What Is The Mystery of Scripture?

The Mystery Is a Body of Knowledge That Is Hidden in Parables

“The Mystery” is a designation that the Apostle Paul often uses in his epistles to refer to what Moses and the Prophets of Israel explain in their parables. This information provides insight into the meaning and significance of all the parabolic images and Hebrew idioms that are the basis for the parables that Moses taught the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. It also explains the meaning and significance of the parabolic pantomimes that the sons of Israel were directed to carry out according to the dictates of the Mosaic Law.

The Teaching of Moses became The Mystery only because the sons of Israel—like the Church—lost insight into the meaning and significance of The Teaching of Moses. After that, they were no longer able to understand the parabolic statements that Moses and the other Prophets of Israel make in their prophecies concerning Jesus Christ. In the following verses, Jesus makes it clear that The Mystery relates to a specific body of knowledge that is hidden in parables and “dark sayings” that the uninformed cannot understand:

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” And He answered and said to them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.”
(Matthew 13:10–11) —NASB

And as soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, {began} asking Him {about} the parables. And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God; but those who are outside get everything in parables, in order that while seeing, they may see and not perceive; and while hearing, they may hear and not understand lest they return and be forgiven.”
(Mark 4:10–12) —NASB

The Mystery Is Tied to The Teaching of Moses

The reason why Jesus spoke in parables is because He sought to simultaneously reveal and conceal the Truth regarding The Mystery of Scripture. He revealed the Truth to His disciples by explaining the meaning and significance of His parables just as Moses and the other Prophets of Israel had done to their disciples—“the sons of the prophets” mentioned in the Scriptures.

To the unbelieving multitudes, however, Jesus did exactly the opposite of what He did to His disciples. He concealed the Truth from them by refusing to explain the meaning and significance of His parables. As a result, The Mystery remained just that to the unbelieving multitudes—a mystery they could not understand.

It is not by accident that the Apostle Paul often talks about “the hidden mystery” that God supernaturally revealed to him. What Paul doesn’t tell us is the fact that his understanding of The Mystery, which he claims had been hidden for generations prior to his day, was tied to his understanding of The Teaching of Moses—The oral Teaching that explains the meaning and significance of the parables and parabolic statements of Moses and all the other Prophets of Israel:

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; {to be specific}, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly {places}.
(Ephesians 3:1–10) —NASB

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, {leading} to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.
(Romans 16:25–27) —NASB

Of {this church} I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the {preaching of} the word of God, {that is}, the mystery which has been hidden from the {past} ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
(Colossians 1:25–27) —NASB

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with {an attitude of} thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.
(Colossians 4:2–4) —NASB

As Paul plainly explains, The Mystery he is referring to is “The Mystery of Christ.” Therefore, when he talks about The Mystery, he is alluding to his knowledge of specific information related to the birth, life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that was, and still is, hidden in the Hebrew Scriptures, lying completely concealed behind the parables and parabolic statements of Moses and the Prophets of Israel.