essential centre from which every doctrinal, dispensational and practical message radiates

All spiritual blessings are the peculiar blessings of the Mystery. In heavenly places is the

peculiar sphere of the Mystery. Before the overthrow of the world is a time period that

belongs only to Christ Himself and to the Mystery. The Church which is His Body, the

Fullness of Him that filleth all in all, is the title of the church of the Mystery. The present

dispensation is the dispensation of the Mystery, and Paul as the Prisoner of Jesus Christ

for us Gentiles is the one initial steward of this Mystery. If these things are so, then no

apology is needed for a careful study of this term, for if we are right here we may

reasonably hope to be right in our interpretation of the whole epistle, but if we are wrong

here, then all our efforts will be in vain. Accordingly we must devote the succeeding

article to an examination of the word `mystery' and its peculiar position in the purpose.

In the preceding article we have seen that according to a revelation Paul received the

Mystery, and we became aware of the intrinsic importance of this term. To appreciate

the meaning of the word `mystery', and the place it occupies in dispensational truth is to

possess the key to unlock the treasures of both Ephesians and Colossians. Accordingly

we devote all the space at our disposal in this article to an acquaintance with the meaning

and message of the Mystery.

The Greek word musterion occurs twenty-seven times in the N.T. and is translated

`mystery' throughout. The word is distributed as follows:

The word does not occur in Hebrews, nor in any of the circumcision epistles. The

LXX contains 9 references, all of them in the book of Daniel. In addition there are

twelve occurrences in the Apocrypha which indicate, by the way the word is employed,

something of the meaning it must have attached to it when it is found in the N.T. As this

word occupies such an important place in dispensational truth we must waive our rule

and set out a complete concordance of its occurrences in both the O.T. and the N.T.