Mystery

Secret (from, to shut the mouth.) It is taken,

1. for a truth revealed by God which is above the power of our natural reason, or which we could not have discovered without revelation; such as the call of the Gentiles, Eph 1:9; the transforming of some without dying, &c., 1Co 15:51.

2. The word is also used in reference to things which remain in part incomprehensible after they are revealed; such as the incarnation of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, &c. Some critics, however, observe that the word in Scripture does not import what is incapable in its own nature of being understood, but barely a secret, any thing not disclosed or published to the world. In respect to the mysteries of religion, divines have run into two extremes. "Some, " as one observes, "have given up all that was mysterious, thinking that they were not called to believe any thing but what they could comprehend. But if it can be proved that mysteries make a part of a religion coming from God, it can be no part of piety to discard them, as if we were wiser than he." And besides, upon this principle, a man must believe nothing: the various works of nature, the growth of plants, instincts of brutes, union of body and soul, properties of matter, the nature of spirit, and a thousand other things, are all replete with mysteries. If so in the common works of nature, we can hardly suppose that those things which more immediately relate to the Divine Being himself, can be without mystery. "The other extreme lies in an attempt to explain the mysteries of revelation, so as to free them from all obscurity.

To defend religion in this manner, is to expose it to contempt. The following maxim points out the proper way of defence, by which both extremes are avoided.. Where the truth of a doctrine depends not on the evidence of the things themselves, but on the authority of him who reveals it, there the only way to prove the doctrine to be true is to prove the testimony of him that revealed it to be infallible." Dr. south observes, that the mysteriousness of those parts of the Gospel called the credenda, or matters of our faith, is most subservient to the great and important ends of religion, and that upon these accounts:

First, because religion, in the prime institution of it, was designed to make impressions of awe and reverential fear upon men’s minds.

2. To humble the pride and haughtiness of man’s reason.

3. To engage us in a closer and more dilligent search into them.

4. That the full and entire knowledge of divine things may be one principal part of our felicity hereafter. Robinson’s Claude, vol. 1: p. 118, 119, 304, 305; Campbell’s Preliminary Dissertation to the Gospel, vol. 1: p. 383; Stillingfleet’s Origines Sacrae, vol. 2: 100: 8; Ridgley’s Div. qu. 11; Calmet’s Dict.; Cruden’s Concordance; South’s Serm. ser. 6. vol. 3:

Oh, what a mystery is the gospel of salvation, and the blessed contents of it! What a mystery is that great and fundamental truth, "God in Christ, and Christ in God!" (2 Cor. v. 19. Collos. 3: 3.) What a mystery that Three sacred persons should be in One, and yet the same eternal, undivided, JEHOVAH! (1Jn 5:7.) What a mystery Jesus speaks of when addressing the Father, and speaking of himself and church - - "I in them, and thou in me!" (John 17. 23.) What a mystery, yea, what a great mystery, is godliness: "God manifestinthe flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory!" (1 Tim. 3: 16.) And is there not another mystery, to every truly regenerated believer, as great, yea, if possible, greater than any, namely, that I should believe in Jesus, and Christ be formed in my heart the hope of glory, when thousands neither know the Lord, nor believe the record God hath given of his dear Son!

The Greek word μυστηριον denotes,

1. Something hidden, or not fully manifest. Thus, 2Th 2:7, we read of the “mystery of iniquity,” which began to work in secret, but was not then completely disclosed or manifested.

2. Some sacred thing hidden or secret, which is naturally unknown to human reason, and is only known by the revelation of God. Thus, “Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified by the Spirit,” &c, 1Ti 3:16. The mystery of godliness, or of true religion, consisted in the several particulars here mentioned by the Apostle; particulars, indeed, which it would never have “entered into the heart of man to conceive,” 1Co 2:9, had not God accomplished them in fact, and published them by the preaching of his Gospel; but which, being thus manifested, are intelligible, as facts, to the meanest understanding. In like manner, the term mystery, Rom 11:25; 1Co 15:51, denotes what was hidden or unknown, till revealed; and thus the Apostle speaks of a man’s “understanding all mysteries,” 1Co 13:2; that is, all the revealed truths of the Christian religion which is elsewhere called the “mystery of faith,” 1Ti 3:9. And when he who spake in an unknown tongue is said to “speak mysteries,”

1Co 14:2, it is plain, that these mysteries, however unintelligible to others on account of the language in which they were spoken, were yet understood by the person himself, because he hereby “edified himself,” 1Co 14:4; Act 2:11; Act 10:46. And though in 1Co 2:7-8, we read of the “wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which none of the princes of this world knew;” yet, says the Apostle, we speak or declare this wisdom; and he observes, 1Co 2:10, that God had revealed the particulars of which it consisted to them by his Spirit. So when the Apostles are called “stewards of the mysteries of God,” 1Co 4:1, these mysteries could not mean what were, as facts, unknown to them; (because to them it was “given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God,” Mat 13:11;) yea, the character here ascribed to them implies not only that they knew these mysteries themselves, but that as faithful stewards they were to dispense or make them known to others, Luk 12:42; 1Pe 4:10. In Col 2:2, St. Paul mentions his praying for his converts, that their hearts might be comforted “to the knowledge of the mystery of God, even of the Father, and of Christ;” for thus the passage should be translated. But if, with our translators, we render επιγνωσιν, acknowledgment, still the word μυστηριον can by no means exclude knowledge; “for this is life eternal,” saith our Lord, Joh 17:3, “that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” And, lastly, whatever be the particular meaning of the “mystery of God,” mentioned Rev 10:7, yet it was something he had declared “to (or rather by) his servants the prophets.”

3. The word mystery is sometimes in the writings of St. Paul applied in a peculiar sense to the calling of the Gentiles, which he styles “the mystery,”

Eph 3:3-6; and “the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to his holy Apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of Christ by the Gospel,”

Rom 16:25; Eph 1:9; Eph 3:9; Eph 6:19; Col 1:26-27; Col 4:3.

4. It denotes spiritual truth couched under an external representation or similitude, and concealed or hidden thereby, unless some explanation of it be otherwise given. Thus, Rev 1:20, “The mystery,” that is, the spiritual meaning, “of the seven stars: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.” So Rev 17:5, “And upon her forehead a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great,” that is, Babylon in a spiritual sense, “the mother of idolatry and abominations;” and, Rev 17:7, “I will tell thee the mystery” or spiritual signification “of the woman.” Compare Mat 13:11; Mar 4:11; Luk 8:10; Eph 5:32; and their respective contexts.

A most unscriptural and dangerous sense is but too often put upon this word, as if it meant something absolutely unintelligible and incomprehensible; whereas, in every instance in which it occurs in the Sept. or New Testament, it is applied to something which is revealed, declared, explained, spoken, or which may be known or understood. This fact will appear from the following elucidation of the passages in which it is found. First, it is sometimes used to denote the meaning of a symbolical representation, whether addressed to the mind by a parable, allegory, etc. or to the eye, by a vision, etc. (Mat 13:10-11; Mar 4:11). Again, the mystery or symbolical vision of the ’seven stars and of the seven golden candlesticks’ (Rev 1:12; Rev 1:16), is explained to mean ’the angels of the seven churches of Asia, and the seven churches themselves’ (Rev 1:20). Again, ’the mystery’ or symbolical representation ’of the woman upon a scarlet-colored beast’ (Rev 17:3-6) is also explained: ’I will tell thee the mystery of the woman.’ etc. (Rev 17:7). When St. Paul, speaking of marriage, says, ’this is a great mystery’ (Eph 5:32), he evidently treats the original institution of marriage as affording a figurative representation of the union betwixt Christ and the church. The word is also used to denote anything whatever which is hidden or concealed, till it is explained. Thus it is employed in the New Testament to denote those doctrines of Christianity, general or particular, which the Jews and the world at large did not understand, till they were revealed by Christ and his apostles, ’Great is the mystery of godliness,’ i.e. the Christian religion (1Ti 3:16), the chief parts of which the apostle instantly proceeds to adduce—’God was manifest in the flesh, justified by the Spirit, seen of angels,’ etc.—facts which had not entered into the heart of man (1Co 2:9) until God visibly  accomplished them, and revealed them to the apostles by inspiration (1Co 2:10). Thus also, the Gospel in general is called ’the mystery of the faith’ (1Ti 3:9), and ’the mystery which from the beginning of the world had been hid with God, but which was now made known through means of the church’ (Eph 3:9). The same word is used respecting certain particular doctrines of the Gospel, as, for instance, ’the partial and temporary blindness of Israel,’ of which mystery ’the Apostle would not have Christians’ ignorant (Rom 11:25), and which he explains (Eph 5:25-32). He styles the calling of the Gentiles ’a mystery which, in other ages, was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit’ (Eph 3:4-6; comp. 1:9-10, etc.). To this class we refer the well-known phrase, ’Behold I show you a mystery (1Co 15:51), we shall all be changed;’ and then follows an explanation of the change (1Co 15:51-55). And in the prophetic portion of his writings ’concerning the mystery of iniquity’ (2Th 2:7), he speaks of it as being ultimately ’revealed’ (2Th 2:8); and to complete the proof that the word ’mystery’ is used in the sense of knowable secrets, we add the words ’Though I understand all mysteries’ (1Co 13:2).

Means strictly a secret, and is so used when spoken of the heathen "mysteries" or secret rites, which were full of all manner of abominations. In the Scriptures the word "mystery" denotes those truths of religions which, without a revelation from God, would have remained unknown to man. Our Savior says to his disciples, that they are peculiarly happy, because God has revealed to them "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven," Mat 16:17 11:25 Luk 10:21-24 . Paul explains the word in Zep 3:1-9 ; and often speaks of the mystery of the gospel, of the mystery of the cross of Christ, of the mystery of Christ which was unknown to former ages, of the mystery of the incarnation, the resurrection, etc., 1Ch 11:25 1Co 2:7-10 4:1 13:2 15:51 1Ti 3:9,16. These, then, were called mysteries, not only because they included some things which stretch beyond all human thought, and others which would never have been known if the Son of God and his Holy Spirit had not revealed them, but also because they were not opened indifferently to everyone; according to the advice of Christ to his apostles, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine," 1Co 2:14 . In one place "mystery" seems to denote the whole cycle of God’s secret plan in the administration of the gospel, gradually unfolded even to the end, Jer 10:7 11:15.\par Mystery signifies also an allegory, that is, a mode of information under which partial instruction is given, a partial discovery is made, but there is still a cover of some kind, which the persons who desires to know the whole must endeavor to remove. So the mystery of the seven star, Jer 1:20, is an allegory representing the seven Asiatic churches under the symbol of seven burning lamps. So the mystery "Babylon the Great," is an allegorical representation of the spiritual Babylon, idolatry, spiritual fornication, etc., "I will tell thee the mystery of the woman;" that is, I will explain to thee the allegory of this figure, Jer 17:5,7 .\par

From mustees, "one initiated" into "a revealed secret"; mueoo the verb means "to conceal"; Mu ( μ ), the sound made by closing the lips (m), is the same onomatopoeic sound as in mute. In New Testament usage a spiritual truth heretofore hidden, incapable of discovery by mere reason, but now revealed. Not like the pagan mysteries, imparted only; to the initiated few. All Christians are the initiated; unbelievers alone are the uninitiated (2Co 4:3). The union of Christ and the church is such "a great mystery" (Eph 5:31-32). The church becoming a harlot by conformity to the world is a counter "mystery" (Rev 17:5). "Iniquity" (anomia) in the harlot is a leaven working in "mystery" at first, i.e. latently; afterward when she is destroyed iniquity shall be revealed in "the man of iniquity" (ho anomos), the open embodiment of all previous evil, for popery cannot at once be the mystery of iniquity and the revealed antichrist (2Th 2:7-8).

"The mystery of God" (Rev 10:7), in contrast, is man’s "redemption from all iniquity" and its consequences; a mystery once hidden in God’s secret counsels, dimly-shadowed forth in types and prophecies, but now more and more clearly revealed according as the gospel kingdom develops itself up to its fullest consummation. "The mystery of godliness" (1Ti 3:16) is the divine scheme embodied in Christ (Col 1:26-27). Hidden before "with God" as the "mystery," He is now made manifest (Joh 1:1; Joh 1:14; Rom 16:25-26). Redemption for the whole Gentile world as well as Israel, to whom it seemed in a great measure restricted in Old Testament, is now revealed to all. "The glory of this mystery is Christ in you (now by faith as your hidden life, Col 3:8), the hope of glory" (your hereafter to be manifested life: 1Co 2:7-9; 2Co 4:17). There are six New Testament "mysteries":

(1) The incarnation (1Ti 3:16).

(2) The mystery of iniquity (2Th 2:7).

(3) Christ’s marriage to the church, Eph 5:32, translated "this mystery is great," i.e. this truth hidden once but now revealed, namely, Christ’s spiritual union with the church, mystically represented by marriage, is of great import; not as Vulgate "this is a great sacrament"; not marriage in general, but that of Christ and His church, is the mystery, as Paul declares "I say it in regard to (eis) Christ, and to (eis)) the church," whereas Gen 2:24 refers primarily to literal marriage. (See MARRIAGE.)

(4) The union of Jews and Gentiles in one body, the present election church (Eph 3:4-6); the Old Testament did not foretell we should form Christ’s one body, the temple of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit not merely gives influences as in Old Testament, but personally comes and dwells in the church, joining Jews and Gentiles in one fellowship of God and Christ; He is the earnest of the coming inheritance and the seal of redemption; the Old Testament saints had "proetermission" (paresis) of sins, the New Testament saints have "full remission" (afesis); the forbearance of God was exercised then, the righteousness of God is revealed now (Rom 3:25-26) in our justification.

(5) Israel’s full and final restoration (Rom 11:25).

(6) The resurrection of the body (1Co 15:51).

Ordinarily "mystery" refers to those from whom the knowledge is withheld; in the New Testament mystery refers to those to whom it is revealed. It is hidden in God until brought forward; even when brought forward it remains hidden from the carnal. "Mysteries" (1Co 14:2) mean what is unintelligible to the hearers, exciting wonder rather than instructing; this is in the common sense, but the New Testament does not sanction in the gospel mysteries in this sense. In Rev 1:20 "the mystery of the seven stars" is a oncehidden truth, veiled under this symbol, but now revealed; its correlative is revelation. In 1Co 13:2 "mysteries" refer to God’s deep counsels heretofore secret but now revealed, "knowledge" to truths long known.

So in Mat 13:11; Mar 4:11; Luk 8:10, "mysteries" answer in parallelism to "parables"; to the receptive "the mysteries," or once hidden things of the kingdom of God, are now known by God’s gift; to the unbelieving they remain "parables," on which they see only the outward shell but do not taste the kernel (1Co 2:9-10; 1Co 2:14-15; Psa 25:14; 1Jn 4:20; 1Jn 4:27; Joh 15:15). The parabolic form is designed to rouse the carnal to search and reflection; from whence Jesus did not begin to use it until after He had for some time been speaking plainly. In contrast to paganism, there were no mysteries revealed by God to ministers or priests that were not designed for all. Deu 29:29; "secret things belong to Jehovah (compare Job 11:7; Rom 11:33-34; at this point we must not presume to speculate; Col 2:18), but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."

The little ones must hear all revelation as much as the intellectual (Deu 6:7; Jos 8:34-35; Neh 8:1-2). Moses and the prophets and the apostles practiced no "reserve." So Jesus ordered (Mat 10:27; Mat 28:19). Paul preached publicly and from house to house the "whole counsel of God" (Act 20:20; Act 20:27), "keeping back nothing profitable." They taught babes indeed elementary essentials first, yet did not reserve the deepest truths out of sight, as the pagan mysteries; but set the ultimate goal of perfect knowledge from the first as that to be striven toward (1Co 2:6; 1Co 3:2; Heb 5:12).

Gnosticism introduced the system of esoteric and exoteric doctrine; the mediaeval church perpetuated it. Christ as God had the power to reserve His manifestation of Himself to a few during His earthly ministry, previous to the Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit (Mar 4:33; Mar 9:9; Luk 9:21); but His ministers have no such right. Paul disclaims it, 2Co 4:2; "we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God." On men themselves rests the responsibility how they use the whole counsel of God set before them (2Co 2:15-16).

Mystery. Eph 1:8-9. This word does not mean something absolutely hidden and unintelligible. It is rather a design hidden in God’s counsels until revealed to mankind in and by Christ. Hence we find it continually employed in the New Testament to indicate those gracious purposes and plans, which were by degrees elaborated and illustrated, and on which the teaching of our Lord and his apostles threw the clearest light, but which remained hidden to those who would not understand, and who had their minds blinded against the truth. Thus the gospel is called "the mystery of the faith," "the mystery of godliness," 1Ti 3:9; 1Ti 3:16, which mystery is immediately after explained to be the revelation and glorious work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the calling of the Gentiles and their union into one body, God’s church, with the Jews, is called a mystery, long hidden, but at last made known. Eph 1:9-10; Eph 3:8-10; Col 1:25-27. In the same way it is elsewhere used for a truth or doctrine, which required elucidation, and which received it. Mat 13:11; Rom 11:25; 1Co 13:2; 1Co 15:51-52. The word is also employed symbolically. Thus Paul treating of the primary institution of marriage introduces the term, because the marriage tie was a figurative representation of that yet closer union into which Christ brings his church, wherein the two are "one spirit." Eph 5:31-32; comp. 6:17. In prophetical language there is a similar use of the word mystery. Thus the "seven stars" symbolized "the angels of the seven churches," and the "seven candlesticks" the "seven churches." Rev 1:20; comp. 17:6, 7.

This word describes a hidden or secret thing, known only to the initiated. In scripture it stands in contrast to the manifest or public dealings of God. The Lord Jesus having been rejected, is now hidden in the heavens, and the ways of God are secret to the world, but made known, as also His hidden purpose which is being accomplished by His secret ways, to those who have ’ears to hear.’ In the issue of those ways the mystery of God is finished. Rev 10:7.

The Lord often spoke in parables to the multitude, but explained them to the apostles, because it was given unto them to know the mysteries of the kingdom. Mat 13:11; Mar 4:11; Luk 8:10. Christianity is a mystery to the unconverted. The apostles were stewards of the mysteries of God, and they spoke "the wisdom of God in a mystery." The Apostle Paul spoke of the ’mystery of the gospel,’ the ’mystery of the faith,’ the ’mystery of Christ,’ and the ’mystery of godliness,’ or piety. 1Co 2:7; 1Co 4:1; Eph 6:19; Col 4:3; 1Ti 3:9; 1Ti 3:16.

The marvellous purpose of God, the mystery of the church, that had been hidden for ages, was revealed to Paul, as well as its present administration. Eph 1:9; Eph 3:3-4; Eph 3:9; Col 1:26-27. It is that in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The intelligence of it explains how Christ can be here in a scene from which He has been rejected alike by Jew and Gentile. There is also the mystery of the power of Christ as regards both the dead and the living saints. 1Co 15:51. In opposition to God there is the ’mystery of iniquity,’ that was secretly working in the church in the apostles’ days. 2Th 2:7. Allied to this is papal Rome, whose name is really "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth." Rev 17:5; Rev 17:7. The above scriptures show that though there are several things designated mysteries, yet God in His grace has made them known to His saints.

The Mystery Of GOD

Psa_25:14; Rom_16:25-26; 1Co_2:6-8; 1Co_15:50-57; Eph_3:1-9; Col_1:26-27; Rev_10:7.

The Secret Things

Deu_29:29.

Who Speaks Mysteries

1Co_14:2.

MYSTERY (μυστήριον from μύστης one initiated’; stem μύω ‘to close,’ ‘shut’ (cf. Lat. mutus, English ‘mum’).—1. In classical Greek μυστήριον means a hidden thing, a seeret; in Biblical writers primarily a hidden or seeret thing; in the plural (usually) individual matters of revelation or superhuman knowledge (Mat 13:11, Luk 8:10, Rom 11:25, 1Co 4:1; 1Co 15:51). In the singular with the article to τὸ μυστήριον is used, principally by St. Paul, of the hidden counsel of God, especially His redemptive plan culminating in the final judgment (Rom 16:25, 1Co 2:7, Eph 3:3; Eph 3:9, Col 1:26 f.). This counsel of God is further characterized as the ‘mystery of his will’ (Eph 1:9) ‘which he formed’ (Col 2:2 [1Co 2:1, text of WH [Note: H Westcott and Hort’s text.] ]) ‘respecting Christ’ (Col 4:3), and constitutes the contents of the gospel (Eph 6:19). It is consummated in the paronsia (Rev 10:7). In antithesis to ‘the mystery of the faith’ or ‘of godliness’ (1Ti 3:9; 1Ti 3:16) stands that of ‘lawlessness’ (2Th 2:7), the purposed impulse of an antagonistic power operative in the world.

Besides this primary sense, the word μυστήριον is also used like רָוָא and סו̇ד in Rabbinic writers to designate the hidden or mystic sense of a Scripture (Eph 5:32), a name (Rev 17:5), or the image or form seen in a vision (Rev 1:20; Rev 17:5).

It is important to observe that the connotation of intrinsic difficulty of comprehension, obscurity, which has become inseparable from the word in modern use, is misleading. In Biblical and in ancient use generally the ‘mystery’ is simply that which is made known only to the initiated, be its content easy or hard to understand, hence revealed as against reasoned knowledge.

2. In a looser sense the term ‘mysteries’ was transferred from the teaching symbolized to (a) the rites enacted in certain cults or rituals known to classic authors as τελεταί (Wis 14:23), and (b), still more loosely, to the τελεταί themselves. From the former sense (a) the designation of the sacraments, or even the Church service generally, as ‘the mysteries’ becomes common from the 2nd cent. onward. From the latter is doubtless derived the designation of mediaeval religious dramas or pantomimes as ‘mysteries’ (cf., from the same stem, ‘mummery’).

3. The τελεταί, loosely called ‘mysteries,’ are of importance to our consideration as affecting the application of the term ‘mystery ‘to the gospel as a whole in Mar 4:11. They consisted of secret rites in honour of certain divinities especially representative of the drama of life, vegetable and animal, annually failing and renewed. These divinities are always chthonic, as against the Olympian (national) divinities of the upper air; and their worship, maintained by guilds, was commonly associated with the rites of ancestor and hero—worship. Mystery—religion transcended all lines of mere nationality, substituting its own brotherhoods of initiates, and offered the idea of personal deliverance and immortality as the goal; as the means, it offered sacramental (instead of sacrificial) union with a Redeemer-god (θεὸς σωτήρ), who, in contrast with the Olympian divinities, participated in the suffering and death of humanity, and won for men victory over their spiritual foes. Its strong monotheistic tendency, added to these other traits, gave it an obvious resemblance to the gospel as preached to the Gentile world, and made it a much more formidable rival than the various religionized forms of Greek and Oriental philosophy, in bidding for the adherence of popular faith in the Empire, after the dissolution of the national religions. Christianity itself, in the transition from a national to a universal religion, necessarily passed through some of the same phases as the mystery-cults; for these had already connected themselves in a syncretizing spirit with the mythology of every people. Their influence is most apparent, as we should expect, in the development of the Pauline Church, supremely in the ultra-Pauline or Gnostic. The resemblances were in fact so striking alike in dogma, terminology, and ritual, as to lead early apologists to account for them by the theory of diabolic travesty (Justin M. Apol. i. 66, Dial. lxx.). Some modern students of the history of religion find it impossible to deny a relation of dependence on the side of the Church, especially in the Pauline and post-Pauline period. [For an able presentation of the view that it is impossible to establish any direct relation during the Pauline or early post-Pauline period, see Anrich, Das antike Mysterienwesen], This appears not only from terminology, but even from the Pauline doctrine and ritual, in particular as regards the theory of the sacraments. In the Gospels this influence is scarcely traceable outside the Fourth, wherein the type of the δρᾶμα μυστικόν and the sacramental interest are very apparent (Harnack, Mission und Ansbreitung, pp. 169–173—John and Origen the profoundest mysteriosophists of the Church); but in the single passage Mar 4:11 = Mat 13:11 = Luk 8:10 even the Synoptic writers must be admitted to have been affected through St. Paul both as to phraseology and as to thought.

4. Mar 4:11 seems to be earlier in form than its parallels; for the context shows that the thing given or withheld is not certain elements of the gospel, conceived as μυστήρια and therefore uttered only in parables (understood as enigmas; cf. Mat 13:35, Joh 16:29)—the sense conveyed by the use of the plural in the parallels (τὰ μυστἡρια, Mat 13:11 = Luk 8:10)—but is the gospel as a whole conceived as a ‘mystery’ in the Pauline sense, i.e. a Divine revelation (cf. Mat 13:16-17). The teaching in parables is regarded by Mk. (and still more by Mt.) as a fulfilment of Isa 6:9 conceived as a sentence of judicial blindness. In answer to the question (Mat 13:10), ‘Why speakest thou to them (the motley Galilaean multitude) in parables?’ (i.e. enigmas), Jesus answers that it is a fulfilment of the prophetic curse of Isaiah upon a disobedient and gainsaying people, of whom such fruitless hearing had been foretold. The inner circle (Mar 4:10; cf. Mar 3:13; cf. Mar 3:34-35) are alone intended to receive more than the husk. The parallels, in altering to τὰ μυστήρια, give a dilution of this sense (cf. the secondary sense above under 1).

5. Not the word alone, but the entire context of Mark 4 and parallels are Pauline in aim. Romans 9-11 attempts a theodicy of the rejection of Israel the covenant people in favour of the Gentiles, based upon the same idea of judicial hardening, and employing the same passage from Isaiah. In Rom 11:6 Paul writes after 30 years of disappointing experience in preaching to the Jews: ‘It is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and cars that they should not hear, unto this very day.’ To St. Paul, accordingly, must be attributed the first utilization of Isa 6:9, which henceforth becomes the locus classieus to account for the rejection of the Messiah by His own people (with Mar 4:11 and parallels, cf. Joh 12:39-41, Act 28:24-28). Manifestly an interpretation of parabolic utterance which supposes it adopted in order to fulfil the prophetic sentence of judicial blindness on Israel cannot be attributed to Jesus, since the end sought in the parables themselves is the reverse of intentional obscurity. Mar 4:11, accordingly, which does not stand alone in this Gospel as regards its Pauline phraseology (cf. Mar 1:15 with Mat 4:17), is equally Pauline in the employment of this theory of the intention of the parabolic teaching.

6. Linguistically the results are at least equally conclusive. The word μυστἡριον occurs 21 times in the Pauline Epp., elsewhere in the NT only here, and 4 times in the Apocalypse. The conception of the gospel itself as a ‘mystery’ is found nowhere else save in the Pauline Epistles. With St. Paul it is fundamental (1Co 2:1-16, Eph 1:9; Eph 3:3-11, Col 1:27, Rom 16:25-27), usually involving the contrast of philosophy versus revelation, the ‘wisdom of this world’ versus the spirit of prophecy. It is noteworthy that the removal of Rom 16:11-12 from the context of Mar 4:10-20 produces a simpler and more intelligible connexion (cf. Mar 4:10 ‘asked of him the parables’).

7. The agraphon quoted by Clement of Alexandria (Strom. v. x. 69) from ‘a certain Gospel’: ‘My mystery belongs to me and to the sons of my household’ (μυστήριον ἐμὸν ἐμοὶ καὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς τοῦ οἵκου μου), and also found in Clem. Hom. xix. xx. in the form, ‘Keep the mysteries for me and the sons of my house,’ is manifestly connected with Mar 4:11, but probably not dependent upon it, nor upon St. Paul. This, however, does not counteract the above conclusions. It is quite probable that Mar 4:11 rests upon a traditional logion of some such form as this, rather than directly or exclusively on Rom 11:8. The utterance in this form is not indeed attributable to Jesus, to whose doctrine its suggestion of esoteric teaching is abhorrent (cf. Philo, de Vict. Off. i. f., on the superiority of the Mosaic to heathen ‘mysteries’ as concealed from none; also Wis 6:22); but proper appreciation of the Pauline use of the word μυστἡριον will show a common basis in the real teaching of Jesus. Mat 11:25-27 = Luk 10:21-22 is the canonical equivalent of the agraphon, and affords the real point of connexion between the teaching of Jesus and the Pauline and post-Pauline application of the term μυστήριον to the gospel. In respect to the superhuman, Divinely revealed character of the one message, Jesus and St. Paul are both emphatic. The expressions of 1Co 2:1-16 from this point of view are not only in agreement with Jesus’ whole teaching as ‘with authority and not as the scribes,’ but form a striking parallel to Mat 11:25-30. However open to suspicion the logion of Mar 4:11 may be in its present canonical or post-canonical form, the words are at bottom nothing more than the translation into Greek equivalents of a claim of Jesus that is unquestionably historical, namely the claim for His teaching to be by revelation, a wisdom of God accessible to His ‘little ones’ though ‘hid from the wise and prudent.’

Literature.—On the word μυστήριον see, besides Grimm-Thayer, Hatch, Essays on NT Greek, p. 58; Lightfoot, Com. on Col 1:26; Stewart, s.v. ‘Mystery’ in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible ; Ramsay, s.v. in Enc. Brit.^{9 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred]} ; and A. Jülicher, s.v. in Encyc. Biblica. On the influence of the Greek mysteries on early Christianity, see Lobeck, Aglaophamus, 1829; Anrich, Das antike Mysterienwesen in seinem Einfluss a.d. Christenthum, 1894; and Wobbermin, Religionsgeschichtliche Studien zur Beeinflussung des Urchristenthums durch d. Mysterien, 1896; also Cheetham, The Mysteries Pagan and Christian, 1897; and Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church, ch. x. On NT use of terminology from the mysteries, see Carman in Bibliotheca Sacra L (1893). On the mysteries generally as a phenomenon in the history of religion, see Rhode, Psyche; Frazer, Golden Bought^{2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred]} ; Harnack, Mission und Ausbreitung des Chr. 1902, Bk. ii. ch. v.

B. W. Bacon.

MYSTERY

The Greek mystçrion in Christian Latin became mysterium, and thus passed into modern languages. The kindred mystic and mystagogue, imported directly from the Greek, point to the primary significance of this word. In 8 NT passages the Latin Vulgate replaced mysterium by the alien rendering sacramentum (the soldier’s oath of allegiance), which has taken on, with modifications, the meaning of the original.

In common parlance, ‘mystery’ has become synonymous with ‘secret’ (a usage peculiar to the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] in extant Greek: see Sir 22:22, 2Ma 13:21 etc.), signifying a baffling, recondite secret. Divine doctrines or dealings of Providence are said to be ‘mysterious’ when we fail to reconcile them with accepted principles, though presuming the reconciliation abstractly possible. Primarily, however, the NT mystçrion is not something dark and difficult in its nature, but something reserved and hidden of sat purpose,—as in Rom 16:25 ‘the mystery held in silence for eternal ages.’ It connotes that which ‘can only be known on being imparted by some one already in possession of it, not by mere reason and research which are common to all.’

In its familiar classical use the word amounted almost to a proper noun. ‘The Mysteries’ were a body of sacred observances connected with the worship of certain Hellenic deities (chiefly those representing the primitive Nature-powers), which were practised in retreat, and which bound their Initiates into a religious confraternity. The higher of these Mysteries conveyed, under their symbolic dress, a connected esoteric doctrine—vague, it may have been, but impressive—bearing on the origin of life, on sin and atonement, and the bliss or woe of man’s future state, the basis of which was found in the course of the seasons, in the conflict of light and darkness, and the yearly parables of the seed-corn and the vine-Juice. The Eleusinian Mysteries, annually celebrated in Attica, attracted visitors from the whole civilized world, and appear to have exerted a salutary Influence on Pagan society. The distinctions of country, rank, or sex were no bar to participation; only slaves and criminals were excluded from the rites. These were the most famous of a host of Mysteries, many of them of a passionate and even frantic, some of a disgraceful, character, which were rife in the Græco-Roman world at the Christian era; they formed, says Renan, ‘the serious part of Pagan religion.’ The Greek Mysteries were already rivalied in popularity by the Egyptian cults of Isis and Serapis, and subsequently by the Persian Mithraism, which spread in the 3rd cent. to the bounds of the Empire. These associations supplied what was lacking in the civic and family worships of ancient heathendom,—viz. emotion, edification, and moral fellowship.

The term ‘mystery,’ with its allied expressions in the NT, must be read in the light of these institutions, which preoccupied the ground and were known wherever the Greek language was current. Christianity found its closest points of contact with Paganism, and the competition most dangerous to it, in ‘the Mysteries’; its phraseology and customs—in the case of the Sacraments, possibly, its doctrinal conceptions as these took shape during the first five centuries—bear the marks of their influence. This influence betrays itself first in the Apocrypha, when the writer of Wisdom speaks in Wis 2:22 of ‘mysteries of God’ bidden from the unworthy, and, like the Apostle Paul, promises to disclose’ the mysteries’ of Divine wisdom (Wis 6:22) to his readers; in Wis 14:15; Wis 14:23, the Gentile ‘mysteries and initiatory rites’ are mentioned with abhorrence. The NT affords 27 or (including the dubious reading of 1Co 2:1) 28 examples of the word,—3 of these in Mat 13:11 and the Synoptic parallels, 4 in Rev. (Rev 1:20, Rev 10:7, Rev 17:5; Rev 17:7), the other 20 (or 21) in Paul; of the latter, 10 belong to Eph. and Col., 5 (or 6) to 1 Cor.

The NT usages are distinguished as they are wider or narrower in application: (1) in Rev 10:7, ‘the mystery of God’ covers the entire process of revelation; in 1Ti 3:15 ‘the mystery of godliness,’ and in 1Co 2:7 ‘the wisdom of God in a mystery,’ embrace the whole incarnate manifestation hidden up to this epoch in the womb of time (Rom 16:25 f.), which is summed up by Col 2:2 as ‘the mystery of God, even Christ.’ ‘The mystery of lawlessness’ (2Th 2:7), culminating in the ‘paronsia’ of Antichrist, presents the counterpart of the Divine mystery in the realm of evil.

Or (2) ‘the mystery’ consists in some specific revelation, some previously veiled design of God—as in the Eph.-Col. passages, where St. Paul thus describes God’s plan for saving the Gentile world. He points out (Rom 11:28) the shadow attending this great disclosure in ‘the mystery’ of the ‘hardening’ that has ‘in part befallen Israel.’ The institution of marriage viewed as prophetic of the union between Christ and the Church (Eph 5:32), and the bodily transformation of the saints at the Second Advent (1Co 15:51 f.), are Divine secrets now disclosed; they mark respectively the beginning and the end of revelation. These and such matters constitute ‘the mysteries’ of which the Apostle is ‘steward’ (1Co 4:1), which enlightened Christians ‘know’ (1Co 13:2) and dwell upon in hours of rapture (1Co 14:2). According to the Synoptics, our Lord speaks of His parables as containing, in a similar sense, ‘the mysteries of the kingdom’ (Mat 13:11 etc.).

(3) Rev 1:20; Rev 17:5; Rev 17:7 afford examples of a narrower reference in the term: ‘the seven stars’ and ‘the harlot woman’ are mystical symbols, patent to those who are ‘in the Spirit,’ of great realities operative in the kingdoms of God and of Satan.

This analysis brings out certain essential differences between the Christian and non-Christian employment of the word in question. In the first place, the new ‘mysteries’ are no human performances, ritual or dramatic; they are Divine communications embodied in Christ and His redemption, which God’s stewards are commissioned to impart. In the second place, they seek publicity not concealment—‘mystery’ and ‘revelation’ become correlative terms. These are not secrets reserved for and guarded in silence by the few; ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ,’ long concealed from all, is now thrown open to all—‘hidden from the ages and generations,’ but to-day ‘preached to the nations.’ Most emphatic is St. Paul’s insistence on the frankness of the gospel revelation; most earnest his disclaimer of any esoteric doctrine, such as the vendors of foreign ‘mysteries’ commonly professed. Nothing but moral insensibility or the false pride of the world’s wisdom, he asserts, bars any man from receiving his gospel—it is ‘hid amongst the perishing, those whose thoughts the god of this world blinded’ (2Co 4:3 f.; cf. 1Co 2:14, Luk 10:21). The communication of the gospel mystery is limited by the receptivity of the hearer, not the reserve of the speaker; addressed to all men, it is ‘worthy of all acceptation’ (1Ti 1:15; 1Ti 2:4; cf. Rom 1:14, Act 26:22, Col 1:28). ‘The mystery of iniquity’ (2Th 2:7) and that of Israel’s ‘hardening’ (Rom 11:25), however, still await solution; these will be disclosed before ‘the mystery of God is finished’ (Rev 10:7).

Several other NT words had been associated in Greek usage, more or less definitely, with the Mysteries: illumination (2Co 4:4 ff., Eph 1:18, Heb 6:4 etc.); seal (2Co 1:22, Eph 1:18, Rev 7:3 etc.); perfect (scil. initiated: 1Co 2:6, Php 3:15 etc.); ‘I have learnt the secret’ (‘have been initiated,’ Php 4:11); and the original (cognate) words for ‘behold’ and ‘eye-witnesses’ in 1Pe 2:12; 1Pe 3:2 and 2Pe 1:16. The association is unmistakable, and the allusion highly probable, in the last two, as well as in the other instances. In these Petrine passages the thought of the spectators being favoured with the sight of a holy secret was, seemingly, in the writer’s mind.

G. G. Findlay.

(Greek mysterion, from myein, "to shut", "to close".)This term signifies in general that which is unknowable, or valuable knowledge that is kept secret. In pagan antiquity the word mystery was used to designate certain esoteric doctrines, such as Pythagoreanism, or certain ceremonies that were performed in private or whose meaning was known only to the initiated, e.g., the Eleusinian rites, Phallic worship. In the language of the early Christians the mysteries were those religious teachings that were carefully guarded from the knowledge of the profane (see DISCIPLINE OF THE SECRET). NOTION OF MYSTERY IN SCRIPTURE AND IN THEOLOGYThe Old-Testament versions use the word mysterion as an equivalent for the Hebrew word sôd, "secret" (Proverbs 20:19; Judith 2:2; Sirach 22:27; 2 Maccabees 13:21). In the New Testament the word mystery is applied ordinarily to the sublime revelation of the Gospel (Matthew 13:11; Colossians 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:9; 1 Corinthians 15:51), and to the Incarnation and life of the Saviour and His manifestation by the preaching of the Apostles (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:4; 6:19; Colossians 1:26; 4:3).In conformity with the usage of the inspired writers of the New Testament, theologians give the name mystery to revealed truths that surpass the powers of natural reason. Mystery, therefore, in its strict theological sense is not synonymous with the incomprehensible, since all that we know is incomprehensible, i.e., not adequately comprehensible as to its inner being; nor with the unknowable, since many things merely natural are accidentally unknowable, on account of their inaccessibility, e.g., things that are future, remote, or hidden. In its strict sense a mystery is a supernatural truth, one that of its very nature lies above the finite intelligence.Theologians distinguish two classes of supernatural mysteries: the absolute (or theological) and the relative. An absolute mystery is a truth whose existence or possibility could not be discovered by a creature, and whose essence (inner substantial being) can be expressed by the finite mind only in terms of analogy, e.g., the Trinity. A relative mystery is a truth whose innermost nature alone (e.g., many of the Divine attributes), or whose existence alone (e.g., the positive ceremonial precepts of the Old Law), exceeds the natural knowing power of the creature. CATHOLIC DOCTRINEThe existence of theological mysteries is a doctrine of Catholic faith defined by the Vatican Council, which declares: "If any one say that in Divine Revelation there are contained no mysteries properly so called (vera et proprie dicta mysteria), but that through reason rightly developed (per rationem rite excultam) all the dogmas of faith can be understood and demonstrated from natural principles: let him be anathema" (Sess. III, Canons, 4. De fide et Ratione, 1). This teaching is clearly explained in Scripture. The principal proof text, which was cited in part by the Vatican Council, is I Cor., ii. Shorter passages are especially Eph., iii, 4-9; Col., i, 26-27; Matt., xi, 25-27; John i 17-18. These texts speak of a mystery of God, which only infinite wisdom can understand, namely, the designs of Divine Providence and the inner life of the Godhead (see also Wisdom 9:16-17; Romans 11:33-36). Tradition abounds with testimonies that support this teaching. In the Brief "Gravissimas Inter" (Denzinger, "Enchiridion", ed. Bannwart, nn. 1666-74), Pius IX defends the doctrine of supernatural mystery by many citations from the works of the Fathers. Numerous other patristic texts that bear on the same question are quoted and explained in Kleutgen’s "Die Theologie der Vorzeit", II, 75 sq.; V, 220 sq.; and in Schäzler’s "Neue Untersuchungen über das Dogma von der Gnade" (Mainz, 1867), 466 sq. The manifold excellence of Christian revelation offers many theological arguments for the existence of supernatural mysteries (cf. Scheeben, "Dogmatik", I, 24). REASON AND SUPERNATURAL MYSTERY(1) ErrorsThe existence of supernatural mysteries is denied by Rationalists and semi-Rationalists. Rationalists object that mysteries are degrading to reason. Their favourite argument is based on the principle that no medium exists between the reasonable and the unreasonable, from which they conclude that the mysterious is opposed to reason (Bayle, Pfleiderer). This argumentation is fallacious, since it confounds incomprehensibility with inconceivableness, superiority to reason with contradiction. The mind of a creature cannot, indeed, grasp the inner nature of the mysterious truth, but it can express that truth by analogies; it cannot fully understand the coherence and agreement of all that is contained in a mystery of faith, but it can refute successfully the objections which would make a mystery consist of mutually repugnant elements.Rationalists further object that the revelation of mysteries would be useless, since it is the nature of reason to accept only the evident (Toland), and since the knowledge of the incomprehensible can have no influence on the moral life of mankind (Kant). To answer the first objection we have only to recall that there is a twofold evidence: the internal evidence of a thing in itself, and the external evidence of trustworthy authority. The mysteries of revelation, like the facts of history, are supported by external evidence and therefore they are evidently credible. The second difficulty rests on a false assumption. The religious life of the Christian is rooted in his faith in the supernatural, which is an anticipation of the beatific vision (St. Thomas, "Comp. Theol. ad fratrem Reg.," cap. ii), a profound act of religious homage (Contra. Gent., I, vi), and the measure by which he judges the world and the ways of God. The history of civilization bears witness to the beneficial influence that Christian faith has exerted on the general life of mankind (cf. Gutberlet, "Apologetik," II, 2 ed., Münster, 1895, 23).Some Rationalists, trusting to far-fetched similarities, pretend that the Christian mysteries were borrowed from the religious and philosophical systems of Paganism. A study of the origin of Christianity suffices to show the absurdity of such an explanation. Semi-Rationalism explains mysteries either as purely natural truths expressed in symbolic language (Schelling, Baader, Sabatier), or as soluble problems of philosophy (Günther, Frohschammer). The errors of Günther were condemned in a pontifical letter to the Archbishop of Cologne in 1857, and in another to the Bishop of Breslau in 1860 (Denzinger, "Enchiridion", ed. Bannwart, nn. 1655-1658); those of Frohschammer, in the Brief "Gravissimas Inter", 11 Dec., 1862.(2) Relations of Natural and Supernatural Truth(a) Superiority of the SupernaturalThe mysteries contained in supernatural revelation are not simply disconnected truths lying beyond the realm of natural things, but a higher, heavenly world, a mystical cosmos whose parts are united in a living bond. (Scheeben, "Dogmatik", I, 25.) Even in those parts of this vast system that have been revealed to us there is a wonderful harmony. In his great work "Die Mysterien des Christenthums", Scheeben has sought to show the logical connection in the supernatural order by considering its supreme mystery, the internal communication of Divine life in the Trinity, as the model and ideal of the external communication to the creature of the Divine life of grace and glory. The knowledge of the supernatural is more excellent than any human wisdom, because, although incomplete, it has a nobler object, and through its dependence on the unfailing word of God possesses a greater degree of certitude. The obscurity which surrounds the mysteries of faith results from the weakness of the human intellect, which, like the eye that gazes on the sun, is blinded by the fulness of light.(b) Harmony of Natural and Supernatural TruthSince all truth is from God, there can be no real warfare between reason and revelation. Supernatural mysteries as such cannot be demonstrated by reason, but the Christian apologist can always show that the arguments against their possibility are not conclusive (St. Thos., "Suppl. Boeth. de trinitate", Q. ii, a. 3). The nature of God which is infinite and eternal, must be incomprehensible to an intelligence that is not capable of perfect knowledge (cf. Zigliara, "Propædeutica", I, ix). The powerlessness of science to solve the mysteries of nature, a fact that Rationalists admit, shows how limited are the resources of the human intellect (cf. Daumer, "Des Reich des Wundersamen und Geheimnissvollen," Ratisbon, 1872). On the other hand reason is able not only to recognize wherein consists the special mysteriousness of a supernatural truth, but also to dispel to some extent the obscurity by means of natural analogies and to show the fittingness of the mystery by reasons of congruity (Council of Cologne, 1860). This was done with great success by the Fathers and the Scholastic theologians. A famous example is St. Thomas’ argument ex convenientia for the Divine processions in the Trinity (Summa Theol., I, QQ. xxvii-xxxi). (See FAITH, REASON, REVELATION.)-----------------------------------ZIGLIARA, Prop deutica in S. Theologiam (Rome, 1890), 45 sq., 113 sq.; SCHEEBEN, Die Mysterien des Christenthums (Freiburg, 1898); BOSSUET, Elévations à Dieu sur tous les mystères de la religion chrétienne (Paris, 1711); OTTINGER, Theologia fundamentalis, I (Freiburg, 1897), 66 sq.; NEWMAN, Critic. Essays, I (London, 1888), 41.J.A. MCHUGH Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XCopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

mis´tẽr-i (μυστήριον, mustḗrion; from μύστης, mústēs, “one initiated into mysteries”; muéō “to initiate,” múō, “to close” the lips or the eyes; stem mu-, a sound produced with closed lips; compare Latin mutus, “dumb”): Its usual modern meaning (= something in itself obscure or incomprehensible, difficult or impossible to understand) does not convey the exact sense of the Greek mustērion, which means a secret imparted only to the initiated, what is unknown until it is revealed, whether it be easy or hard to understand. The idea of incomprehensibility if implied at all, is purely accidental. The history of the word in ancient paganism is important, and must be considered before we examine its Biblical usage.

1. In Ancient Pagan Religions

In the extant classics, the singular is found once only (Menander, “Do not tell thy secret (mustērion) to thy friend”). But it is frequently found in the plural tá mustḗria, “the Mysteries,” the technical term for the secret rites and celebrations in ancient religions only known to, and practiced by, those who had been initiated. These are among the most interesting, significant, and yet baffling religious phenomena in the Greek-Roman world, especially from the 6th century BC onward. In proportion as the public cults of the civic and national deities fell into disrepute, their place came more and more to be filled by secret cults open only to those who voluntarily underwent elaborate preliminary preparations. There was scarcely one of the ancient deities in connection with whose worship there was not some subsidiary cult of this kind. The most famous were the Mysteries celebrated in Eleusis, under the patronage and control of the Athenian state, and associated with the worship of Demeter and her daughter Persephone. But there were many others of a more private character than the Eleusinian, e.g. the Orphic Mysteries, associated with the name of Dionysus. Besides the Greek Mysteries, mention should be made of the Egyptian cults of Isis and Serapis, and of Persian Mithraism, which in the 3rd century AD was widely diffused over the whole empire.

It is difficult in a brief paragraph to characterize the Mysteries, so elaborate and varied were they, and so completely foreign to the modern mind. The following are some of their main features:

(1) Their appeal was to the emotions rather than to the intellect. Lobeck in his famous Aglaophamus destroyed the once prevalent view that the Mysteries enshrined some profound religious truth or esoteric doctrine. They were rather an attempt to find a more emotional and ecstatic expression to religious aspiration than the public ceremonies provided. Aristotle (as quoted by Synesius) declared that the initiated did not receive definite instruction, but were put in a certain frame of mind (οὐ μαθεῖν τι δεῖν ἀλλἀ παθεῖν, ou matheı́n ti deı́n allá patheı́n). This does not mean that there was no teaching, but that the teaching was vague, suggestive and symbolic, rather than didactic or dogmatic.

(2) The chief purpose of the rites seems to have been to secure for the rotaries mystic union with some deity and a guaranty of a blissful immortality. The initiated was made to partake mystically in the passing of the deity through death to life, and this union with his saviour-god (θεὸς σωτήρ, theós sōtḗr) became the pledge of his own passage through death to a happy life beyond. This was not taught as an esoteric doctrine; it was well known to outsiders that the Mysteries taught the greater blessedness of the initiated in the under-world; but in the actual ceremony the truth was vividly presented and emotionally realized.

(3) The celebrations were marked by profuse symbolism of word and action. They were preceded by rites of purification through which all the mystae had to pass. The celebrations themselves were in the main a kind of religious drama, consisting of scenic representations illustrating the story of some deity or deities, on the basis of the old mythologies regarded as allegories of Nature’s productive forces and of human immortality; combined with the recital of certain mystic formulae by the hierophant (the priest). The culminating point was the ἐποπτεία, epopteı́a, or full vision, when the hierophant revealed certain holy objects to the assembly.

(4) The cults were marked by a strict exclusiveness and secrecy. None but the initiated could be present at the services, and the knowledge of what was said and done was scrupulously kept from outsiders. What they had seen and heard was so sacred that it was sacrilege to divulge it to the uninitiated.

(5) Yet the Mysteries were not secret societies, but were open to all who chose to be initiated (except barbarians and criminals). They thus stood in marked contrast to the old civic and national cults, which were confined to states or cities. They substituted the principle of initiation for the more exclusive principle of birthright or nationality; and so foreshadowed the disintegration of old barriers, and prepared the way for the universal religion. Thus the mystery-religions strangely combined a strict exclusiveness with a kind of incipient catholicity. This brief account will show that the Mysteries were not devoid of noble elements. They formed “the serious part of pagan religion” (Renan). But it must also be remembered that they lent themselves to grave extravagances and abuses. Especially did they suffer from the fact that they were withheld from the light of healthy publicity.

2. In the Old Testament and the Apocrypha

The religion of the Old Testament has no Mysteries of the above type. The ritual of Israel was one in which the whole people partook, through their representatives the priests. There was no system of ceremonial initiation by which the few had privileges denied to the many. God has His secrets, but such things as He revealed belonged to all Deu 29:29; so far from silence being enjoined concerning them, they were openly proclaimed (Deu 6:7; Neb Deu 8:1 ff). True piety alone initiated men into confidential intercourse with Yahweh Psa 25:14; Pro 3:32. The term “mystery” never occurs in the English Old Testament. The Greek word mustērion occurs in the Septuagint of the Old Testament. Only in Daniel, where it is found several times as the translation of רזא, rāzā’, “a secret,” in reference to the king’s dream, the meaning of which was revealed to Dan 2:18-19, Dan 2:27-30, Dan 2:47.

In the Apocrypha, mustērion is still used in the sense of “a secret” (a meaning practically confined to the Septuagint in extant Greek); of the secrets of private life, especially between friends (Sir 22:22; 27:16, 17, 21), and of the secret plans of a king or a state (Tob 12:7, 11; Judith 2:2; 2 Macc 13:21). The term is also used of the hidden purpose or counsel of God or of Divine wisdom. The wicked “knew not the mysteries of God,” i.e. the secret counsels that govern God’s dealings with the godly (Wisd 2:22); wisdom “is initiated (μύστις, mústis) into the knowledge of God “ (Dan 8:4), but (unlike the pagan mystagogues) the writer declares he “will not hide mysteries,” but will “bring the knowledge of her (wisdom) into clear light” (Dan 6:22). Hatch maintains that the analogy here is that of an oriental king’s secrets, known only to himself and his trusted friends (Essays in Biblical Greek, 58); but it is more likely that the writer here betrays the influence of the phraseology of the Greek Mysteries (without acquiescing in their teaching). In another passage, at any rate, he shows acquaintance with the secret rites of the Gentiles, namely, in 14:15, 23, where the “solemn rites” and “secret mysteries” of idolators are referred to with abhorrence. The term “mystery” is not used in reference to the special ritual of Israel.

3. In the New Testament

In the New Testament the word occurs 27 or (if we include the doubtful reading in 1Co 2:1) 28 times; chiefly in Paul (20 or 21 times), but also in one passage reported by each of the synopists, and 4 times in Revelation. It bears its ancient sense of a revealed secret, not its modern sense of that which cannot be fathomed or comprehended.

(1) In a few passages, it has reference to a symbol, allegory or parable, which conceals its meaning from those who look only at the literal sense, but is the medium of revelation to those who have the key to its interpretation (compare the rabbinic use of רזא, rāzā’, and סוד, ṣōdh, “the hidden or mystic sense”). This meaning appears in Rev 1:20; Rev 17:5, Rev 17:7; probably also in Eph 5:32, where marriage is called “a mystery,” i.e. a symbol to be allegorically interpreted of Christ and His church. It also seems implied in the only passage in which the word is attributed to Our Lord, “Unto you is given the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables” (Mar 4:11; compare parallel Mat 13:11; Luk 8:10). Here parables are spoken of as a veiled or symbolic form of utterance which concealed the truth from those without the kingdom, but revealed it to those who had the key to its inner meaning (compare Mat 13:35; Joh 16:29 margin).

(2) By far the most common meaning in the New Testament is that which is so characteristic of Paul, namely, a Divine truth once hidden, but now revealed in the gospels. Rom 16:25 might almost be taken as a definition of it, “According to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested” (compare Col 1:26; Eph 3:3 ff).

(a) It should be noted how closely “mystery” is associated with “revelation” (ἀποκάλυψις, apokálupsis), as well as with words of similar import, e.g. “to make known” Eph 1:9; Eph 3:3, Eph 3:5, Eph 3:10; Eph 6:19, “to manifest” Col 4:3-4; Rom 16:26; 1Ti 3:16. “Mystery” and “revelation” are in fact correlative and almost synonymous terms. The mysteries of Christianity are its revealed doctrines, in contrast to the wisdom of worldly philosophy (see especially 1 Cor 2:1-16; compare Mat 11:25); the point of contrast being, not that the latter is comprehensible while the former are obscure, but that the latter is the product of intellectual research, while the former are the result of Divine revelation and are spiritually discerned. (b) From this it follows that Christianity has no secret doctrines, for what was once hidden has now been revealed. But here arises a seeming contradiction. On the one hand, there are passages which seem to imply a doctrine of reserve.

The mystery revealed to some would seem to be still concealed from others. The doctrines of Christ and of His Kingdom are hidden from the worldly wise and the prudent (Mat 11:25; 1Co 2:6 ff), and from all who are outside the kingdom (Mat 13:11 ff and parallel), and there are truths withheld even from Christians while in an elementary stage of development (1Co 3:1 ff; Heb 5:11-14). On the other hand, there are many passages in which the truths of revelation are said to be freely and unreservedly communicated to all (e.g. Mat 10:27; Mat 28:19; Act 20:20, Act 20:27; 2Co 3:12; Eph 3:9, “all men”; Eph 6:19; Col 1:28; 1Ti 2:4). The explanation is that the communication is limited, not by any secrecy in the gospel message itself or any reserve on the part of the speaker, but by the receptive capacity of the hearer. In the case of the carnally-minded, moral obtuseness or worldliness makes them blind to the light which shines on them 2Co 4:2-4. In the case of the “babe in Christ,” the apparent reserve is due merely to the pedagogical principle of adapting the teaching to the progressive receptivity of the disciple (Joh 16:12). There is no esoteric doctrine or intentional reserve in the New Testament. The strong language in Mat 13:11-15 is due to the Hebrew mode of speech by which an actual result is stated as if it were purposive.

(c) What, then, is the content of the Christian “mystery?” In a wide sense it is the whole gospel, God’s world-embracing purpose of redemption through Christ (e.g. Rom 16:25; Eph 6:19; Col 2:2; 1Ti 3:9). In a special sense it is applied to some specific doctrine or aspect of the gospel, such as the doctrine of the Cross 1Co 2:1, 1Co 2:7, of the Incarnation 1Ti 3:16, of the indwelling of Christ as the pledge of immortality Col 1:27, of the temporary unbelief of the Jews to be followed by their final restoration Rom 11:25, of the transformation of the saints who will live to see the Second Advent 1Co 15:51, and of the inclusion of the Gentiles in the gospel salvation Eph 3:3-6. These are the Divine secrets now at last disclosed. In direct antithesis to the Divine mystery is the “mystery of lawlessness” 2Th 2:7 culminating in the coming of the Antichrist. Here, too, the word means a revealed secret, only in this case the revelation belongs to the future (2Th 2:8), though the evil forces which are to bring about its consummation are already silently operative. (Besides the references in this paragraph, the word occurs in 1Co 4:1; 1Co 13:2; 1Co 14:2; Rev 10:7. It is interesting to note that the Vulgate (Jerome’s Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) sometimes renders mustērion by Latin sacramentum, namely, in Eph 1:9; Eph 3:3, Eph 3:9; Eph 5:32; 1Ti 3:16; Rev 1:20. This rendering in Eph 5:32 led to the ecclesiastical doctrine that marriage is a “sacrament.”)

4. The Pagan Mysteries and the New Testament

The question is now frequently discussed, how far the New Testament (and especially Paul) betrays the influence of the heathen mystery-cults. Hatch maintains that the Pauline usage of the word mustērion is dependent on the Septuagint, especially on the Apocrypha (op. cit.), and in this he is followed by Anrich, who declares that the attempt to trace an allusion to the Mysteries in the New Testament is wholly unsuccessful; but Lightfoot admits a verbal dependence on the pagan Mysteries (Commentary on Col 1:26).

At present there is a strong tendency to attribute to Paul far more dependence than one of phraseology only, and to find in the Mysteries the key to the non-Jewish side of Paulinism. A. Loisy finds affinity to the mystery-religions in Paul’s conception of Jesus as a Saviour-God, holding a place analogous to the deities Mithra, Osiris, and Attis; in the place Paul assigns to baptism as the rite of initiation; and in his transformation of the Lord’s Supper into a symbol of mystic participation in the flesh and blood of a celestial being and a guaranty of a share in the blissful immortality of the risen Saviour. “In its worship as in its belief, Christianity is a religion of mystery” (article in Hibbert Journal, October, 1911). Percy Gardner traces similar analogies to the Mysteries in Paul, though he finds in these analogies, not conscious plagiarism, but “the parallel working of similar forces” (Religious Experience of Paul, chapters iv, v). Kirsopp Lake writes, “Christianity has not borrowed from the mystery-religions, because it was always, at least in Europe, mystery-religion itself” (The Earlier Epistles of Paul, 215). On the other hand, Schweitzer wholly denies the hypothesis of the direct or indirect influence of the Mysteries on Paul’s thought (Geschichte der Paulinischen Forschung).

The whole question is sub judice among scholars, and until more evidence be forthcoming from inscriptions, etc., we shall perhaps vainly expect unanimous verdict. It can hardly be doubted that at least the language of Paul, and perhaps to some extent his thought, is colored by the phraseology current among the cults. Paul had a remarkably sympathetic and receptive mind, by no means closed to influences from the Greek-Roman environment of his day.

Witness his use of illustrations drawn from the athletic festivals, the Greek theater 1Co 4:9 and the Roman camp. He must have been constantly exposed to the contagion of the mystic societies. Tarsus was a seat of the Mithra religion; and the chief centers of Paul’s activities, e.g. Corinth, Antioch and Ephesus, were headquarters of mystic religion. We are not surprised that he should have borrowed from the vocabulary of the Mysteries, not only the word mustērion, but memúēmai, “I learned the secret,” literally, “I have been initiated” Php 4:12; σφραγίζεσθαι, sphragı́zesthai, “to be sealed” (Eph 1:13, etc.); τέλειος, téleios, “perfect,” term applied in the Mysteries to the fully instructed as opposed to novices (1Co 2:6-7; Col 1:28, etc.) (note, outside of Paul, ἐπόπται, epóptai, “eye-witnesses,” 2Pe 1:16).

Further, the secret of Paul’s gospel among the Gentiles lay, humanly speaking, in the fact that it contained elements that appealed to what was best and most vital in contemporary thought; and doubtless the Mysteries, by transcending all lines of mere citizenship, prepared the way for the universal religion. On the other hand, we must beware of a too facile acceptance of this hypothesis in its extreme form. Christianity can be adequately explained only by reference, not to what it had in common with other religions, but to what was distinctive and original in it. Paul was after all a Jew (though a broad one), who always retained traces of his Pharisaic training, and who viewed idolatry with abhorrence; and the chief formative factor of his thinking was his own profound religious experience. It is inconceivable that such a man should so assimilate Gentile modes of thought as to be completely colored by them. The characteristics which his teaching has in common with the pagan religions are simply a witness to the common religious wants of mankind, and not to his indebtedness to them. What turned these religions into Mysteries was the secrecy of their rites; but in the New Testament there are no secret rites. The gospel “mystery” (as we have seen) is not a secret deliberately withheld from the multitude and revealed only to a privileged religious aristocracy, but something which was once a secret and is so no longer. The perfect openness of Christ and His apostles sets them in a world apart from the mystic schools. It is true that later the Mysteries exercised a great influence on ecclesiastical doctrine and practice, especially on baptism and the Eucharist (see Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, chapter x). But in the New Testament, acts of worship are not as yet regarded as mystic rites. The most we can say is that some New Testament writers (especially Paul) make use of expressions and analogies derived from the mystery-religions; but, so far as our present evidence goes, we cannot agree that the pagan cults exercised a central or formative influence on them.

Literature

There is a large and growing literature on this subject. Its modern scientific study began with C. A. Lobeck’s Aglaophamus (1829). The following recent works may be specially mentioned: Gustav Anrich, Das antike Mysterienwesen (1894); G. Wobbermin, Religiongeschichtliche Studien zur Frage, etc. (1896); E. Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek (1889) and Hibbert Lectures, 1888 (published 1890); F. B. Jevons, An Introduction to the History of Religion (1896); S. Cheethara, The Mysteries, Pagan and Christian (1897); R. Reitzenstein, Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen (1910); P. Gardner, The Religious Experience of Paul (1911); K. Lake, The Earlier Epistles of Paul (1911); articles on “Mystery” in Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th edition), edition 9 (W. M. Ramsay), and edition 11 (L. R. Farnell), Encyclopaedia Biblica (A. Julicher), Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (five volumes) (A. Stewart); 1-volume Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible; (G. G. Findlay); Hastings, Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels (R. W. Bacon); articles on μυστήριον in Cremer and Grimm-Thayer New Testament Lexicons; the commentaries, including J. B. Lightfoot on Colossians, J. Armitage Robinson on Ephesians, H. Lietzmann on 1 Corinthians; 9 articles in The Expositor on “St. Paul and the Mystery Religions” by Professor H. A. A. Kennedy (April, 1912, to February, 1913).

In New Testament usage, a mystery is not a puzzle or a secret that leaves people in ignorance, but a truth that God reveals. It usually refers to something that people normally would not know, but that God in his grace makes known to them (Eph 3:4-5; Col 1:26; Rev 17:7). The truths concerning salvation through Jesus Christ are mysteries in this sense. People could not work them out by themselves, but God who planned salvation from eternity reveals them (Rom 16:25-26; 1Ti 3:9; 1Ti 3:16).

Jesus taught his disciples that there was a mystery concerning the kingdom of God (Mat 13:11). He revealed that God has already established his kingdom in the world, even though the world is still under the power of Satan. God does not yet force people to submit to the kingdom’s authority. Consequently, those who are not in the kingdom live in the world alongside those who are. The decisive separation will take place on the day of judgment (Mat 13:24-30; Mat 13:36-43; see KINGDOM OF GOD).

Paul’s preaching was a revelation of the mystery of the gospel and the mystery of Christ (Eph 6:19; Col 2:2; Col 4:3). He showed that God’s plan of salvation through the gospel was to unite Jewish and Gentile believers in one body through Jesus Christ. All share equally in the full blessings of God, without any distinction on the basis of nationality (Eph 3:3-6; Col 1:26-27; cf. Rom 3:21-24). This unified body is a picture, a foretaste and a guarantee of the unity that there will be throughout the universe when God, through Christ, finally removes all rebellion and disharmony (Eph 1:9-10; Eph 3:9-10; cf. 1Co 15:25; see GOSPEL).

A further mystery reveals how believers can participate in the blessings of this coming glorious age. God will remove all the effects of sin and death from his people for ever, through the resurrection of the dead and the transformation of all believers to a new state of existence in spiritual, imperishable bodies (1Co 15:51-53; see RESURRECTION).