Barnes New Testament Notes

Verse 11. The mysteries of the kingdom. The word mystery, in the Bible, properly means a thing that is concealed, or that has been concealed. It does not mean that the thing was incomprehensible, or even difficult to be understood. The thing might be plain enough if revealed, but it means simply that it had not been made known. Thus the mysteries of the kingdom do not mean any doctrines incomprehensible in themselves considered, but simply doctrines about the preaching of the gospel, and the establishment of the new kingdom of the Messiah which had not been understood, and which were as yet concealed from the great body of the Jews. See Ro 16:26; 11:25; Eph 3:3,4,9.

Of this nature was the truth that the gospel was to be preached to the Gentiles, that the Jewish polity was to cease, that the Messiah was to die, etc. To the disciples it was given to know these truths. It was important for them, as they were to carry the gospel around the globe. To the others it was not then given. They were too gross, too earthly; they had too grovelling conceptions of the Messiah's kingdom to understand these truths, even if presented. They were not to preach it, and hence our Saviour was at particular pains to instruct his apostles. The Pharisees, and Jews generally, were not prepared for it, and would not have believed it, and therefore he purposely employed a kind of teaching that they did not understand.

{a} "to know" Mt 11:25; Mr 4:11; 1 Co 2:10-14; Eph 1:9,18; 3:9

Col 1:26,27; 1 Jn 2:27