Mystery in the Old Testament: Rāz in Daniel
The Greek word mystērion does not appear in the Hebrew Old Testament. But the concept of a divine mystery — a truth hidden in God's counsel and revealed at His initiative — has its roots in the Old Testament, primarily in the book of Daniel.
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream: Daniel 2
The story is well known. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has a troubling dream. He demands that his wise men not only interpret the dream but tell him what it was — without being told. When they cannot, the king orders their execution. Daniel, a Jewish exile, asks for time and then prays to "the God of heaven" for the mystery to be revealed.
"Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven."— Daniel 2:19 (ESV)
The Aramaic word translated "mystery" here is rāz (רז). It appears nine times in Daniel 2 (verses 18, 19, 27, 28, 29, 30, 47 [twice]) and is the single most important background text for understanding how the New Testament uses mystērion.
Key Principles from Daniel 2
Daniel's prayer and subsequent interpretation establish several principles that carry directly into the New Testament:
- God is the source of mystery — "There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries" (Daniel 2:28). No human wisdom can uncover what God has hidden; only God can reveal it.
- Mystery concerns God's future plan — "He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days" (2:28). The mystery is not random esoterica but relates to God's plan for history.
- Revelation comes through a chosen servant — Daniel is the one to whom the mystery is revealed, and he communicates it to the king. This parallels Paul's role as the steward of New Testament mysteries (see Stewards of the Mysteries).
- The mystery is about kingdoms — Nebuchadnezzar's dream reveals a succession of world empires and the ultimate kingdom of God that "shall never be destroyed" (2:44). This eschatological scope is echoed in the mystery of God's will and the mystery of God finished in Revelation.
Rāz in the Septuagint
When the book of Daniel was translated into Greek, the Aramaic rāz was rendered as mystērion. This translation choice is crucial. It means that when Paul and other New Testament writers used mystērion, they were drawing on an already established Jewish-Greek vocabulary that had its home in Daniel, not in pagan mystery religions. See the Greek word study for a comparison between these two backgrounds.
Rāz in the Dead Sea Scrolls
The word rāz also appears frequently in the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly in texts like the Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns) and the Pesharim (biblical commentaries). The Qumran community used the term to describe divine secrets about the end times that God had revealed to the Teacher of Righteousness. The phrase rāz nih’yeh ("mystery of what is to come" or "mystery of existence") appears repeatedly. This shows that by the time of the New Testament, the concept of divinely revealed mystery was well established in Jewish thinking, independent of Greek mystery religions.
Other Old Testament Echoes
Although the Hebrew Old Testament does not use rāz outside of Daniel (which is partly in Aramaic), several texts express the concept of God's hidden counsel:
- Amos 3:7 — "The Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets." The Hebrew word here is sōd ("counsel" or "secret"), and it conveys the same idea: God discloses His plans to chosen servants.
- Deuteronomy 29:29 — "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever." This verse captures the basic structure of mystery: some things are hidden with God, and some are revealed for His people.
- Isaiah 45:15 — "Truly, you are a God who hides himself." The concept of a God who conceals and then reveals is woven into the fabric of the Old Testament.
From Daniel to Paul
The line from Daniel to Paul is not difficult to trace. Daniel established the pattern: a mystery hidden in God's counsel, concerning God's plan for the ages, revealed to a chosen servant for proclamation. Paul took this pattern and filled it with the content of the gospel: the mystery is Christ, the mystery is Gentile inclusion, the mystery is the coming resurrection. The vocabulary, the structure, and the theology all connect. See Paul and the Mystery of God.