to make something clear: to bring what was unknown or unnoticed into the open, whether by telling it, pointing to it, or exposing it
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This verb is built on the adjective for something plain to see (δῆλος), and it means to make a thing plain. The point is clarity rather than drama: what was fuzzy, hidden, or unnoticed is brought out so that someone finally understands it.
Its seven New Testament uses fall into three settings:
A person tells someone else what they did not know, as when Chloe's household informed Paul about the quarrels at Corinth.
A sign, a ritual arrangement, or a line of Scripture points to a meaning under the surface, which is how the writer of Hebrews reads both the layout of the tabernacle and the quoted phrase "Yet once more."
A coming event brings the truth about something to light, as when Paul says the Day will show what each builder's work is really made of.
What holds these together is the direction of the verb: it always moves from unclear to clear. That is what separates it from ἀποκαλύπτω, which pictures a covering pulled off a secret, and from φανερόω, which pictures a thing stepping into open view. This word is quieter and more explanatory: it makes a matter understandable rather than visible.
Nuances
1ato tell someone what they did not know: to report a matter or make it known
TranslatabilityDirect
1Co 1:11Col 1:82Pe 1:14*
1bto point to a meaning under the surface: a sign, an arrangement, or a line of Scripture indicates what is really at stake
Heb 9:8Heb 12:271Pe 1:11
1cto bring the truth about something to light: a coming event shows what a thing really is
points to passing along information so a hearer understands it: people report news, the Spirit signals what is meant, a teaching is spelled out1Co 1:11Col 1:81Pe 1:11
explains the force of a sign or symbol, drawing out what a detail in the text indicates rather than putting something on displayHeb 12:27
Both
both move something from hidden to known, so they overlap where a disclosure is being made clearHeb 9:8Jhn 17:6
brings into open view what was hidden, so that it can actually be seen: God shows himself, the truth comes to light, what was concealed is now visibleJhn 1:31Rom 3:211Jn 1:2
carries the weight of public manifestation, used for the appearing of Christ and the revealing of every person and deed before GodCol 3:42Co 5:101Ti 3:16
ἀποκαλύπτωpulls the covering off a secret, especially a truth God unveils; this word is plainer, clearing up a point or passing on news
It covers plain human news carried from one person to another, with nothing hidden or secret about it.1Co 1:11Col 1:8
It can mean pointing out what something already in plain sight actually signifies, drawing the sense out of a text or an arrangement everyone can see.Heb 9:8Heb 12:27
It is the word for supplying the specifics, which person and which moment, when the general picture is already known.1Pe 1:112Pe 1:14
Both
Both can name the moment when hidden work is brought out into the open, and Paul sets them side by side for one and the same event: the Day will make each builder's work clear because it comes to light in fire.1Co 3:13
With either word God or his Spirit can be the one who lets people in on what they could never have worked out for themselves.1Co 2:10Eph 3:5Heb 9:81Pe 1:11
It works against a covering. The word keeps company with talk of what is hidden or covered over, so the picture is of a wrap being pulled off something that was deliberately kept out of sight.Mat 10:26Luk 12:2Mat 11:25
It names a public unveiling still ahead, a set moment when a person or a glory now out of sight steps into full view.Luk 17:30Rom 8:182Th 2:81Pe 1:5
What comes to light is often a person or a saving reality itself, God or his Son or his standing verdict, and not merely a piece of information about them.Mat 11:27Mat 16:17Gal 1:16Rom 1:17
γνωρίζωmakes something known to someone, and is the usual word for God making his plan known; this word leans toward spelling out what a sign or a statement means
Used for a sign, ritual arrangement, or line of scripture that indicates a spiritual truth on its own, with no speaker doing the telling.Heb 9:8Heb 12:27
Used for a future test or event that will expose the true quality of something once it happens, rather than a person announcing it in advance.1Co 3:13
Both
Both describe one person passing on a report about someone else's situation to a third party.Col 4:71Co 1:11
Used for God or Christ directly communicating his own mind, name, plan, or coming judgment to specific people, as the verb of apostolic revelation.Jhn 15:15Eph 3:3
Can name the act of simply knowing something oneself, not communicating it to anyone else, as when Paul says he does not know which of two options to choose.Php 1:22
δεικνύωputs something in front of the eyes and points at it; this word makes something clear to the mind, in words or by implication
It reaches all the way to uncovering, bringing out into the open what something really is. The coming Day will show what each person's work is made of, because fire tests it, and the shut inner room of the old tent showed that the way in was not open yet.1Co 3:13Heb 9:8
Whatever makes the thing clear need not be a person at all. A day can disclose, and so can a single line of scripture: the phrase "yet once more" shows that what can be shaken is going to be taken away. Every New Testament use of the other word has a person doing the signalling.1Co 3:13Heb 12:27
Both
Both are used for one person telling another what they had no way of knowing on their own. A coworker brought Paul word of a congregation's love, and a governor says it makes no sense to send a prisoner to the emperor without also stating what the man is charged with.Col 1:8Act 25:27
Both can make known something that has not happened yet. Peter says the Lord had made clear to him that he would soon lay his body aside, and a prophet gives out word of a famine that is about to strike.2Pe 1:14Act 11:28
Both are used with the Spirit as the one doing the showing, so neither is limited to ordinary human speech: the Spirit of Christ in the prophets was pointing to when the sufferings of Christ would fall, and the prophet in Antioch speaks by the Spirit.1Pe 1:11Act 11:28
It points past what was actually said to the thing those words stood for. Three times John stops the story to note that a saying of Jesus was pointing to the kind of death ahead, once his own and once Peter's, and Revelation opens by saying God made his message known by sending it through an angel, in pictures rather than plain speech.Jhn 12:33Jhn 18:32Jhn 21:19Rev 1:1
It suits a public announcement made with authority about something that concerns everyone: a prophet stands up in the gathering and gives out word of a famine coming on the whole empire.Act 11:28
δῆλοςthe adjective this verb is built on, describing something that is already obvious; this word is the act of making something obvious
Always an act with someone performing it, moving news from one party to another who did not have it: Chloe's people bring Paul word of the quarrels, Epaphras brings him word of the Colossians' love, and Jesus lets Peter know his death is close.1Co 1:11Col 1:82Pe 1:14
Used when God's Spirit is the one doing the showing, drawing out a meaning that was never on the surface: what the closed tent of worship was saying, and what the prophets' own words were pointing to.Heb 9:81Pe 1:11
Points ahead to a disclosure still to come: the coming day of judgment will bring each person's work out where it can be seen.1Co 3:13
Both
Both sit on the line between hidden and known, and both name the moment a thing stands out plainly instead of being guessed at.Gal 3:111Co 3:13
In both, a few words can carry information about something well beyond themselves: Peter's accent gives away where he belongs, and the short phrase "yet once more" gives away what God means to do with everything that can be shaken.Mat 26:73Heb 12:27
Describes a quality something already has: it is out in the open and needs nobody to announce it. Peter says nothing about where he is from, yet the way he talks puts him on display to the crowd all by itself.Mat 26:73
Carries a step in an argument, the writer's "it is clear that" which asks the reader to grant a conclusion he can see for himself rather than take on the writer's word.1Co 15:27Gal 3:111Ti 6:7
dēloō in the other biblical languages
נָגַדHebrew“to tell”the Hebrew verb for telling or declaring something to someone, matching this word's reporting sense
The disclosure can happen with no one speaking at all: a moment in time or a physical arrangement makes plain, by itself, something that was hidden. Paul says the coming day will show what each builder's work was really made of, and Hebrews reads the layout of the old sanctuary as itself showing that the way inside was still closed.1Co 3:13Heb 9:8
It covers drawing out what a written phrase already implies. In Hebrews the short quotation "yet once more" is said to indicate that whatever can be shaken will be removed: nothing new is being reported, the meaning is being pulled out of words the readers already had.Heb 12:27
Both
Both name the plain act of passing news to someone who did not have it. Greek translators reached for the Greek verb where Hebrew used this verb for a messenger's report, and the New Testament keeps that use: Chloe's people brought Paul word of the quarrels at Corinth and Epaphras brought word of the Colossians' love, just as a survivor came and told Abram what had happened and a man who spotted Absalom in the tree went and told Joab.1Co 1:11Col 1:8Gen 14:132Sa 18:10
Both are used of God making known what a person had no way of working out. Peter says the Spirit was pointing to a time the prophets could not identify, and that Christ let him know his death was near; in the same way God is said to have let Pharaoh know what he was about to do, an angel comes to let Daniel know the answer to his prayer, and the LORD says he states new things before they happen.1Pe 1:112Pe 1:14Gen 41:25Dan 9:23Isa 42:9
It is the word people use when they press someone for an answer: "tell me" as a demand. Jacob asks the stranger for his name, the sailors interrogate Jonah about who has brought the storm on them, and God turns the demand on Job.Gen 32:29Jon 1:8Job 38:4Gen 24:23
It carries a legal weight: the duty of a witness to speak up, the confession an accused man owes, and the verdict the priests and the judge hand down. Someone who saw or knew something and stays silent is guilty precisely because he did not do this.Lev 5:1Jos 7:19Deu 17:9Pro 29:24
Because it is the ordinary verb for letting someone in on something, its negative is a running theme: keeping a wife's identity, a riddle's answer, a family background, or a private word from a prophet back from the person who wants it.Gen 12:18Jdg 14:16Est 2:101Sa 10:16
יָדַעHebrew“to know”the Hebrew verb for knowing; where it is used of letting someone know, it lines up with this word's sense of making something clear
The Greek verb always faces outward, at someone else's understanding, and never describes what the speaker himself knows. In 2 Peter 1:14 Peter reaches for a different verb to say that he knows his death is near, and keeps this one for what Christ made clear to him; in 1 Corinthians 1:11 the news reaches Paul from Chloe's household rather than sitting in his own mind.2Pe 1:141Co 1:11
The one doing the clarifying need not be a person at all. A quoted line of Scripture can be what shows the point, and a coming day of judgment can be what makes plain what each builder's work is really made of.Heb 12:271Co 3:13
Both
Where the Hebrew verb shifts to letting someone know, it does the same work the Greek verb does in all of its uses: one person brings another up to speed on something they had no way to know. Samuel tells Saul what he is to do and Job asks God to tell him his offence, and in the same way Chloe's people made the quarrels at Corinth clear to Paul and Epaphras made the love of the Colossians clear to him.1Sa 10:8Job 13:231Co 1:11Col 1:8
Both serve where God or his Spirit makes plain something no one could work out alone, so the Greek verb is a fair rendering of the Hebrew one in that setting. Pharaoh says God has made all this known to Joseph and a messenger tells Daniel what is coming at the end; on the Greek side the Spirit shows what the old sanctuary's arrangement meant and points ahead to the sufferings of Christ.Gen 41:39Dan 8:19Heb 9:81Pe 1:11
Its dominant use is the state of knowing itself, simply having a fact in hand, which the Greek verb never carries. Cain says he does not know where his brother is, Jacob wakes to say the LORD was in this place and he did not know it, and David tells Jonathan he knows his own danger.Gen 4:9Gen 28:161Sa 20:3
It also covers going and finding out, checking how a matter actually stands. God goes down to see whether the outcry against Sodom is true, and the sailors cast lots to find out who is to blame for the storm.Gen 18:21Jon 1:7
It reaches into practical skill, knowing how to do a job. Esau knows hunting, Hiram's crews know how to cut timber, and the servant in Isaiah knows how to sustain the weary with a word.Gen 25:271Ki 5:6Isa 50:4
Its object can be a person, and then it stretches from ordinary acquaintance to God claiming a people as his own, and even to the quiet way the Hebrew Bible speaks of a husband and wife coming together. None of that personal range belongs to the Greek verb.Exo 1:8Amo 3:2Gen 4:1
Only the Greek verb is used for one person passing news along to another: a visitor arrives and tells you what is really going on in a church you cannot see for yourself.1Co 1:11Col 1:8
Only the Greek verb points forward in time, with the Spirit or the wording of an older passage quietly signaling something that had not happened yet.Heb 9:81Pe 1:112Pe 1:14
Only the Greek verb is used of an event exposing what something was really made of, where nobody explains anything and the test itself does the showing.1Co 3:13
Both
Both are used for bringing out the sense of words that hearers would otherwise miss, and the Greek verb is the natural New Testament counterpart for that work: Levites read the law so the people could take it in, and the writer to the Hebrews says the phrase "yet once more" makes clear what is about to be removed.Neh 8:8Heb 12:27
Only the Hebrew verb belongs to a courtroom deadlock: a man is held in custody while the leaders wait for God to spell out a ruling nobody knows how to give.Lev 24:12Num 15:34
The Hebrew verb also turns up where nothing is being made clear at all, since its underlying picture is of things coming apart: sheep parted off from the flock, and the strike of a poisonous snake.Ezk 34:12Pro 23:32
What scholars say about dēloō
The standard lexica treat δηλόω as the verb formed from δῆλος, "clear, evident": to make clear, disclose, explain. BDAG divides its seven New Testament occurrences between making something clear to the understanding (1 Cor 3:13;Heb 9:8; 12:27; 1 Pet 1:11;2 Pet 1:14) and providing information or reporting (1 Cor 1:11;Col 1:8), a division that reflects ordinary Hellenistic usage as catalogued in LSJ, where the verb is a common term for showing, indicating, and giving notice, including in official and epistolary settings. In the Septuagint it renders forms of נגד (to tell) and ידע (to know, and so to let someone know), and the related noun δήλωσις is the standard equivalent of the Urim. Commentators on Hebrews observe that at 9:8 and 12:27 the verb introduces the author's own inferences from the text and the sanctuary, marking what the arrangement of the tent and the quoted oracle signify for his argument. No live disagreement exists over the verb's lexical sense; the interpretive debates attached to these verses concern what is being indicated, not what the verb means.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. δηλόωlexicon
LSJ, s.v. δηλόωlexicon
EDNT, s.v. δηλόωtheological-dictionary
Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989), on Hebrews 9:8 and 12:27commentary
Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), on Hebrews 9:8commentary