Exegesis:
anth’ hōn ‘for,’ cf. on 1.20, here used in a somewhat weakened sense.
hosa en tē skotia eipate ‘whatever you have said in the dark.’ hosa is stronger than the simple relative pronoun which is used in the next clause.
skotia ‘darkness,’ here used in the sense of ‘night.’
en tō phōti akousthēsetai ‘will be heard in the light,’ i.e. because it will be repeated. en tō phōti means ‘in the light of the day.’
ho pros to ous elalēsate en tois tameiois ‘what you have said into the ear (of somebody) in the inner rooms.’ pros to ous qualifies elalēsate as meaning ‘you have whispered,’ cf. Revised Standard Version.
tameion (also v. 24) ‘storeroom,’ here ‘secret room,’ or ‘inner room.’
kēruchthēsetai epi tōn domatōn ‘will be proclaimed on the housetops.’ kērussō is here (as in 8.39) to be understood in the sense of telling publicly. For dōma cf. on 5.19. The housetops are mentioned here as the place from which a speaker is heard best.
Translation:
Whatever …, or. ‘when you said something it shall be heard….’
In the dark … in the light, or, ‘at night time … in day time’ (Kekchi, similarly Tae’).
Shall be heard … proclaimed, or, ‘people will hear … people/they will proclaim.’
In private rooms, or, ‘behind closed doors’ (Dios Habla Hoy), ‘in the sleeping-room’ (Sranan Tongo, Toraja-Sa’dan, Javanese), ‘in the sleeping-house’ (Balinese, using the term for the only closed building in a compound), ‘underneath the granary’ (Shona 1966, there being no really private rooms in traditional Shona houses).
Whispered, i.e. spoken softly and to one or only a few persons.
Proclaimed. The reference is to speaking loudly (cf. “shouted”, New English Bible) and publicly to many persons, cf. also note on 4.18.
The housetops, or, ‘the roof(-top)/upper-storey, or, the ridge of the house/hut-roof’ (cf. e.g. Tzeltal, Bahasa Indonesia; Kele, Lomwe). Such renderings, however, will not do where people cannot imagine a person proclaiming on or from such a place; hence functional renderings such as, ‘the meeting places’ (Shona 1966), ‘where you meet your fellowmen’ (Central Mazahua), or cultural equivalents, e.g. ‘the streetcorners’ (Sranan Tongo), ‘the place-under-the-tree’ (Batak Toba, i.e. a place outside the village, where people gather to discuss public matters).
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.