The subject matter of the Mystery of Christ is capable of comparison "Which in other

ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto His holy

apostles and prophets" (Eph. 3: 5). The subject matter of the Mystery is not capable of

similar comparison "The mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations,

but is now made manifest to His saints" (Col. 1: 25-27). If the two statements of the

Apostle speak of the same thing, then we must admit a contradiction into the Scriptures.

The A.V. has veiled the truth by translating the Greek word genea `ages' in Eph. 3: 5,

and `generations' in Col. 1: 26.  The moment these translations are made to agree, the

distinction between the two mysteries becomes apparent. The mystery of Christ WAS

made known in other GENERATIONS; the Mystery was NOT, for it was HID from ages

and from GENERATIONS. It is this Mystery which Paul claims to have been revealed

exclusively to him:

The fact that the Apostle uses the title `the sons of men' to indicate those to whom a

partial unveiling of the mystery of Christ was made known, seems intentional in order

that the higher type of ministry `His holy apostles and prophets' should be thereby seen

to advantage. The A.V. makes the words `by the Spirit' follow the reference to the

Apostles and prophets, as though to teach us how the revelation was made known to

them. The universal witness of the Scriptures is so definite that `Holy men of God spake

as they were moved by the Holy Ghost' that one may pardon a moment's indecision and

ask why it seemed necessary for believers like the Ephesians to put this note in here at

all? Immediately we refer to the original and read en pneumati, our minds travel back to

the same two words with which chapter 2: closes, there translated `through the Spirit'.

When examining these words in article No.52 of this series, we noted the four

occurrences of the phrase en pneumati in Rev. 1: 10; 4: 2; 17: 3; 21: 10, and also

saw an intended contrast between the sphere `in spirit' of Eph. 2: 22, with the realm

indicated in the same chapter as `in the flesh' and `in the world'. So, when we come to

the end of Eph. 3: 5, we must allow the words en pneumati to stand as a heading of the

newly-revealed constitution of the church "Joint-heirs", etc., which is balanced at the

close by the words en Christo Jesou.  This correspondence we have noted in the

An illustration of the use of a word to introduce a new section of a book is provided

by Dan. 2: 4:

If this simply meant that the Chaldeans spoke their native tongue there seems little

reason for the information, for generally Hebrews speak Hebrew, Chaldeans speak

Syriack, Greeks speak Greek. When, however, we discover that the remainder of the

chapter, together with every chapter up to the end of chapter 7:, is written not in

Hebrew but in Syriack, we realize that it was not to tell us that the Chaldeans spoke their

native tongue, but that a new section of the prophecy here commenced which Daniel