Colossians 1: 26 – Secret, concealed and made manifest

… the secret which has been concealed from the eons and from the generations, yet now was made manifest to His saints.

The content of the mystery, Paul writes about, he mentiones in the subsequent verse. In this verse he explains why we are dealing with e secret. The Greek word for secret is ‘musterion’, from which our word ‘mystery’ is derived. But we must be careful here, because a “mystery” in the Bible certainly does not indicate something that is by definition incomprehensible or inexplicable. A ‘musterion’ refers to a matter that no one knows about until it has been made known. Of the 27 times the word occurs in the NT, it is used no fewer than 20 times in Paul’s letters. That is significant, because Paul is the custodian of God’s secret(s) par excellence.

Paul completes the word of God (1:25) by making known to God’s saints the secret revealed to him. From the beginning of the eons (= world ages) and in all previous generations the secret was veiled (Gr. apo-krupto). Our word cryptic (and crypto) is derived from this Greek word. Something is cryptic when its meaning is hidden or ‘encrypted’. Paul has been entrusted with the key that gives us access to the treasury that was previously closed.

Delen: