Romans 16:25 – A hushed secret

Now to Him Who is able to establish you { in accord with my Evangel and the heralding of Christ Jesus in accord with the revelation of a secret hushed in times eonian yet manifested now…

For the present interim period in which Israel has been temporarily set aside, God has called an apostle out of the land. To herald Jesus Christ according to the Gospel as entrusted to him (“my Evangel”). This message of Paul, he writes, is “in accord with the revelation of a secret.”

Until a secret is revealed, everything is hidden. There is at most a suspicion, but everything is puzzling and unknown. The Greek word for ‘secret’ (or mystery) is ‘musterion’ and in it we immediately recognize our word ‘mystery’. During the past “eonian times” (=times of eons, world ages) that secret has been “hushed”. It has not been disclosed to anyone and has been kept quiet on purpose. Until the revelation of the secret, no one knew about it.

In Ephesians 3:5 Paul speaks of the secret “which was not made known in other generations” (Eph.3:5). It “was concealed from the eons” (Eph.3:9). And in Colossians 1:26 the apostle writes: “the secret which has been concealed from the eons and from the generations.” But now (through Paul)… it has been revealed and made public!

Delen: