DISPENSATIONAL TRUTH

Secret Things

By Charles H. Welch

Secret Things ‘The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: 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’ (Deut. 29:29).

This verse is often quoted by those who are antagonistic to Dispensational Truth, and the revelation of the Mystery. It should be noted that in the A.V. the following words are in italics:

‘things belong ... things which are ... belong ... we ...’.

Rotherham has the following note:

‘A very ancient official document, the oldest form of which is found in the Siphri on Numbers 9:10, has dots (denoting spuriousness) upon the words "Unto Yahweh our God". When these are cancelled, says Dr. Ginsburg, we obtain the sense -- "The secret things and the revealed things belong to us and to our children for ever if we do all the words of this Law". That is, the secret things, and the doctrines which have not yet been revealed (comp. Deut. 30:11-14), belong to us and to our children, or will be disclosed to us, if we do all the words of this Law which have been revealed to us. Rashi already expresses the opinion that the words L’YHWH ‘ELOHENU, to the Lord our God, ought to have been pointed, but that the reverence for the Divine name prevented its being done’ (G. Intro. pp. 318, 321, 330).

The Companion Bible endorses this note (with the exception, that instead of reading ‘if we do all’ it suggests ‘that we do all’), and in Appendix 31 gives fourteen other passages which are similarly treated. Appendices 30, 32, 33 and 34 should also be read if the reader is unacquainted with the labours and methods of the Massoretes and the Sopherim.

An Alphabetical Analysis