MYSTERY (uuo-rhplow). In the religion of the Greeks there were rites and doctrines which were kept secret from the mass of the people and only communicated to a chosen few. These things were called mysteries. This word has been adopted by the writers of the New Testament, who apply it to things which are kept secret for a time and afterwards revealed, or to things which are kept secret from some persons though they may be revealed to others, or lastly, to things, which, though not kept perfectly secret, are only made known by symbols. Thus the term answers pretty well to the English word secret. It is frequently opposed to words which imply discovery. Thus the New Testament writers speak of a mystery revealed (mucrripiov arorcetAt4e4v) or brought to light (eparwOiv) or made known (-yvcopicr840. They call the gospel a mystery, as being a system which had formerly been kept secret, but was now revealed to them, and through them to the world (Rom. xvi. 25, 26; 1 Cor. ii. 7-10; Ephes. iii. 9; vi. 19; Coloss. i. 26, 27 ; ii. 2 ; iv. 3). So Christ said to his disciples, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given " (Matt. xiii. 11; Mark iv. 11 ; Luke viii. 10), that is, you are permitted to understand those doctrines which are at present kept secret from others. But afterwards they were commanded to proclaim these secrets to the world (Matt. x. 26, 27; xxviii. 19, 20; Mark iv. 22 ; xvi. 15 ; 1 Cor. iv. 1). It is also applied to individual facts or doctrines. Thus the admission of the Gentiles to the privileges of the Christian religion is called a mystery, because it had never before been understood by the Jews (Rom. xi. 25; Ephes. iii. 3-5). The fact that the living will undergo a change at the resurrection is also called a mystery (1 Cor. xv. 51). To the same class belongs the only passage in which the word might perhaps be understood to imply something not merely unknown but actually incomprehensible, namely, 1 Tim. iii. 16, " Great is the mystery of godliness (or religion, elarcfletas); God was manifest in the flesh," &c., which means, " Great is the secret which
religion discloses—God was manifest in the flesh," &c. In 2 Thess.
7, " the mystery of wickedness " is " wickedness which is already secretly at work in the church," and of which the revelation is predicted in ver. 8 (Ili yap iitarrbpiev 45s ?IlecryfiTat Tit &rvoµdas, . . . . sal TOTE lirrouamxpOtacoar 6 5voyes). The word is used in rather a singular way, but still with the same meaning, iu 1 Cor. xiv. 2, where it is said of a person who speaks in an unknown tongue, "in the spirit be speaketh mysteries," that is, he communes with God in language unintelligible to those around. We have examples of the use of the word to denote the secret meaning of a figure or symbol in Ephes. v. 2; Rev. i. 20; xvii. 5, 7. This general signification of a secret is the only one in which the word mystery is used in the New Testament. In the Septuagint its meaning is the same (Daniel ii. 18, 19, 27, 28, 29, 30, 47 • iv. 9). The early ecclesiastical writers applied the word to solemn religious rites, and this is probably the reason why oval-holey is trans lated in the Vulgate by sacramenturn. In modern usage a mystery is a doctrine which is incomprehensible by the human understanding, or which appears to involve facts irreconcileable with each other. Thus the doctrine of the Trinity, the union of the divine and human nature in the person of Christ, the consistency of God's perfect foreknowledge and fixed plan of providence with the free-will of man, are spoken of as mysteries. Not that these doctrines are considered as self-contradictory ; for if such contradiction be proved, the doctrine is no longer mysterious but impossible. We believe that they can be explained, though our mental powers are not strong enough to explain them. It is worthy of remark that mysteries (in the modern sense) are found in philosophy and natural religion as well as in revealed religion.