MYSTERY, MYSTERIES. — 1. Meaning and
usage. — The word ' mystery' (y«i/<rn)pioi') is derived from the Greek tivi'iv, ' to initiate ' ; but it is also connected with ixieiv, ' to shut the eyes or the mouth.' Consequently it stands for rites and truths which must be closely guarded by those who possess them. J. E. Harrison {Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Cambridge, 1903, p. 154) ventures to suggest as its source iiiaos, 'pollution.' And, since in her judgment the aim of the mysteries is primarily purification, the /twos, or pollution, from which the liberation is desired, gives the cere- monies of purification their name. But this deriva- tion restricts the compass of the word, and leaves its use in the Scriptures unintelligible. Whence did it come into Christian use ? Was it taken over from pagan sources, or did it reach the writers
VOL. II. — 4
of the NT and of the early Christian literature through Jewish channels V There is sullicient ground to decide for the latter view. The word occurs several times in the LXX {e.g. in Dn 218. i». =?.;!». 2«..')u.« 46). it meets ns agaiii in some of the ai)ocryphal books (Sir S-'^ 22-^ 27'«, Wis 2-= 6--, To 1'2'-", Jtli'2-, 2 Mac 13='). In these passages the word is applied to dreams and their mterpretatiim, or else to the political and military plans of the king which have not been divulged. These plans are the king's secrets, which no one should Know until he has revealed them or put them in operation (G. Anrich, Das antike Mmter- ieniiv.ien, p. 144 ; Hans von Soden, ZNT[V xii. [1911] 197). Von Soden says that without doubt the passages in the book of Daniel suggest the origin of the NT u.se of fiv^r-Zipioe, ' mystery.' The idea of the king's secrets becomes that of God's secrets, the plans of God, which remain hidden until He reveals them. This is already apparent in the Book of Enoch (ciii. 2, civ. 10, cvi. 19). In the Gospels the word occurs in this sense. But singularly it is found in only one Synoptic passage (Mk 4", "Mt 13", Lk S'"), which, according to Carl Clemen, contains no word of the Lord {Der Eiirfln.is der Alysterienreligionen, p. 24), whereas in the Fourth Gospel, which some critics view as the most Hellenistic of all the Gospels, it is not found at all. From this solitary occurrence we may in- fer that the word had no attraction for the writers as a means for expressing their thought. But evidently it had a charm for St. Paul. He uses it 21 times in his Epistles, of which 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians give us by far the largest number of examples. In every case the word retains its LXX meaning, which leads Von Soden to affirm that St. Paul did not borrow the word from the Greek, but from Jewish sources. It may have already become characteristic of Jewish eschatology, but Von Soden intimates that it was now a term of Jewish Christian theology which St. Paul both used and developed still further (see A. Schweitzer, Gesc.hichte der paulin- ischen Forschung, Tubingen, 1911, p. 141 tl'.). It is possible that St. Paul made this term con- spicuous in his Epistles in order to oppose it to the same term as used in the mystery-religions. But it has yet to be demonstrated that he was familiar with their thought, terms, and rites. W. M. Ramsay's tine discussion of the matter in his Teaching of Paul in Ter7>is of the Present Day, London, 1913, pp. 283-305, needs more proofs than those given by him to carry conviction. The only one of the mysteries prevalent in St. Paul's sphere of work was the Attis-cult, but he gives no hint of a know- ledge of it save in the obscure passage in Col 2 discussed by Ramsay.
The word occurs in the early Church Fathers with noticeable infrequency. It is absent in the writings of Clement, Barnabas, and Hernias. It apiiears three times in the Epistles of Ignatius {ad Eph. xix. 1, ad Magn. ix. 1-3, ad Trail, ii. 3) and twice this number in the anonymous Epistle to Diognetus (iv. 6, vii. 1-2, viii. io, x. 7, xi. 2, 5). In the Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, it occurs only once (xi. ll). In these passages fivnTiipiov is no central conception and no sacra- ment, although T. Zahn explains the term ' mysteries ' in Ignatius, ad Trail, ii. 3, as baptism and the Lord's Supper {Ignatius von Antiochien, Gotha, 1873, p. 323) — an explanation rejected by both Lightfoot and Srawley. The mysteries are in the main the Incarnation and the Atonement of Christ.
The Apologists using the word took another step. In the writings of Aristides, Athenagoras, and Tatian the word is wanting ; but in Justin it occurs many times, and usually signifies not any
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M Y STER Y, M Y STEKl KS
MYSTERY, MYSTERIES
particular rite, but ' tlie wliole complex of re- ligion' in which the Passion of Clirist preeminently appears {Apol. i. 13 ; Dial. 74, 91, 106, 121). It is placed by him on tlie same plane with symbol or parable or type, a usa<;e which continues until the time of Augustine. The serpent is a mystery or symbol {Apol. i. 27) ; a prophecy is a mystery : ' that which God said to David symbolically [^f fiu<rrr]i>i(i>] was interpreted by Isaiah as to how it would actually come to pass ' (Dial. 68, quoted by E. Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek, Oxford, 1889, p. 60). Justin, however, does not go much beyond his predecessors except to emphasize cosmological and ethical aspects. But he is the first to compare the Christian /j.vaTripioi' in its individual features with the pagan mysteries {Apol. i. 66 ; cf. i. 25, 27). This was ominous, for it tended to weaken the idea that the Christian mystery is peculiar and distinct, although Justin shows in his condemna- tion of the pagan rite that he had no thought of bringing about this result.