Did Jesus Use the Word Mystery?
Yes — but only once, and the context is significant. The word mystērion appears on the lips of Jesus in a single passage, recorded in three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew 13:11, Mark 4:11, and Luke 8:10. This rarity raises an interesting question: if the concept of mystery is so central to the New Testament (especially in Paul's letters), why did Jesus Himself use the word so sparingly?
The One Occurrence
The passage is the parable discourse in Mark 4 (and parallels). After telling the parable of the sower, Jesus tells His disciples:
"To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables."— Mark 4:11 (ESV)
For a full treatment of this passage, see The Mystery of the Kingdom.
Why Only Once?
Several factors may explain the rarity:
- Jesus was the mystery — Paul later identifies Christ Himself as the content of the mystery (Colossians 2:2). During His earthly ministry, Jesus was in the process of revealing the mystery through His life, death, and resurrection. He was living the mystery, not yet explaining it in those terms. The theological vocabulary to describe what had happened came after the events themselves.
- The Gospels record events; the Epistles interpret them — The Gospels primarily tell the story of what Jesus did and said. The Epistles — written after the resurrection, ascension, and the coming of the Spirit — interpret those events theologically. It makes sense that the technical theological term mystērion would be used more in the interpretive literature than in the narrative literature.
- Jesus' audience was Jewish — Jesus was speaking primarily to Jewish audiences in a Jewish context. The word mystērion, while it existed in Jewish Greek (from Daniel), was not a common word in everyday Jewish discourse. Paul, writing to largely Gentile audiences in a Hellenistic context, may have found the word more useful.
- The full mystery was not yet revealed — The mystery of Gentile inclusion, the mystery of the resurrection body, the mystery of Christ and the church — these were not fully understood or disclosed until after Pentecost. Jesus hinted at broader inclusion (e.g., John 10:16, "other sheep that are not of this fold"), but the full revelation came through the apostolic witness.
Did Jesus Teach the Concept Without the Word?
Absolutely. Many of Jesus' teachings express the idea of hidden truth being revealed, even without using the word mystērion:
- "Nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light" (Luke 8:17).
- "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children" (Matthew 11:25).
- The entire parable method is a mystery in action — truth that is simultaneously revealed and concealed depending on the hearer.
Jesus was the embodiment of the mystery concept even when He did not use the word. Paul later supplied the vocabulary for what Jesus had been doing all along.
From Jesus to Paul
The connection between Jesus' single use of mystērion in Mark 4:11 and Paul's extensive use of the word is one of the most important transitions in New Testament theology. Jesus introduced the idea that the kingdom operates through hidden revelation; Paul expanded this into a full theology of God's plan for the ages. See Paul and the Mystery of God for the development.