Ephesians 3:3-5 - The mystery made known

3:3

In using the term “mystery” the emphasis is actually on something that is now revealed. Looking at Israel prior to Jesus the Jew-Gentile divide seemed to be set in stone, how could things ever be different? Especially, how could the Gentiles ever share fully in God’s blessings, how could the Jews and Gentiles be one? The “how” was revealed in Christ, and Paul had the task of making this known to the Gentiles. In Galatians Paul stresses that he received the gospel by revelation.

3:4,5

The gospel is a gospel of revelation. It is now something made up by men, or even discovered by men. Rather, it was revealed to us by God. No one would have thought up the gospel as a viable plan! Paul is explaining to the Ephesians (and other churches) the mystery that has now been revealed in Christ. The revelation was made to God’s “holy apostles and prophets”. We need to be careful with the word “holy”. The meaning in the Bible is one who is set apart by God for God. we tend to think of “holy” in terms of some intrinsic merit in the person themself, whereas the Biblical emphasis is on God’s purpose and choice. Earlier in reference to “apostles and prophets” I suggested that I prefered to take “prophets” as referring mainly to the Old Testament prophets, this would not seem to be the case here, unless we take it as meaning God did reveal things to the prophets, but they did not fully understand or appreciate the message, or that the emphasis is on it not being revealed to the people in general. There is a consistency of this view with 1 Pet 1:10-12. The problem I have with it referring to New Testament prophets is that we are told nothing about them proclaiming the gospel.