Mystery

VIEW:31 DATA:01-04-2020

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.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

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).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

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.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

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).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

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? Phi_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).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

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).




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Mystery
(μυστήριον), a term employed in the Bible (N.T.), as well as in some of the pagan religions, to denote a revealed secret. See Grossmann, De Judaeorum arcani disciplina, SEE ESSENES (Lips. 1833-4); and on the Christian "secret discipline," the monographs cited by Volbtdiing, Index Programm. page 138 sq.
I. Etymology of the Word. — Some have thought to derive the Greek μύστηριον, from which the English mystery is plainly a transfer, from a Hebrew source, but sound philology forbids this. It is clearly a derivation, through μύστης, an initiated person, from μυεῖσθαι, to initiate, and thus ultimately from μύω, to close the eyes or mouth, i.e., to keep a secret. The derivative μυστήριον had always a reference to secrets of a religious character, and this sense is retained in the Bible.
II. Pagan Mysteries in general. — These were ceremonies in which only the initiated could participate. The practice may be obscurely traced to the early Orient, in the rites of Isis (q.v.) and Osiris (q.v.) in Egypt, in the Mithraic solemnities of Persia, and in the Greek festivals connected with the worship of Bacchus and Cybele, and may be even faintly, recognised in our day in the ceremonies of freemasonry. They consisted in general of rites of purification and expiation, of sacrifices and processions, of ecstatic or orgiastic songs and dances, of nocturnal festivals fit to impress the imagination, and of spectacles designed to excite the most diverse emotions — terror and trust, sorrow and joy, hope and despair. The celebration was chiefly by symbolical acts and spectacles; yet sacred mystical words, formulas, fragments of liturgies, or hymns, were also employed. There were likewise certain objects with which occult meanings that were imparted to the initiated were associated, or which were used in the various ceremonies in the ascending scale of initiation. The sacred phrases, the ἀπόῤῥητα, concerning which silence was imposed, were themselves symbolical legends, and probably not statements of speculative truths. The most diverse theories have been suggested concerning the origin, nature, and significance of the Hellenic mysteries. As Schunemann remarks ( Griechische AIterntiimer, 3d ed., Berlin, 1873), the very fact that it was not permitted to reveal to the uninitiated wherein these cults consisted, what were the rites peculiar to them, for what the gods were invoked, or what were the names of the divinities worshipped, has been the cause of our extremely incomplete information in regard to them.
The oldest of the Hellenic mysteries are believed to be the Cabiric, in Samothrace and Lemnos, which were renowned through the whole period of pagan antiquity.
Though they were only less august than the Eleusinian, nothing is certain concerning them, and even the names of the divinities are known to us only by the profanation of Manaseas. (See below.) The Eleusinian were the most venerable of the mysteries. "Happy," says Pindar, "is he who has beheld them, and descends beneath the hollow earth; he knows the end, he knows the divine origin of life." They composed a long series of ceremonies, concluding with complete initiation or perfection. The fundamental legend on which the ritual seems to have been based was the search of the goddess Demeter, or Ceres, for her daughter Proserpine, her sorrows and her joys, her descent into Hades, and her return into the realm of light. The rites were thought to prefigure the scenes of a future life. The same symbol was the foundation of the Thesmophoria, which were celebrated exclusively by married women, rendering it probable that initiation was designed to protect against the dangers of childbirth. (See below.) The Orphic and Dionysiac mysteries seem to have designed a reformation of the popular religion. Founded upon the worship of the Thracian Dionysus, or Bacchus, they tended to ascetic rather than orgiastic practices. Other mysteries were those of Zeus, or Jupiter, in Crete; of Hera, or Juno, in Argolis; of Athene, or Minerva, in Athens; of Artemis, or Diana, in Arcadia; of Hector in Egina, and of Rhea in Phrygia. The worship of the last, under different names, prevailed in divers forms and places in Greece and the East, and was associated with the orgiastic rites of the Corybantes.
More important were the Persian mysteries of Mithra, which appeared in Rome about the beginning of the 2d century of the Christian sera. They were propagated by Chaldaean and Syrian priests. The austerity of the doctrine, the real perils of initiation which neophytes were obliged to encounter, the title of soldier of Mithra which was bestowed on them, and the crowns which were offered them after the combats preceding every grade of advancement, were among the peculiarities which gave to these rites a military and bellicose character; and Roman soldiers eagerly sought initiation into them. The fundamental dogma of the Mithraic doctrine was the transmigration of souls under the influence of the seven planets, over whose operations Mithra presided. The whole fraternity of the initiated was divided into seven classes or grades, which were named successively soldiers, lions, hysenas, etc., after animals sacred to Mithra. The sacrifice of the bull was characteristic of his worship. On the monuments which have been found in Italy, the Tyrol, and other parts of Europe, inscribed Deo Mithrae Soli Invicto, Mithra is usually represented as a young man in a flowing robe, surrounded with mystical figures, seated on a bull, which he is pressing down, or into which he is plunging the sacrificial knife. A dog, a serpent, a scorpion, and a lion are arranged near him. Nothing is certain concerning the signification of this scene. After the adoption of some of the ideas connected with other religious systems, as those of the Alexandrian Serapis, the Syrian Baal, and the Greek Apollo, the Mithra worship disappeared in the 5th or 6th century. SEE MITHRA.
See Creuzer, Symbolik Mythologie (181)-12), translated into French, with elaborate annotations, by Guigniant and others (1825-36); Sainte-Croix, Recherches historiques et critiques sur les Mysteres du Paganisme, edited by Sylvestre de Sacy (1317); Seel, Die Mithra-Geheimnisse wahrend der vor- und christlichen Zeit (1823); Limbourg-Brouwer, Hist. de la Civilization morale et religieuse des Grecs (1833-41); Lajard, Recherches sur le Culte public et les Mysteres de Mithra (1847-8); Maury, Hist. des Religions de la Grace antique (1857); Preller, Romische Mythologie (2d ed. 1865); and Griechische Mythologie (3d ed. 1872); Enfield, Hist. of Philosophy, pages 20, 39, 50, 65; Puffendorf, Religio gentilium arcana (Lips. 1772); Osiander, De mysteriis Eleusiniis (Stuttgard, 1808); Ousvaroff, Sur les mysteres d'Eleusis (Paris, 1816).
III. The Grecian Mysteries in particular. — These mysteries certainly were always secret; but all Greeks, without distinction of rank or education — nay, perhaps even slaves — might be initiated (μνεῖσθαι); such was the case, for instance, in the Eleusinian mysteries. It is the remark of Josephus that "the principal doctrines of each nation's religion were made known, among heathens, only to a chosen few, but among the Jews to the people no less than to the priests." It appears that in many of these mysteries certain emblems or symbols (thence called themselves mysteries) were displayed either to the initiated, in the course of their training, or to the people; and that the explanation of these to the initiated was the mode in which they were instructed.
The names by which mysteries or mystic festivals were designated in Greece are μυστήρια, τελεταί, or ὄργια. The name ὄργια (from ἔοργα) originally signified only sacrifices accompanied by certain ceremonies, but it was afterwards applied especially to the ceremonies observed in the worship of Bacchus, and at a still later period to mysteries. Τελετή in generalΤελετή signifies, in general, a religious festival, but more particularly a lustration or ceremony performed in order to avert some calamity, either public or private. Μυστήριον signifies, properly speaking, the secret part of the worship; but it was also used in the same sense as τελετή, and for mystic worship in general.
These mysteries in brief may be defined as sacrifices and ceremonies which took place at night or in secret within some sanctuary, which the uninitiated were not allowed to enter. What was essential to them were objects of worship, sacred utensils, and traditions with their interpretation, which were withheld from all persons not initiated.
The most celebrated mysteries in Greece were of three kinds, chiefly those of Samothrace and Eleusis, which may be briefly described as follows:
1. The Cabiria (καβείρια) were mysteries, festivals, and orgies solemnized in all places in which the Pelasgian Cabiri were worshipped, but especially in Samothrace, Imbros, Lemnos, Thebes, Anthedon, Pergamus, and Berytus. Little is known respecting the rites observed in these mysteries, as no one was allowed to divulge them. The most celebrated were those of the island of Samothrace, which, if we may judge from those of Lemnos, were solemnized every year, and lasted for nine days. Persons on their admission seem to have undergone a sort of examination respecting the life they had led hitherto, and were then purified of all their crimes, even if they had committed murder.
2. The Thesmophoria (θεσμοφόρια) were a great festival and mysteries, celebrated in honor of Ceres in various parts of Greece, and only by women, though some ceremonies were also performed by maidens. It was intended to commemorate the introduction of the laws and regulations of civilized life, which was universally ascribed to Ceres. The Attic thesmophoria probably lasted only three days, and began on the 11th of Pyanepsion, which day was called ἄνοδος or κάθοδος, because the solemnities were opened by the women with a procession from Athens to Eleusis. In this procession they carried on their heads sacred laws (νόμιμοι βίβλοι or θεσμοί), the introduction of which was ascribed to Ceres (θεσμοφόρος), and other symbols of civilized life. The women spent the night at Eleusis in celebrating the mysteries of the goddess. The second day, called νηστεία, was a day of mourning, during which the women sat on the ground around the statue of Ceres, and took no other food than cakes made of sesame and honey. On this day no meetings either of the senate or the people were held. It was probably in the afternoon of this day that the women held a procession at Athens, in which they walked barefooted behind a wagon, upon which baskets with mystical symbols were conveyed to the thesmophorion. The third day, called καλλιγένεια, from the circumstance that Ceres was invoked under this name, was a day of merriment and raillery among the women themselves, in commemoration of Iambe, who was said to have made the goddess smile during her grief.
3. But far more important, so much so indeed as almost to monopolize the term " mystery" among the Greeks, were the Eleusinian mysteries (ἐλευσίνια), a festival and mysteries, originally celebrated only at Eleusis in Attica, in honor of Ceres and Proserpina. The Eleusinian mysteries, or the mysteries, as they were sometimes called, were the holiest and most venerable of all that were celebrated in Greece. Various traditions were current among the Greeks respecting the author of these mysteries; for, while some considered Eumolpus or Mussaus to be their founder, others stated that they had been introduced from Egypt by Erechtheus, who at a time of scarcity provided his country with corn from Egypt, and imported from the same quarter the sacred rites and mysteries of Eleusis. A third tradition attributed the institution to Ceres herself, who, when wandering about in search of her daughter, Proserpina, was believed to have come to Attica, in the reign of Erechtheus, to have supplied its inhabitants with corn, and to have instituted the mysteries at Eleusis. This last opinion seems to have been the most common among the ancients, and in subsequent times a stone was shown near the well Callichorus at Eleusis on which the goddess, overwhelmed with grief and fatigue, was believed to have rested on her arrival in Attica. All the accounts and allusions in ancient writers seem to warrant the conclusion that the legends concerning the introduction of the Eleusinia are descriptions of a period when the inhabitants of Attica were becoming acquainted with the benefits of agriculture and of a regularly constituted form of society. In the reign of Erechtheus a war is said to have broken out between the Athenians and Eleusinians; and when the latter were defeated, they acknowledged the supremacy of Athens in everything except the mysteries, which they wished to conduct and regulate for themselves. Thus the superintendence remained with the descendants of Eumolpus, the daughters of the Eleusinian king Celeus, and a third class of priests, the Ceryces, who seem likewise to have been connected with the family of Eumolpus, though they themselves traced their origin to Mercury and Aglauros. At the time when the local governments of the several townships of Attica were concentrated at Athens, the capital became also the centre of religion, and several deities who had hitherto only enjoyed a local worship were now raised to the rank of national gods. This seems also to have been the case with the Eleusinian goddess, for in the reign of Theseus we find mention of a temple at Athens called Eleusinian, probably the new and national sanctuary of Ceres. Her priests and priestesses now became naturally attached to the national temple of the capital, though her original place of worship at Eleusis, with which so many sacred associations were connected, still retained its importance and its special share in the celebration of the national solemnities.
We must distinguish between the greater Eleusinia, which were celebrated at Athens and Eleusis, and the lesser, which were held at Agrae on the Ilissus. The lesser Eleusinia were only a preparation (προκάθαρσις or προάγνευσις) for the real mysteries. They were held every year in the month of Anthesterion, and, according to some accounts, in honor of Proserpina alone. Those who were initiated in them bore the name of Mystae (μύσται), and had to wait at least another year before they could be admitted to the great mysteries. The principal rites of this first stage of initiation consisted in the sacrifice of a sow, which the mystea seem to have first washed in the Cantharus, and in the purification by a priest, who bore the name of Hydranus ( ῾Υδρανός). The mystae had also taken an oath of secrecy, which was administered to them by the Mystagogus (μυσταγωγός, also called ἱεροφάντης or προφήτης), and they received some kind of preparatory instruction, which enabled them afterwards to understand the mysteries that were revealed to them in the great Eleusinia.
The great mysteries were celebrated every year in the month of Boedromion during nine days, from the 15th to the 23d, both at Athens and Eleusis. The initiated were called ἐπόπται or ἔφυροι. On the first day those who had been initiated in the lesser Eleusinia assembled at Athens. On the second day the mystae went in solemn procession to the sea-coast, where they underwent a purification. Of the third day scarcely any thing is known with certainty; we are only told that it was a day of fasting, and that in the evening a frugal meal was taken, which consisted of cakes made of sesame and honey. On the fourth day the κάλαθος κάθοδος seems to have taken place. This was a procession with a basket containing pomegranates and poppy-seeds; it was carried on a wagon drawn by oxen, and women followed with small mystic cases in their hands. On the fifth day, which appears to have been called the torch day (ἡ τῶν λαμπάδων ἡμέρα), the mystee, led by the δᾷδοῦχος, went in the evening with torches to the temple of Ceres at Eleusis, where they seem to have remained during the following night. This rite was probably a symbolical representation of Ceres wandering about in search of Proserpina. The sixth day, called lacchus, was the most solemn of all. The statue of Iaccllus, son of Ceres, adorned with a garland of myrtle and bearing a torch in his hand, was carried along the sacred road amid joyous shouts and songs, from the Ceramicus to Eleusis. This solemn procession was accompanied by great numbers of followers and spectators. During the night from the sixth to the seventh day the mystae remained at Eleusis, and were initiated into the last mysteries (ἐποπτεία). Those who were neither ἐπόπται nor μύσται were sent away by a herald. The mystue now repeated the oath of secrecy which had been administered to them at the lesser Eleusinia, underwent a new purification, and then they were led by the mystagogus in the darkness of night into the lighted interior of the sanctuary (φωταγωγία), and were allowed to see (αὐτοψία) what none except the epoptue ever beheld. The awful and horrible manner in which the initiation is described by later, especially Christian writers, seems partly to proceed from their ignorance of its real character, partly from their horror of and aversion to these pagan rites. The more ancient writers always abstained from entering upon any description of the subject. Each individual, after his initiation, is said to have been dismissed by the words κόγξ, ὄμπαξ, in order to make room for other mystue.
On the seventh day the initiated returned to Athens amid various kinds of raillery and jests, especially at the bridge over the Cephisus, where they sat down to rest, and poured forth their ridicule on those who passed by. Hence the words γεφυρίζειν and γεφυρισμός. These σκώμματα seem, like the procession with torches to Eleusis, to have been dramatical and symbolical representations of the jests by which, according to the ancient legend, Iambe or Baubo had dispelled the grief of the goddess and made her smile. We may here observe that probably the whole history of Ceres and Proserpina was in some way or other symbolically represented at the Eleusinia. The eighth day, called Epidauria (Ε᾿πιδαύρια), was a kind of additional day for those who by some accident had come too late, or had been prevented from being initiated on the sixth day. It was said to have been added to the original number of days when AEsculapius, coming over from Epidaurus to be initiated, arrived too late, and the Athenians, not to disappoint the god, added an eighth day. The ninth and last day bore the name of πλημοχοαί, from a peculiar kind of vessel called πλημοχοη, which is described as a small kind of κότυλος. Two of these vessels were on this day filled with water or wine, and the contents of the one thrown to the east, and those of the other to the west, while those who performed this rite uttered some mystical words.
The Eleusinian mysteries long survived the independence of Greece. Attempts to suppress them were made by the emperor Valentinian; but he met with strong opposition, and they seem to have continued down to the time of the elder Theodosius.
Respecting the secret doctrines which were revealed in them to the initiated, nothing certain is known. The general belief of the ancients was that they opened to man a comforting prospect of a future state. But this feature does not seem to have been originally connected with these mysteries, and was probably added to them at the period which followed the opening of a regular intercourse between Greece and Egypt, when some of the speculative doctrines of the latter country and of the East may have been introduced into the mysteries, and hallowed by the names of the venerable bards of the mythical age. This supposition would also account, in some measure, for the legend of their introduction from Egypt (Smith, Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v.). It does seem, indeed, as if the vague speculations of modern times on the subject were an echo of the manifold interpretations of the various acts of the mysteries given by the priests to the inquiring disciple — according to the lights of the former or the latter. Some investigators, themselves not entirely free from certain mystic influences (like Creuzer and others), have held them to have been a kind of misty orb around a kernel of pure light, the bright rays of which were too strong for the eyes of the multitude; that, in fact, they hid under an outward garb of mummery a certain portion of the real and eternal truth of religion, the knowledge of which had been derived from some primeval, or, perhaps, the Mosaic revelation; if it could not be traced to certain (or uncertain) Egyptian, Indian, or generally Eastern sources. To this kind of hazy talk, however (which we only mention because it is still repeated every now and then), the real and thorough investigations begun by Lobeck, and still pursued by many competent scholars in our own day, have, or ought to have, put an end. There cannot be anything more alien to the whole spirit of Greek and Roman antiquity than a hiding of abstract truths and occult wisdom under rites and formulas, songs and dances; and, in fact, the mysteries were anything but exclusive, either with respect to sex, age, or rank, in point of initiation. It was only the speculative tendency of later times, when Polytheism was on the wane, that tried to symbolize and allegorize these obscure and partly imported ceremonies, the bulk of which had undoubtedly sprung from the midst of the Pelasgian tribes themselves in prehistoric times, and which were intended to represent and to celebrate certain natural phenomena in the visible creation. There is certainly no reason to deny that some more refined minds may at a very early period have endeavored to impart a higher sense to these wondrous performances; but these can only be considered as solitary instances. The very fact of their having to be put down in later days as public nuisances in Rome herself speaks volumes against the occult wisdom inculcated in secret assemblies of men and women (Chambers, Cyclop. s.v.).
IV. Biblical Use of the Term "Mystery." — A most unscriptural and dangerous sense is too often put upon the 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.
1. 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. Thus our Lord, having delivered to the multitude the parable of the sower (Mat_13:3-9), when the disciples asked him (Mat_13:10) why he spoke to them in parables, replied, " Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but unto them which are without it is not given" (Mar_4:11); "Therefore I speak to them in parables" (Mat_13:13); "But your eyes see, and your ears understand" (Mat_13:16): here our Lord applies the term mysteries to the moral truths couched under that parable, that is, to its figurative meaning. 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). Likewise the mystery or symbolical representation "of the woman upon a scarlet-colored beast" (Rev_17:3-6) is 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 between Christ and the Church (Campbell, Dissert. page 10, part 3:§ 9).
2. The word is also used to denote anything whatever which is hidden or concealed, till it is explained. The Sept. uses it to express רו, a secret (Dan_2:18-19; Dan_2:27-30; Dan_2:47; Dan_4:6), 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 (Dan_4:5; Dan_4:9). Thus the word is used 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). The apostle is generally thought here to compare the Gospel with the greater Eleusinian mysteries (for which see Diod. Sic. 4:25; Dem. 29, ult. Xen. H.G. 1:4, 14; or Leland's Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation, part 1, chapters 8, 9; or Macknight's Preface to the Ephesians, § 7). Thus also the Gospel in general is called "the mystery of the faith," which it was requisite the deacons should "hold with a pure conscience" (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 mystery of the Gospel which St. Paul desired "to make known" (Eph_6:19); "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_2:2; comp. the use of the word ἐπίγνωσις, 1Ti_2:4; 2Ti_3:7); which he desired the Colossians to pray that God would enable himself and his fellow-apostles "to speak and to make manifest" (Col_4:3-4); which he calls "the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest and known to all nations" (Rom_16:25); which, he says, "we speak" (Corinthians 2:7), and of which the apostles were "stewards" (1Co_4:1). 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 (Rom_11:25-32). 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). Even in the case of a man speaking in an unknown tongue, in the absence of an interpreter, and when, therefore, no man understood him, although "by the Spirit he was speaking mysteries," yet the apostle supposes that the man so doing himself understood what he said (1Co_14:2-4). 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). (See below.) Josephus applies nearly the same phrase, μυστήριον κακίας, a mystery of wickedness, to Antipater's crafty conduct to ensnare and destroy his brother Alexander (War, 1:24, 1); 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). The Greeks used the word in the same way. Thus Menander, μυστήριον σου μὴ κατείπης τῷ φιλῷ, "Tell not your secret to a friend" (page 274, line 671, 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 New Testament (Tob_12:7; Jdt_2:2; Sir_22:22; Sir_27:16-17; Sir_27:21; 2Ma_13:21); it is applied to divine or sacred mysteries (Wisd. 2:33; 6:22), and to the ceremonies of false religions (Wis_14:15; Wis_14:23). See Bibliotheca Sancta, January 1867, page 196; Whately, St. Paul, page 176; Contemp. Rev. January 1868, page 182.
V. Ecclesiastical Use of the Term. — The word "mysteries" is repeatedly applied to the Lord's Supper by Chrysostom. The eucharist was the last and the highest point of the secret discipline, SEE ARCANI DISCIPLINA; and the name which it received on this account was retained so long as the superstitious doctrine of the miraculous presence of the body and blood of Christ gained ground. By the usage of the Christian Church it denotes the inscrutable union in the sacrament of the inward and spiritual grace with the outward and visible sign. In the early Church the term derived a still greater force from the secrecy which was observed in the administration of those ordinances. SEE SACRAMENT.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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