Sermon Tone Analysis

Mystery

 

*Mystery*

The calling of the Gentiles into the Christian Church, so designated (Eph_1:9, Eph_1:10; Eph_3:8-11; Col_1:25-27); a truth undiscoverable except by revelation, long hid, now made manifest.

The resurrection of the dead (1Co_15:51), and other doctrines which need to be explained but which cannot be fully understood by finite intelligence (Mat_13:11; Rom_11:25; 1Co_13:2); the union between Christ and his people symbolized by the marriage union (Eph_5:31, Eph_5:32; compare Eph_6:19); the seven stars and the seven candlesticks (Rev_1:20); and the woman clothed in scarlet (Rev_17:7), are also in this sense mysteries.

The anti-Christian power working in his day is called by the apostle (2Th_2:7) the “mystery of iniquity.”

(Easton)

 

*Mystery*

mis´te~~r-i (μυστήριον, /muste¯´rion/; from μύστης, /mu´ste¯s/, “one initiated into mysteries”; /mue´o¯/ “to initiate,” /mu´o¯/, “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 /muste¯rion/, 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 (/muste¯rion/) to thy friend”).

But it is frequently found in the plural /ta´/ /muste¯´ria/, “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/ /mathei´n/ /ti/ /dei´n/ /alla´/ /pathei´n/).

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, /theo´s/ /so¯te¯´r/) 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, /epoptei´a/, 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 /muste¯rion/ occurs in the Septuagint of the Old Testament.

Only in Daniel, where it is found several times as the translation of רזא, /ra¯za¯//'/, “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, /muste¯rion/ 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, /mu´stis/) 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, /ra¯za¯//'/, and סוד, /ṣo¯dh/, “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, /apoka´lupsis/), 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 /muste¯rion/ 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 /muste¯rion/ 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.