Thursday, February 24, 2022

Dragoş Andrei Giulea on μυστηριον ("mystery")

  

Although the term μυστηριον already appears in the Pauline corpus, a development of exegesis as mystery performance does not materialize in Christian context before Melito. In Justin’s works, the term can be encountered when the writer claims that prophecies describe future events through parables, mysteries, and symbols regarding those events (εν παραβολαις η μυστηριοις η εν συμβολοις εργων). This is because, generally, the Holy Spirit manifests itself through parable and in a hidden way (εν παραβολη δε και παρακεκαλυμμενως).

 

Furthermore, the incarnation, according to Justin and Irenaeus, was envisioned as an event which entailed major exegetical consequences, since Christ came and revealed the obscure words of the ancient holy writings. To this point, Irenaeus claims that the message of the good news about Christ was hidden (κεκρυμμενος) in prophecies and symbolized through types and parables (δια τυπων και παραβολων εσημαινετο), yet their full meaning could be grasped solely at the time of their fulfilment. (Dragoş Andrei Giulea, Pre-Nicene Christology in Paschal Contexts: The Case of the Divine Noetic Anthropos [Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae Texts and Studies of Early Christian Life and Language 123; Leiden: Brill, 2014], 198-99)