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Is It Actually in the Bible?

Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.

In 1 Samuel 14:8, Jonathan says he and his armor-bearer will "discover" themselves to the Philistines: meaning they'll find out something new about them.

In 1611 English "discover" meant "uncover" or "expose": Jonathan is planning to reveal himself, not learn something unknown.

KJV word, meaning shifted
1 Samuel 14:8

1 Samuel 14:8, in every translation this tool compares.

What is actually going on

1 Samuel 14:8 (KJV) reads: "Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over unto these men, and we will discover ourselves unto them." Jonathan isn't proposing an investigation: he means "we'll step into the open where they can see us." The underlying Hebrew galah means "to uncover, expose, lay bare," and 1611 "discover" tracked that meaning directly: built from "dis-" (undo) plus "cover," to discover something was to strip away its covering.

Proverbs 25:9 uses the word the same old way: "discover not a secret to another" means don't reveal it, not don't find it out. The now-dominant sense, "find something previously unknown," grew out of this older meaning but hadn't taken over by 1611.

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