Colossians 1:26

τὸ μυστήριον. In apposition to τὸν λόγ. τ. θ. It is strange that St Paul’s language does not show more certain traces of the influence of terms derived from the many esoteric cults of his day.

Wis 14:15; Wis 14:23 speaks of the origin of the mysteries and 3Ma 2:30 purports to give a decree of Ptolemy IV. Philopator releasing those Jews from disabilities who should be initiated into the (Dionysian) mysteries. But nowhere else, apparently, does the LXX. certainly give this connotation to μυστήριον. Jdt 2:2 relates that Nebuchadnezzar tells his servants τὸ μυστήριον τῆς βουλῆς αὐτοῦ, i.e. the secret plan he had devised, and Daniel 2:18-19; Daniel 2:27-30; Daniel 4:6 speak only of the secret of the vision. Compare also Sir 3:18 (א) and Wis 2:22, the secret counsels of God.

But St Paul’s reference to the “mysteries” is, at best, doubtful. In 1 Corinthians 15:51, ἰδοὺ μυστήριον ὑμῖν λέγω, Jülicher “feels that here St Paul is a mystagogue speaking to a circle of mystae” (Encycl. Bibl.), and finds a similar reference in 1 Corinthians 14:2; 1 Corinthians 13:2; 1 Corinthians 4:1, but he has little else to guide him but the word μυστήριον which has, as we have seen, a wider use. Neither in the other passages where it occurs, e.g. here, Colossians 2:2; Colossians 4:3; Ephesians 1:9; Ephesians 3:3-9, does the context make it certain. On the other hand μεμύημαι (Philippians 4:12†) is a much more characteristic word and probably does allude to being taught secrets at an initiation. On τέλειον, Colossians 1:28, see there.

It is hardly necessary to say that μυστήριον never has the common meaning of our English “mystery”—something strange and inexplicable. It always means “a secret,” revealed or not revealed as the case may be. Here the secret is more than the external admission of Gentiles to the faith on an equality with Jews; it includes the wonderful privilege of the presence of Christ in individual believers with its present power and future result. In Ephesians 3:5-6; Ephesians 3:8 the thought is verbally limited to the privileges, both external and spiritual, common to Gentile and Jewish believers in the present. On μυστήριον see by all means the full note in J. A. R. Ephesians, pp. 234–240.

τὸ�, “which has been hidden.” Luke 10:21; 1 Corinthians 2:7; Ephesians 3:9†; contrast ἀπόκρυφοι Colossians 2:3. The participle lays stress on the action and effect of concealment, the adjective on preservation and readiness for use. For the thought, cf. Romans 16:25.

St Paul doubtless says this to bring the Colossians to a due sense of their privileges; cf. Luke 10:24; Matthew 13:11.

ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων (exact phrase Ephesians 3:9†) καὶ�.

ἀπὸ (a) is possibly the ἀπὸ after verbs of concealment (cf. Luke 10:21; Luke 18:34; Luke 19:42, and always in LXX. after ἀποκρύπτω); but (b) is probably strictly temporal, as almost certainly in Ephesians 3:9; cf. Matthew 13:35; 1 Corinthians 2:7.

αἰώνων indicates the successive periods of history, either of this world or throughout the universe; γενεῶν the successive sets of men living at one time. For γενεῶν cf. Acts 14:16; Ephesians 3:5.

νῦν δὲ. Compare Colossians 1:21, note.

ἐφανερώθη. St Paul’s energy lays stress on the νῦν, and this leads to his use of a finite verb instead of the participle expected (cf. Colossians 1:21).

The change to the aorist suggests the suddenness of the manifestation. We might have expected ἀπεκαλύφθη (Ephesians 3:5) but the true contrast to secrecy is publicity, which is perhaps the fundamental conception of φανερός and its derivatives.

For its use with μυστήριον cf. also Colossians 4:4. Compare also Mark 4:22 (|| Luke 8:17). See also Colossians 3:4.

τοῖς ἁγίοις αὐτοῦ. On ἅγιοις, see Colossians 1:1; Colossians 1:22.