Rom. 16, 25. 1 Cor. 2, 7-10. Eph. 3, 9. Col. 1, 26. For the same reason any doctrine imperfectly revealed isa mystery. It remains ina measure secret. Thus in the fifth chapter of this epistle Paul calls the union of Christ and believers a great mystery ; and in 1 Tim. 3, 16 he calls the manifestation of God in the flesh, the great mystery of godliness.
In the present case the mystery of his will means lis secret purpose ; that purpose of redemption, which having been hid for ages, he has now graciously re- vealed.
According to his good pleasure, κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν αὐτοῦ, ἣν προέθετο ἐν αὐτῷ. There are three interpre- tations of this clause. The first is to make it qualify the word will. ‘ His will which was according to his
good pleasure ;’
i. 6. his kind and sovereign will. But this is forbidden by the absence of the connecting arti- cle in the Greek, and also by the following clause. The second interpretation connects this clause with the beginning of the verse, ‘ Having, according to his good pleasure, made known the mystery of his will.’ The sense in this case is good, but this interpretation sup- poses the relative whech, in the following clause, to refer to the mystery of his will, which its grammatical form in the Greek forbids. Which (ἣν) must refer to good pleasure (εὐδοκία). The third explanation, which alone seems consistent with the context, supposes evdo- xia to mean here not benevolence, but kind zntention, or, sovereign purpose. The sense then is: ‘ Having made known the mystery of his will, according to his