Excellent. I just got back from a walk on the beach, and realized I made a judgment when that is wrong. Please forgive me for saying you are not disagreeing/me, but with Paul. I should never jump the gun, esp when speaking with one willing to search and see. We have a conversation now, a beginning point.
But the only mystery I see here is that of Christ which was in the works sense the beginning but was not truly understood by the Jews.
Paul speaks of 'before (LXX=overthrow) the foundation of the world. He is to reveal something 'hid in God'. Paul is not, after Acts, revealing an old thing, something that had been previously made know (but an entirely new creation-Eph.2:15). Paul is not going to expand on that which they already new, but even address' this to gentiles. Paul is going to build upon, or on top of, that foundation; will quote later,Nevertheless, if what you reference wasn't understood by the Jews, then it wasn't understood by anybody, I mean, who else would understand it, because the oracles of God were to the Jews, to them belong the covenants, the adoption, and all that jazz.But Paul is saying God is revealing something never ever ever made known to anyone at any time, that God hid this secret in Himself where it could not be found out until God revealed it. This is different than the unfolding Mystery of Christ. This unfolding Mystery of Christ was made known from Genesis 3:15 forward, and the Acts? ALL PROPHECIED. But what is revealed as 'the mystery' was a secret, says the Bible, and NEVER PROPHESIED. This is in addition to anything ever made known before. This regards super-heavenly spheres of habitation, and is for some of God's chosen who are called into 'the Kingdom of His Dear Son'. This is but a mere portion of the greater Kingdom of God, which includes both earthly, as well as super heavenly spheres. Each to receive God's blessings and outpouring of everliving mercy and grace. But they are not the same place, nor the same blessings.This kingdom is inhabited, in the prison epistles, by an inheritance said to be the 'saints in light'. This was veiled off from the priests of Israel. Search and see what this means, Ho Hagios/Ho Hagion. The apostle says this clearly again and again and again of this calling and this choosing.It is never said of Israel. Israel is absent in this calling, His choosing.The point the apostle is making, is that Israel fulfilled the most dreadful of prophecy, and that then the same apostle makes known what was never written, and which is therefore, called, a mystery. Not just any secret thing of God, but THE secret thing of God. It all hinges upon this verse ~Isa 6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Isa 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. May we refresh, Matt. 11-12, Christ is the Messiah come, showing forth in all the might signs and wonders of the OT prophecy, coming as greater than the temple, great than the prophet, and greater than the king. After the rejection Christ never speaks to the multitude again. Matt. 13, He is speaking in parables, or words along side. They are words the multitude never asked to understand. They are words in fulfilment of Isa. 6:9-10 ~Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: Mat 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. AND IN WHO IS FULFILLED THIS PROPHECY? ISRAEL. but this only foreshadows the warning set forth there, is restated in John, and finalized at the end of Acts.So the Lord quotes Is. 6:9-10, and it is a specific prophecy having to do with a specific people.Who was sent?Isa 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. Isa 6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Throughout the OT we have forerunners, types and shadows of Christ, but at the of Acts, we are given for the first time, what seems to be a post runner, a shadow of Christ leaving His earthly people. And in this is the apostles office magnified. Paul tells them again, and again, and again, that they are fulfilling the negative and dreadful side of prophecy. We can see this in the apostles to the circumcision's letters as well. The hope is the soon return of the Lord, the fear is that the day is dawning, and the truth of that light was quoted from Isa.Paul says of it, it is not just a mystery, but it is the mystery. It is, according to Paul, the mystery which completes the word of God. And it is not written to Israel, but specifically it is written to all nations. It is what is filling this parenthetical period we live in. This is what is written about the times of the gentiles. It is written by an inspired apostle about what is truth for today, for today is the day we live in the parenthesis between the time when God WAS working with His people of the earth, and the future when God SHALL work with His earthly people Israel.This distinction is clearly not written in the OT, and is founded upon the Lord's earthly ministerial warning, Isa. 6:9-10, which the Lord explained as something to be revealed that was hidden from, or since, the foundation of the world, wherein we find Paul is sent, for the first time in Holy Writ, to the nations.Not to Israel first any longer, but only to the nations. Sent. To the nations. Sent, to reveal the mystery.And nothing Paul then reveals, was ever revealed before. It is written, starting with Ephesians. And it concerns what happened after Israel is given to this present period.This is Israel's Lo-ammi period. Paul says in Romans that this was upon them. That only a remnant seemed to be aware of what was going on, and to these people Paul wrote in the high hopes and great love that Paul had for his people, Israel of the flesh, of whom he was in chains for. Paul is confessedly declaring that most dreadful prophecy, and it is dreadful if there ever was one. Upon this third written quoted statement, it is finalized, and the Salvation of God is sent to the gentiles, and they will hear it. That is at the end of the Acts, where Paul was healing everyone in sight.THEN the same apostle, the very same one with such miraculous miracles bestowed upon him by the Holy Spirit, that at one time (during the Acts when the signs and wonders and miracles were ever present) he was able to send healing by the Holy Spirit from his very garments.Yes, this is the apostle who conferred not with flesh and blood, but by the risen Christ. The same risen Christ who has written that Paul would also go forth and preach not only that which had been shown to Paul, but also Christ told Paul he was to preach something that would later be revealed by Christ.So in Romans we have the most basic of instructions, it is for the Jews first, it is also heard and believed in by certain gentiles, called Greeks, who were fulfilling OT prophecy that God would provoke to jealousy His people by those who were no people (those Gentiles). None of that is a secret. There is no mystery to anything that happened during the Gospels or the Acts. It is all in the OT.And the OT is quoted extensively throughout.And there is nothing in any of the letter written after Isa. 6:9-10 is quoted for that third and final time that can be found in the OT.Instead we find Israel is not present, the OT is not present. Paul speaks of things never before revealed to man at any time.Paul calls this, 'The Mystery'. And the first things Paul does is speak of a higher desire of God, one which is likened to a Will, from the Father, accomplished through the work of the Son, and Sealed by the Holy Spirit. It is the first chapter of Ephesians. By the end of the prison epistles, called so because they all bear the mark of prison and were written after Acts and that dreadful quote of Isa, Paul said that none were with him in setting those things which were behind, and reaching out to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And in the center of all that, we have the fact that none of the members of this body can be compared to the Head, which is Christ. When the 'promise' was capable and present for Israel to realize and obtain, all miracles, when Isa. is quoted at the end, the same apostle who the Lord was doing might works and miracles by, can no longer heal even his closest companions in the Lord. And angels are not there in these latter epistles. The hope of Israel is no longer present or spoken about. Specifically, for the first time, it is the hope of you gentiles who are concerned. And it has to due with something that the apostles writes Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, Eph 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Eph 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Why, during the Acts, when the hope of Israel was in view, this same apostle writes1Co 1:26 For ye see your callingBut here we have a company chosen before the foundation of the world, who cannot see their calling, it must be prayed for and prayed for that your eyes might be enlightened...Something happened.Christ did not come.We do not stand outside the synagogues to listen to what Israel would hear first.Eph 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; Eph 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; I look forward to your response as to why none of what is written in Ephesians, Colossians, Philpians, and 2 Timothy is new.