MYSTERY (p.vcrn'imay). A sense is 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 N. T., 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. (Matt. xiii.
; Mark iv. r 1, where our Lord applies the term mysteries' to the moral truths couched under a parable, that is, to its figurative meaning ; comp. also Rev. i. 12, 16, 20 ; xvii. 3-6). When St. Paul, speaking of marriage, says, this is a great mys tery' (Eph. v. 32), he evidently treats the original institution of marriage as affording a figurative representation of the union betwixt Christ and the church (Campbell, Dissertation, p. so, part iii. sec. 9). 2. The word is also used to denote anything whatever which hidden or concealed, till it is explained. The Sept. uses it to express i1 or ti11, a secret (Dan. ii. 19, 27, 28, 29, 30, 47 ; iv. 6), in relation to Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which was a secret till Daniel explained it, and even from the king himself, for he had totally forgotten it (ver. 5, 9). Thus the word is used in the N. T. 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 (1 Tim. iii. 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 fa Cor. ii. 9) until God visibly accomplished them, and revealed them to the apostles by inspiration (ver. so). Thus, also, the gospel in general is called the mystery of the faith' (I Tim. iii. 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. iii. 9); the mystery of the gospel which St. Paul desired to make known' (Eph. vi. 19) ; the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ,' to the full apprehension or understanding of which (rather than the acknowledgment') he prayed that the Colossians might come (Col. ii. 2; comp. the use of the word eirivwcris, I Tim. it. 4; 2 Tim.
iii. 7) ; which he desired the Colossians to pray that God would enable himself and his fellow apostles to speak and to make manifest' (Col.
iv. 3, 4) ; which he calls the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest and known to all nations' (Rom. xvi. 25) ; which, he says, we speak' (a Cor. ii. 7), and of which the apostles were stewards' (i Cor. iv. i). The same word is used respecting certain particular doctrines of the gospel, as, for instance, the partial and tem porary blindness of Israel,' of which mystery the apostle would not have Christians ignorant (Rom. xi. 25), and which he explains (ver. 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. iii. 4-6 ; comp. i. 9, so, etc.) To this class we refer the well-known phrase, Behold I show you a mys tery' (t Cor. xv. we shall all be changed ;' and then follows an explanation of the change (ver. 51.55). Even in the case of a man speaking in an unknown tongue, in the absence of an inter preter, and when, therefore, no man understood him, although by the Spirit he was speaking mysteries,' yet the Apostle supposes that the man so doing understood what himself said (a Cor. xiv. 2-4). And in the prophetic portion of his writings concerning the mystery of iniquity' (2 Thess. 7), he speaks of it as being ultimately revealed' (ver. 8). Josephus applies nearly the same phrase, lauclas, a mystery of wickedness, to pater's crafty conduct to ensnare and destroy his brother Alexander (De Bell. yud. i. 24. I); 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' (a Cor. xiii. 2). The Greeks used the word in the same way. Thus Menander, Awarhpior crov Fail kavelvns Tell not your secret to a friend' (p. 274, line 674 ed. Clerici). Even when they apply the term to the greater and lesser Eleusinian mysteries, they are still mysteries into which a person might be initiated, when they would, of course, cease to be mysteries to him. The word is used in the same sense throughout the Apocrypha as in the Sept. and N. T. (Tobit xii. 7 ; Judith ii. 2 ; Ecclus. xxii. 22 ; xxvii. 16, 17, 21 ; 2 Mac. cab. xiii. 21) ; it is applied to divine or sacred mysteries (Wisd. ii. 22 ; vi. 22), and to the cere monies of false religions (Wisd. adv. is, 23).— J. F. D.