The Mystery of Mysteries

Today we continue our study of the mystery of marriage, especially in the light of what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 5:32, "This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." So far I have not asked why Paul chose to even use the word mystery, especially since it was such a loaded term in his time. A word about that.

There were many mystery cults in Paul's day all around the Roman controlled world. And they had been around for hundreds of years. These cults practiced mysteries, cultic rites. In these rites the destiny of the particular god worshipped is portrayed by certain sacred actions.

In the Roman world one such cultic action was the festival of the Greek god Dionysius, the Dionysia, on January 6, a date that later became the Christian festival of Epiphany. "It was the second-most important festival after the Panathenaia. The Dionysia actually consisted of two related festivals, the Rural Dionysia and the City Dionysia, which took place in different parts of the year. They were also an essential part of the Dionysian Mysteries."

The Dionysia, also known as Bacchanalia—Dionysius' Roman name was Bacchus—celebrated the mystery of the god, retelling his story annually through rites, plays, songs and wild parties. Dionysius or Bacchus was the god of wine, agriculture, fertility of nature, and the patron god of the stage. His festivals celebrated the annual rebirth of nature and especially wine.There were processions, special stage plays, sacrifices of bulls, wild dance parties, drunken orgies and many other uninhibited actions. The festivities become so wild and dangerous that Roman authorities had to put strict limits upon them. 

There were many other mystery religions, each with its own rites, each revealing mysteries of the god only to initiates. To become an initiate one had to undergo various ritual initiations and learn certain formulas and secret symbols and signs. The myths and feasts were closely connected with the change of seasons, with human life and death, with perishing and returning to life in nature. The whole idea of mystery was widespread in philosophy and religion. 

In the Bible the word (Hebrew raz, LXX Greek mysterion) is found only in the prophetic book of Daniel (Daniel 2:18-19,27-30,47;4:6). There we read that King Nebuchadnezzar was perplexed by a dream he couldn't remember. His enchanters, astrologers and magicians couldn't tell him either, especially since the king couldn't remember what he had dreamed. But the mystery (raz) was revealed to Daniel by the LORD in a night vision and he was then able to tell the king what he had dreamed and what it meant. Without God's revelation no one knew about it. In the revelation Daniel saw a great image made of gold, bronze, iron and finally clay feet. This pointed to three kingdoms that were to follow that of Nebuchadnezzar, all of which would finally be replaced by an eternal kingdom established by the God of heaven (Daniel 2:44-45).

Paul was an educated Jew, trained by the best rabbis in Jerusalem, and a Roman citizen. He knew about all those meanings of the word mystery, both in Hebrew and in Greek. Consequently he used the word to speak about this mystery of marriage between a man and a woman, a mystery that points to the deeper mystery of Christ's union with His bride, the church. In both instances, we look to God's revelation to understand what God intended and what God is doing. We cannot be faithful to Him if we change the definition of human marriage. It is and always will be the union of one man and one woman for life. As such it reflects the eternal union of Christ, the second Adam, with His bride, the church (Ephesians 5:32; 2 Cor. 11:2; Revelation 19:7-8). This is the supreme mystery, far surpassing any mysteries before or since.