Theology in the Park: The mystery of Romans 11:25

Yesterday I attended an all-day Theology in the Park conference organised by Messianic Good News, an organisation directed by Peter Cohen and Kevin Daly "who are both actively involved in writing and spreading the good news" (see their website), most especially to the Jewish people. In spite of some theological differences I have with them, I really think they do great work; their articles are thoroughly researched and they know what they believe, and why.

One of the exercises the conference participants were given was to identify the 'mystery' (Greek: μυστήριον, 'mysterion') mentioned by Paul in Romans 11:25. Immediately I felt embarrassed because I should know the answer off the top of my head (since it is closely related to my Masters topic), but I didn't. So I quickly looked up the verse and read the surrounding verses before my turn came up. As we went around the circle of about 20 people, we had an equal number of different answers though of course many overlapped. Nevertheless, there were some very different answers. Some people offered great biblical truths as the meaning of the mystery that Paul was writing to the church in Rome about. They really were wonderful gospel truths, but they were not the right answer to the question.

I feel there were two critical oversights that were made by most participants. Firstly, Paul says he does not want his readers to be ignorant of this mystery, and then he goes on to tell them what the mystery is in the same sentence! (The explanation also runs into the next verse, which in some translations is the same sentence.) Both the demonstrative pronoun this (τοῦτο, 'touto') and the conjunction that ('in order that': ἵνα, 'hina') appear in Greek text - the translators did not 'supply' them (that is, add them in, as is sometimes necessary in interpretation): "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery... that..." and then Paul spells it out.

The second oversight was equally significant. The 'answer' to the question was supposedly given in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Now I do believe that the Bible is an integrated whole -- that it is internally consistent, that apparent contradictions are solvable, and that one passage of scripture may be vital to unlocking the meaning of another. And certainly the mystery mentioned in Ephesians is related to the one in Romans 11, but the church in Rome did not have Paul's letter to the Ephesians at hand. Paul had to describe the mystery in the self-same letter in which he refers to it, or his readers would not have known what he was talking about. There are many mysteries in the Bible, but there was no need for my companions to explore further; Paul gives the answer then-and-there.

Why don't you take a look at Romans 11:25-26 and see what you think the 'mysterion' (secret, mystery) is that Paul was writing about?