous estin.

For verse 23, see 4.9.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .