`Christ among you', says the apostle is `the hope of glory'.  The hope

of Israel, which extended right through to the last chapter of the Acts (Acts

28:20), is not in view here, but something distinct.  This hope is the `one

hope of your calling', `the hope of His calling', `the hope that is laid up

for you in heaven'; it is a hope of `glory', and will be consummated when

Christ, Who is our life, shall be made manifest, for then, said the apostle,

`Ye shall also be made manifest with Him in glory' (Col. 3:4).

The Mystery receives a present manifestation because Christ is among

the Gentiles, through the preached Word.  He is the hope of glory.  The

Mystery receives its final manifestation when the Church of the One Body is

manifested with Him in glory.  It is good to keep these two passages,

Colossians 1:27 and 3:4 together, and to remember that in both the present

anticipation and the future realization, it is Christ Himself who is both

Manifester and Hope.

Our text here has been, and still is, much in dispute.  The A.V. reads:

`the acknowledgment of the Mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ'

(Col. 2:2).  The R.V. reads: `that they may know the Mystery of God, even

Christ'.  Alford reads: `The thorough knowledge of the Mystery of God', and

rejects all the rest.  The Companion Bible agrees with the reading of the

R.V. Scrivener says: `We would gladly adopt tou Theou Christou (the R.V.

reading), so powerfully do internal considerations plead in its favour, were

it but a little better supported'.  Hilary, who was born a.d. 300, appears to

have read the passage as does the R.V.: `In agnitionem sacramenti Dei

Christi' -- `to the recognition of the Mystery of God, Christ'.  For what it

is worth, the Numeric New Testament, by its own peculiar method of testing,

also gives this reading as the true one.

Accepting then the R.V. as the more accurate, let us proceed in our

study, keeping in mind that the special feature of our search is not only to

ascertain what the Mystery of God is, but how it is manifested.  The Mystery

of Colossians 2:2 is not the Mystery of Ephesians 3:3, which speaks of the

Church, nor of Ephesians 3:4, which speaks of Christ, but it is the mystery

`of God', the manifestation of which is Christ.  Alford draws attention to a

most important correction in the translation of Colossians 2:3.  The A.V.

reads: `In Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge'.  Alford's

reading is: `In which (mystery) are all the secret treasures of wisdom and

knowledge'.  He says: `The rendering which I have adopted is that of Meyer,

and I am persuaded on consideration that it is not only the only logical but

the only grammatical one also'.

There are eleven occurrences of apokruphos which is used consistently

as an adjective, and never as a verb.  For example, in the passage: `He shall

have power over the treasures of gold and silver' (Dan. 11:43), the LXX uses

the word apokruphois for `treasures', evidently with the idea that treasures

would be hidden by reason of their value.

Again, in Daniel 2:22 the same word is used of `secret things', and it

is interesting to observe that in chapter 2:19 the word `secret' is the word

musterion or `mystery'.  In Isaiah 45:3, `the hidden riches of secret

places', is, in the LXX, apokruphous aoratous, `secret, unseen'.  The context

speaks of treasures, using the same word as is so translated in Colossians

2:3.  Psalm 27:5 provides a good illustration of the use of the verb and the