or revelation concerning Christ ; or of which he is the author (i. e. of the secret purpose of redemption), or which is Christ. Christ himself is the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. He is the revelation of the μυστήριον or secret purpose of God, which had been hid for ages. Thus the apostle in writing to the Colossians says: “God would make known the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles; which (i. e. the mystery) is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col. 1, 27.
What Paul had written respecting the calling of the Gentiles in the preceding chapter, was an indication of his knowledge of the whole plan of salvation—here designated as ‘the mystery of Christ,” which includes far more than the truth that the Gentiles were fellow- citizens of the saints. It has the same extensive mean- ing in Col. 4, 8, where Paul prays that God would open a door of utterance for him “to speak the mys- tery of Christ.” This verse is, therefore, virtually a parenthesis, in so far as the relative 6 at the beginning of the next verse refers to the word μυστήριον in v. 3; or if referred to that word as used in v. 4, it is to it as including the more limited idea expressed in v. 3.
V.5. God by revelation had made known to Paul a mystery, or purpose, which was not revealed as it now was to the apostles. That the Gentiles were to partake of the blessings of the Messiah’s reign, and to be united as one body with the Jews in his kingdom, is not only frequently predicted by the ancient pro- phets, but Paul himself repeatedly and at length quotes