Scripture Bulletin Volume XLIV, No.

My Mystery is for Me: a Saying of Jesus?

Dominic White OP
Fr Dominic White OP is Chaplain to Newcastle and Northumbria Universities

[dominic.white@english.op.org]

For it is not in the way of envy that the Lord proclaimed in a certain Gospel
( ), My mystery is for me, and for the sons of my house
( ).1

So says Clement of Alexandria (ca.150-215) in a passage of the Miscellanies

(Stromateis) on the opinions of the Apostles regarding the veiling of the
mysteries of faith. But which Gospel could be the source of this saying
(henceforth the Mystery Saying)? It is not found in the canonical Gospels. In
the same passage Clement quotes extensively from the canonical New
Testament (e.g. Eph. 3:3-5; Col. 1:9-11, 25-27; Heb. 5:12-14, 6:1), and from the
Epistle of Barnabas. Also he often cites the lost Gospel of the Hebrews and the
Gospel of the Egyptians. The former is cited also by Didymus the Blind, Jerome
and Origen, and only Origen wrote of it disapprovingly.2 Fragments of the
Gospel of the Egyptians survive only in Clement, who notes in one passage how
it is misused by heretics, probably Gnostics.3 But these numerous citations make
it unlikely that either of these extra-canonical texts is the unnamed certain
Gospel. Ehrmann and Plee follow the scholarly tradition of classifying the
Mystery Saying as an agraphon, an unwritten thing: that is, words ascribed to
Jesus which have been transmitted outside the canonical Gospels.

Many agrapha are found in only a single source, e.g. It is more blessed to give
than receive (Acts 20:35), or In whatever circumstances I overtake you, in
those I will also judge you.4 But the Mystery Saying is attested nine times: in

1
Clement, Miscellanies V.10; translation from A. Roberts & J. Donaldson, Ante-Nicene
Christian Library vol. 12 (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1869), p. 259 (I have adapted Roberts
and Donaldsons to to for); B. Ehrman & Z. Plee, The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and
Translations (Oxford: OUP, 2011), pp. 362-63.
2
Ehrman & Plee, The Apocryphal Gospels, pp.216-221; cf. Origen, Commentary on John
2.12.
3
Clement, Miscellanies III.63 (9); see Ehrman & Plee, The Apocryphal Gospels, pp. 223-29.
4
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 47.5; Ehrman & Plee, The Apocryphal Gospels, p.
361.

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addition to Clement of Alexandria, it is found in slightly differing forms in the

Clementine Homilies, John Chrysostom, twice in Theodoret of Cyr, in the
Testamentum Domini (a Christian apocryphon/church order) and once in a
dubium of John Damascene. A very similar saying is found in the Odes of
Solomon and the Gnostic Acts of John. This article will address two inter-related
questions: is this saying authentic, and what mystery could Jesus be talking
about? We will proceed by examining the sources chronologically, placing each
citation in its literary, historical and theological context. Owing to the unusually
high number of citations detailed analysis will not be possible, and therefore the
conclusions are necessarily provisional. It is to be hoped that specialists will be
able to take the question further.

The earliest citation apart from Clement (and possibly earlier than him) is in the
Odes of Solomon (1st to 3rd centuries CE). The Odes emphasis on knowledge5
and their cosmological references6 did lead some scholars to posit a Gnostic
origin. However, they are now generally agreed to be Christian.7 They bear a
strong structural resemblance to the hymn-like passages of the Pauline Epistles
(Eph. 1:3-10; Phil. 2:6-11; Col. 1:12-20; 1 Tim. 3:16). The Mystery Saying
comes in an Ode in which Christ gives the knowledge of the Most High:

Hear the word of truth,

And receive the knowledge of the Most High []
Keep my mystery (arw rzy), you who are kept by it:
Keep my faith, you who are kept by it.
And understand my knowledge, you who know me in truth;
Love me with affection, you who love8

Knowledge of what? There is some reference to cosmology, but perhaps the

point is that the knowledge is kept hidden: the silence is implicit. 9

5
E.g. Odes 7.7; 12.3-4; 17.13; in J.H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Old Testament
Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2 (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1985), pp. 740, 746, 751.
6
E.g. Odes 26.5-7, Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2, p. 759.
7
See E. Nazar (ed.), Les Odes de Salomon, Sagesses chrtiennes (Paris: Cerf, 1996), p.40 and
n. 2; Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2, pp. 726-27.
8
Odes of Solomon, 8.10; Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2, p. 742.
Syriac text: J.H. Charlesworth (ed.), The Odes of Solomon (Missoula: Scholars Press,
1977), p. 40. I am indebted to Robert Hayward for his transcription.
9
Charlesworth proposes a comparison with the Dead Sea Scrolls (Charlesworth, Old
Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2, p.742, n.): 1QH 11.10 (nothing very obvious) and
1Q27: ...knowledge shall fill the world and folly shall exist no longer (1Q27.6, The
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, tr. G. Vermes, (London: Penguin Books, 1997) p.
389).

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The Gnostic Acts of John date from ca.150-200, so are roughly contemporary
with Clement and the Odes. The Acts replace the Last Supper and the Passion
Narrative with an initiatory hymn and dance led by Jesus himself, which may be
of Valentinian origin.10 In this hymn, Jesus teaches his Apostles: Now if you
respond to my dancing, see yourself in me who speak; and when you have seen
what I do, keep silence about my mysteries ( )! You who
dance, perceive what I do; for yours is this passion of mankind which I am to
suffer!11

It is very unlikely that Clement took the Mystery Saying from this Gnostic text,
given his opposition to heretics, who were very probably the Gnostics. In any
case, the Acts of John are not called a Gospel. In fact, the Gnostics were not
very inventive: their teachings on the cosmic symbolism of the Cross and
multiple heavens were more likely taken from the Apostles oral teachings and
distorted.12 And Augustine points out that most of the elements of the Hymn of
Jesus in the Acts of John are taken from canonical Gospels (e.g. I want to save,
and I want to be saved: cf. Tit. 3:5, 1 Thess. 5:19).13 If anything, this
strengthens the case for the authenticity of the Mystery Saying.

The Clementine Homilies. A kind of early Christian novel, the Clementine

Homilies and Recognitions, collectively known as the Clementines and
traditionally attributed to Clement of Rome, have been dated to between the 2 nd
and the 4th centuries. They consist largely of stories about Peters preaching,
especially his debates and duels with Simon Magus. In the context in which the
Mystery Saying appears, Peter is debating with Simon about wicked actions,
especially in the light of cultural difference (e.g. incest). Peter shows how bad
custom can make one race sin, contrary to the custom of the whole human race:

If, then, no one were at all ever to confess that these are sins, it is right
even then to look forward of necessity to a judgement in regard to sins.
When Peter said this, Simon answered: Does this, then seem to you to be
the truth in regard to the wicked one? Tell me.
10
The hymn has strong parallels with a Gnostic initiation rite of the Valentinian Mark the
Magus: Irenaeus, Against the Heresies I.13.2, 3; Acta Johannis, ed. & tr. E. Junod & J.-D.
Kaestli, CCSA, 1 (Brpols-Turnhout, 1983), vol. 2, p. 650.
11
Acts of John 96, in The Apocryphal New Testament: a Collection of Apocryphal Christian
Literature in an English Translation, ed. & tr. J.K. Elliott (OUP, 1993), p. 319. Greek text:
Acta Johannis, ed. & tr. E. Junod & J.-D. Kaestli, vol. 1, p. 205.
12
D. White, Contemporary Spiritualities and Christianity: Is There an Authentic Christian
Gnosis? New Blackfriars 93 (September 2012), pp. 580-97.
13
Augustine, Letter 237, in Augustine, Letters 211-270 and 1* to 29*, tr. R. Teske, The
Works of Saint Augustine: a Translation for the 21st Century, vol. II/4 (Hyde Park, New
York: New City Press, 2005), pp. 136-41.

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And Peter said: We remember that our Lord and Teacher, commanding
us, said, Keep the mysteries for me and the sons of my house (
). Wherefore also He
explained to His disciples privately the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven. But to you who do battle with us, and examine into nothing else
but our statements, whether they be true or false, it would be impious to
state the hidden [truths] ( ). But that
none of the bystanders may imagine that I am contriving excuses, because
I am unable to reply to the assertions made by you, I shall answer you by
first putting the question, if there had been a state of painlessness, what is
the meaning of the statement, The evil one was?14

The private explanation of the Mysteries of Heaven clearly refers, as the

translators point out, to Mk. 4:34. And it seems that teachings on the Evil One,
Satan, are restricted or reserved. Clement of Alexandria says right at the
beginning of his Miscellanies, a text concerned largely with authentic Christian
knowledge (), that Jesus had given secret teachings:

Thus the Lord did not hinder from doing good while keeping the Sabbath;
but allowed us to communicate of those divine mysteries, and of that holy
light, to those who are able to receive them... But secret things (
) are entrusted to speech ( ), not to writing, as is
the case with God15

The Miscellanies see Christian initiation as twofold: Baptism/Confirmation and

Eucharist, and then further teaching which will deepen the neophytes
knowledge of what they have already received. Though Clements language is
different, this is no different from the teaching of Paul (e.g. 1 Cor. 2:6-7) and
indeed the whole liturgical tradition of Initiation and Mystagogy. Writing, as I
said, probably against the Gnostics, Clement seeks to teach his audience an
authentic Christian gnosis which we might reasonably read in the context of the
Spirits gift of knowledge (cf. Is. 11:2). Later in the same text Clement says
that the gnosis was the knowledge and apprehension of things present, future,
and past which has descended by transmission to a few, having been imparted

14
Clementine Homilies 19.19-19.20.1. Greek text: B. Rehm (ed.), Die Pseudoklementinen, I
Homilien, GCS 42 (Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1969), p. 263; translation, ANCL vol. 17,
ed. & tr. A. Roberts & J. Donaldson (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1870), p. 305 and n. 4.
15
Clement, Miscellanies in Clement, Opera Quae Exstant Omnia... PG vol. 8, ed. N. Le
Nourry (Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1857), vol. 8, 701; ANCL vol. 4, ed. & tr. A. Roberts & J.
Donaldson (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1867), p. 356.

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unwritten by the apostles.16 In a lost work, the Hypotyposes (Outlines),

quoted by Eusebius, Clement says that these few were James the righteous,
John, and Peter entrusted by the Lord after his resurrection with the higher
knowledge (). They imparted it to the other apostles, and the other
apostles to the Seventy, one of whom was Barnabas.17 The Christian gnosis has
a strongly cosmological content, including teachings on the angels of God and
the fallen angels (basically, the stuff of apocalyptic), as found in Christian
apocrypha and Irenaeus.18 And the question What is the meaning of the
statement, The evil one was? which Peter is unwilling to answer in the
Clementine Homilies, deals precisely with a thing past and a fallen angel.

In his seventh homily on the First Letter to the Corinthians, John Chrysostom
(ca. 347-407) cites the Mystery Saying as
.19 Chrysostom says this appears somewhere (). The editor, de
Montfaucon, refers the reader to Is. 24.7, which would seem to be an error, as
there is nothing there which could be read as mystery it should be Is. 24:16
(see below, on Theodoret). Chrysostom is commenting on 1 Cor. 2:6-7, in
which Paul explains that we do impart wisdom to the mature, a secret and
hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our
glorification. The commentary tries to strike a balance between Pauls
argument that there are hidden mysteries, and Christs command to proclaim on
the rooftops what they have heard whispered (Mt. 10:27). Chrysostoms
argument is that for unbelievers the mysteries of faith are like letters on a page
for someone who cannot read so it is as if they have not heard them. He cites
the Mystery Saying along with 2 Cor. 4:3 (the Gospel is only veiled to those
who are perishing) and 1 Cor. 15:51 (the mystery of the believers resurrection).
So Chrysostom is reading the Mystery Saying as evidence that unless one is
one of Christs, one cannot understand his mysteries. That is a very different
reading, indeed almost opposite, to the injunction to believers to hide the
mysteries of faith (by implication, for fear that the unbelievers know what they
should not) which we found in Clement of Alexandria and the Clementine
Homilies.

Theodoret of Cyr (ca.393-ca.457) cites the Mystery Saying twice, first in

reference to Ps. 24 (25):14:

16
Clement, Miscellanies VI.7/ANCL vol. 12, p. 339.
17
Eusebius, The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine, tr. G.A. Williamson, rev.
& ed. A. Louth (London: Penguin, 1989), II.1.2/p. 36.
18
D. White, Contemporary Spiritualities and Christianity (see n. 12 above).
19
John Chrysostom, Homiliae XLIV in Epistolam primam ad Corinthios, PG vol. 61, ed. B.
de Montfaucon (Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1862), 7.2/56.

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Now, it is possible to hear the Lord himself speaking through the prophet
Isaiah, My mysteries are for me, and for mine ( ,
) he reveals them not simply to all but to those who fear
him, and gives a glimpse of the purpose of his divine sayings. 20

Schulze notes Is. 24:16 (according to certain old books).21

The second citation is in reference to Ps. 65(66):16:

Come, listen, and I shall recount to you, all you who fear God, everything
he did for my soul I beg you who entertain reverence for God to come to
know. He spoke in this fashion also in the twenty-first psalm: I shall pay
my vows before those who fear him (Ps. 22:25). Now, in these ways we
are taught to share with them and to recount the divine doings to them in
particular: Do not give holy things to dogs, nor cast your pearls before
swine. (Mt. 7:6), and, My mysteries for me and for mine.22

(In spite of the difference of translation, the Greek is the same in both.23)

At first sight this appears to have nothing to do with Is.24.16. In the RSV we
have:

From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,

of glory to the Righteous One.
But I say, I pine away, I pine away )) .
Woe is me!
For the treacherous deal treacherously,
The treacherous deal very treacherously.

is translated in the New Jerusalem Bible as What an ordeal, what an

ordeal, and the RSV I pine away, I pine away. But if we read as Aramaic,
the verse can indeed be translated as My mystery is for me, my mystery is for
me just like rzy in the Odes of Solomon. This is followed by the Vulgate,

20
Theodoret of Cyr, Commentary on the Psalms, Psalms 1-72, tr. Robert C. Hill, The Fathers
of the Church vol. 101 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press,
2000), ps.24/25: 7, p. 166. Greek text: Theodoret, In Psalmos, ed. J.L. Schulze, PG vol. 80
(Paris: 1860), 1041.
21
Theodoret, In Psalmos, ed. J.L. Schulze, PG vol. 80, 1041 n. y (my translation).
22
Theodoret of Cyr, Commentary on the Psalms, Psalms 1-72, tr. Hill, ps.65/66: 9, p. 375.
23
Theodoret, In Psalmos, ed. J.L. Schulze, PG vol. 80, 1041, 1369.

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Secretum meum mihi, secretum meum mihi,24 which suggests that the mystery
reading was common around this time (Jerome was from the generation
preceding Theodoret).

Hill reads Theodorets citation as Isa. 24:16, in some Greek versions.25 In fact
Is. 24:16 LXX says, O Lord God of Israel, form the ends of the earth we have
heard wonderful things and there is hope to the godly: but they shall say, Woe
to the despisers, that despise the law. But one version of the LXX, C.
Marchalianus, has the marginal note,
, some manuscripts adding (sic, without
breathings or accents).26 Kaiser re-reads Is. 24:16:

From the ends of the earth

we hear songs of praise,
splendour to the righteous!
And I said,
It is my secret! It is my secret!
Woe <to the false> who deal falsely
The false who falsely work falsehood!27

He thinks this draws on a Targum,28 which he does not specify, but it is

probably the Targum of Isaiah:

The prophet said, The mystery of the reward of the righteous has been
shewn (sic) unto me; the mystery of the punishment of the wicked has
been revealed to me. Woe to the oppressors, for they shall be oppressed,
and to the spoiling of the spoilers, for behold they shall be spoiled. 29

24
Biblia sacra juxta Vulgataeed. A.C. Fillion, 5th edition (Paris: Letouzey & An, 1887).
Note that the KJB gives My leanness, my leanness, but in a marginal note, Heb.
Leanness to me, or My secret to me (The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible: with the
Apocrypha, King James Version, ed. D. Norton (CUP: 2005), p. 916).
25
Theodoret of Cyr, tr. Hill, p. 375 n. 11.
26
See A. Rahlfs (ed.), Septuaginta, id est vetus testamentum graece juxta lxx interpretes, vol.
2, Libri poetici et prophetici, 5th edn (Stuttgart: Priviligierte Wrttembergische
Bibelanstalt, 1935), vol. 2 p. 597 n. 16.
27
O. Kaiser, Isaiah 13-39: a commentary, tr. R.A. Wilson (London: SCM, 1974), pp. 186,
189.
28
Ibid. p. 189 n. a.
29
The Targum of Isaiah, ed. & tr. J.F. Stenning (Oxford: Clarendon, 1949), p. 76.

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Margaret Barker thinks that the background to this Targumic expansion is

probably Ps. 73 (74):12-20, showing that these visions of the fate of the wicked
were given in the sanctuary.30

To return to Theodoret, the words, My mystery is for me and for those of my

house found in the version of Isaiah 24:16 that he knew, may be read as the
Lord speaking. Jesus need not have said these words himself. Theodorets way
of reading Scripture seems much the same as Augustines: because Christ is the
Word of God, we can and should hear him speaking in every word of
Scripture31 (hence the Fifth Gospel interpretation of Isaiah that became so
popular). Jeremias clearly interprets the Mystery Saying this way, as he
considers it inauthentic.32 He compares two other apparent agrapha in Clement
of Alexandria: [The Lord], about to pour himself out as a libation, gives us a
new testament: I give my love to you,33 and To the judge, He says, Do not
accept persons in judgment; for gifts blind the eyes of those who see, and
changes just words.34 The editors of these texts compare the first with Jn.
13:34 and 14:2735 and the latter with Deut. 16:19.36

An elegant solution. But perhaps a bit simplistic? Just because a saying

attributed to Jesus is also found in similar form in the Old Testament does not
mean that he never said it. Not only did Jesus quote Scripture frequently, but he
often gave it new interpretations which astonished or discomforted his hearers,
such as his gloss on Ps.110.1, The Lord said to my lord, in Mt. 22:44.
Furthermore, as we have just seen, the translation mystery requires to be
read as Aramaic which was the language of Jesus. We also have the
fascinating possibility that Jesus not only quoted an older version of Isaiah
which is now lost, but one which is preserved in a variant of the LXX.

But another possibility is that a scribe wrote the Mystery Saying in the margin
(note that it is a marginal addition) as a gloss, and Theodoret was working from
a copy of Isaiah in this textual tradition. This would make sense of
30
Personal email, 6 August 2012.
31
E.g. Augustines Exposition on Psalm 3.
32
Joachim Jeremias, Unknown Sayings of Jesus, 2nd edn, tr. R.H. Fuller (London: SPCK,
1964), p. 20 n. 6.
33
Jeremias, op.cit.; Clement of Alexandria, Quis Dives Salvetur, ed. Otto Sthlin, GCS vol.
17,Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 3 (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag-Berlin, 1970). 37.4/p. 184.
My translation.
34
Jeremias, op.cit.; Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus (Christ the Educator), tr. Simon P.
Wood, The Fathers of the Church: a New Translation, vol. 23 (Washington, D.C.: The
Catholic University of America, 1954), III.12.91.3/p. 268.
35
Clement, Quis Dives Salvetur p. 184.n.
36
Clement, Paedagogus p. 268 n. 31.

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[ ], And [Jesus] said,

My mystery is for me, my mystery is for me [, and for mine]. In other words,
the scribe would have recognised a parallel between Is. 24:16 and the Mystery
Saying attributed to Jesus, but Theodoret reads Is. 24:16 either as Jesus quoting
it or as simply the Word of the Lord.

The Testamentum Domini (TD) is best described as a cross between a Christian

apocryphon and a church order/liturgical constitution. It survives in a 7 th-
century Syriac translation37 of a Greek text of which only fragments remain.38
An Ethiopic translation manifests variants.39 The Arabic MS is as yet mostly
unedited. The TD has an opening apocalyptic section in which Jesus appears to
several of the disciples on Easter Sunday evening and gives a prophecy of
persecution, followed by a long and detailed church order/liturgical constitution.
The opening section is cognate with the Christian anti-Gnostic apocryphon The
Epistle of the Apostles (pre-180), while the church order/liturgical constitution
is comparable with, but much longer and wider-ranging than, the Apostolic
Tradition, the Didascalia and similar texts. The Greek original of the TD has
been dated to around the late 5th century (with origins postulated in Egypt, Asia
Minor or Syria).40 The opening apocalyptic section, if it refers to the persecution
of Christians under the rising Sassanid Empire, could date to as early as the 3 rd
century (though it probably has a separate origin from the church
order/liturgical constitution which it prefaces).41 The TD claims an origin which
is given in the texts full title: The Testament, or words which our Lord, when
He rose from the dead, spake (sic) to the holy Apostles, and which were written
in eight books by Clement of Rome, the disciple of Peter.42 MS S gives the
first book of Clement, but Clement is not mentioned at all in MS C.43 Although
these variants are not without significance, TD forms the first two books of the
37
Testamentum Domini Nostri Jesus Christi Ed. et tr. (into Latin), Ignatius Rahmani (Mainz:
Kirchheim, 1899); The Testament of Our Lord, tr. J. Cooper & A.J. Maclean (Edinburgh:
T & T Clark, 1902). There are partial translations by P. Bradshaw & H.W. Attridge in The
Apostolic Tradition: a commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), and by G. Sperry-
White (The Testamentum Domini: a text for students, with introduction, translation and
notes, Alcuin Club booklet no. 19 (Bramcote: Grove Press, 1991), but these do not include
the Mystery Saying passage.
38
B. Gain, Fragments grecs indits du Testamentum Domini attribus Saint Basile,
Augustinianum 32, 1992, pp.261-277; S. Corcoran & B. Salway, A Newly Identified
Fragment of the Testamentum Domini, JTS n.s. 62/1 (April 2011), 118-35.
39
Testamentum Domini thiopien, ed. & tr. (into French) R. Beylot (Louvain: Edition
Peeters, 1984).
40
S. Corcoran & B. Salway, op.cit. p.133.
41
A.C. Stewart, The Apocalyptic Section of the Testamentum Domini: an Attempt at
Dating, JTS n.s 62/1 (April 2011) 136-143.
42
The Testament of Our Lord, tr. J. Cooper & A.J. Maclean, p. 49.
43
Ibid.

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Clementine Octateuch, eight works traditionally attributed to Clement of Rome.

These include the Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, where the Mystery
Saying is also found. The entire Octateuch is included in the Broader Canon of
the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible.44 It is also striking, if baffling, that at the very
end of TD we read that John, Peter and Matthew wrote down the Lords oral
testament, and distributed copies to the churches through Dosithaeus, Silas,
Magnus and Aquila.45 Is this an appeal to eyewitnesses from a much earlier
version of what is manifestly a late document (it refers to subdeacons,46 inter
alia), or merely a literary/rhetorical device?

Whatever the case, the Mystery Saying appears in the transition section of TD
between the apocalypse and the church order/liturgical constitution. Effectively
this represents an expansion of the Mystery Saying and of Mt. 7:6:

But because in the midst of the assembly of the people [there are], more
and more, many carnal desires, and the labourers are feeble and few, only
My perfect labourers shall know the multitude of My words, and all also
which at times (or, many times) I spake to you in private before I should
suffer, and which ye know: ye both have them and understand them. For
My mysteries (lit., mystery singular) are given to those who are Mine
(Raze ger dily lehaleyn dily yehibin47), with whom I shall rejoice and be
glad with My Father.

But these remaining words, determining and appointing them, speak ye in

the Churches []

See that ye give not My holy things to the dogs, and cast not pearls before
swine (Mt. 7:6), as I have often commanded you. Give not my holy
thing[s] to defiled and wicked men who do not bear My Cross, and are not
subject [to Me]; and My commandments shall be for derision among
them.48

Note that the mystery is raz, just as in Is.24.16 and the Odes of Solomon. It is
also interesting that TD places so close together the Mystery Saying and Mt.7.6:

44
R.W. Cowley, The Biblical Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Today,
Ostkirchliche Studien 23 (1974) 318-323.
45
TD II.27.
46
TD I.44.
47
I am most grateful to Rev. Dr. Anthony Gelston for his transcription and vocalisation of the
Syriac.
48
TD I.18; Cooper & Maclean, p. 61f. Testamentum Domini Ethiopien, 8/p. 155f.

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a similar juxtaposition was found in Theodoret,49 above. We cannot deduce

from this that the author/editor/compiler of TD knew Theodoret, however, nor
that Theodoret knew TD and thus that TD is older than supposed: quite simply
the two sayings have a similar meaning and thus, to one familiar with the
Scriptures and the oral tradition, one recalls the other. If anything, the expanded,
almost midrashic context in TD suggests that it postdates Theodoret.

The expansion and context might shed more light on what the
mystery/mysteries were. As Jesus says these words just before embarking on
the church order/liturgical constitution (the first item will be the architecture of
the sanctuary),50 the mysteries are clearly associated with the liturgy. Later, in
the instruction on the ordination and duties of the bishop, we read,

On the eve (of the Offering, i.e. the Eucharist) let him (the bishop) instruct
and teach these things in the manner of a mystery (erazanaith; Ethiopian:
let him tell the mysteries) [and] to those whom he hath tested (or,
testeth) as having ears to hear.51

These things or the mysteries would seem to be what has been described in
the preceding sections, that is the construction of the place of worship and the
liturgy, and the apocalypse that preceded these. However, just after the above
citation we read that the bishop should teach the meditations and admonitions
of the prophets to the catechumens, and then teach the faithful, again, after the
manner of a mystery and after the instruction in the mysteries let him offer,
so that knowing in what mystery they are taking part, they may offer with fear.
And if he knoweth what he saith, these mysteries are to include the ministry of
the Father, Christs incarnation, passion and death, the Resurrection and the
breaking of the chains of hell and the crown and strength of angels.52

Many of these, then, are the central mysteries of the Christian faith as they have
come down to us. The bishop will be expanding on what the initiates would
have proclaimed in their profession of faith. The reference to the crown and
strength of angels has an extra-biblical and cosmological reference, however
as per the reserved doctrine referred to in the Clementine Homilies above.
Furthermore, in the context of the Mystery Saying in the TD Jesus distinguishes
between the carnal among the Christian assembly and My perfect labourers
who shall know the multitude of My words, which they have already heard
49
See n. 22 above.
50
TD I.19.
51
TD I.22; Cooper & Maclean, p.68f.; Testamentum Domini thiopien, 15/p. 164f. My
thanks again to Anthony Gelston for his transcription and vocalisation of the Syriac.
52
TD I.22; Cooper & Maclean, p. 69.

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from him. This prepares the citation of the Mystery Saying. The clearest
solution to this difficulty is to say that the Mysteries as a whole contain both the
central mysteries of faith and related deep insights which only the perfect
labourers have received and can understand. As Anthony Gelston has pointed
out to me, in the way of a mystery probably translates the Greek .53
is how Clement of Alexandria says that secret things are properly
transmitted,54 and for Basil of Caesarea (to whom some fragments of TD have
previously been attributed) this refers to the liturgy, the proper means of
transmitting the knowledge () of dogma.55

Sacred Parallels, a work dubiously attributed to John Damascene (d.749),56 has

the Mystery Saying as similar to Theodoret
but different yet again, because it omits emou. It comes as the first citation
under the heading of On the divine mystagogy.57 The referencing would
appear to have been done by the editor, Lequien, whose Latin translation
ascribes the saying to Is. 24:16. It is grouped together with Mt. 7:6 (pearls
before swine, cf Theodoret), Lk. 5:37-38 (no one puts new wine in old
wineskins) and citations from Basil, Gregory of Nazianzen and Philo on holy
mysteries. It would seem that the compiler is defending the veiling of mysteries,
like Clement of Alexandria and the Clementines. It is significant that John
Damascenes version of the Mystery Saying is different from those of Clement
and John Chrysostom, given that he frequently cites both of them in the Sacred
Parallels. This suggests that he received the saying independently, quite
possibly by oral tradition.

No two citations of the Mystery Saying are identical across the eight sources. If
we follow Bauckhams Eyewitness Testimony theory, slight but not
substantial variations between reports are actually a mark of authenticity,
because it indicates that there are different witnesses, not just one.58 For
example, in Matthew, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the
tomb of Jesus on Easter morning (Mt. 28:1), but Lukes witnesses are Mary
Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James (Lk. 24:9). Both accounts
53
Personal email, 28 August 2012.
54
See n. 16.
55
Basil, On the Holy Spirit 27.66. On the attribution of TD fragments to Basil, see B. Gain,
Fragments grecs indits du Testamentum Domini attribus Saint Basile (n. 39).
56
It is probable that he had a hand in structuring the collection of maxims and devotional
texts known as the Sacra Parallela (B. Kotter, John Damascene, St. in New Catholic
Encyclopedia, 2nd edition, vol. 7 (Detroit: Gale, 2003), p. 952.
57
John Damascene (attr.), Sacra Parallela, ed. M. Lequien, PG vol. 96 (Paris: J.-P. Migne),
VIII (Theta).1/9-10.
58
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: the Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
(Grand Rapids/Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans, 2006), ch.10.

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tell us that the tomb was empty, but in Lukes account there are two angels, in
Matthews, only one. In terms of the transmission of testimony, we need only
think of when we quote someone we seldom quote verbatim, but others who
heard them speak will correct us if we are mistaken about the substance of what
was said. Furthermore, the strong variation between sources disallows any
hypothesis of a textual transmission of the Mystery Saying from source to
source. Therefore it is much more likely that the Mystery Saying belongs to the
oral tradition perhaps in relation to a traditional reading of Is. 24:16.

Yet there are also interesting parallels between the sources: Clement of
Alexandria and the Clementine Homilies have the sons of my house; the Odes
of Solomon and the Clementine Homilies say keep my mystery; the Acts of
John and Theodoret have mysteries plural. The saying was obviously well
known enough to exist in a variety of versions. Although there are different
contexts and interpretations (especially John Chrysostoms), all the sources
acknowledge that the saying is pertinent to Christian mysteries. The citation in
the Clementine Homilies shows that the author applied this saying of Jesus to
the authentic gnosis which Clement of Alexandria said Jesus had handed down
to the few. The Clementine passage does not of course have to narrate an actual
historical event: but it does show how gnosis was viewed by a Christian source
of the 2nd to 4th centuries; and it is a source which, far from being marginal,
became well known and accepted in the mainstream Christian tradition. All this
supports a Dominical provenance for the Mystery Saying.

But let us not forget that that Clement, our first source, said the Mystery Saying
came from a certain Gospel. He may simply have been mistaken unable to
remember where he had heard it, he may have assumed it came from a gospel
(almost certainly local, not one of the Four). It may have been included in
Papias now-lost collection of the Jesus sayings. If it did come from a Gospel,
though, I suggest that we avoid Q, in view of its irreducibly hypothetical nature.
But a real possibility might be the Gospel of the Nazarenes, which is sometimes
confused with the Gospel of the Hebrews.59 Both of these works survive only in
quotations, and both are Jewish. My mystery is for me and for the sons of my
house might have been invoked in support of keeping the ministry and
leadership of the Church to Jesus blood relatives. But Margaret Barker has
suggested to me that rather than a blood kinship, this may refer to the Christian
priesthood which Jesus passed down.60 For example, Origen, in his fifth Homily
on Numbers reflects on the ministry of the sons of Kohath in the Tent of
Meeting (Num. 4:1-20) as follows:

59
See Ehrman & Plee, op.cit. pp. 201-209.
60
Margaret Barker, personal email of 31 July 2012.

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Moreover, in the ecclesiastical observances there are some things of this

sort [things requiring the understanding of the Spirit], which everyone is
obliged to do, and yet not everyone understands the reason for them [
e.g. turning to East to pray]. And yet, we carry all these things on our
shoulders, though they are covered and veiled, when we fulfil them and
follow them in such a way that we have received them as handed down
and commended by the great high priest and his sons. So when we carry
out all these things and things similar to these, and yet do not follow the
reason for them, we raise to our shoulders and carry divine mysteries that
are concealed and covered61

The words I have italicised, taken together, carry more than a hint of the
Mystery Saying. They also open the more uncomfortable possibility that the
Gnostic schism could have been triggered in part by Jesus spiritual sons failing
or refusing to teach the mysteries to the mature who were capable of receiving
them (cf. John Chrysostom and TD).

According to Eusebius, quoting a letter of Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, to

Bishop Victor of Rome, John, who leant back on the Lords breast, []
became a priest wearing the mitre,62 while Epiphanius says the same of
James.63 The Greek for mitre is , which is also the gold plate which the
Jewish High Priest wore on his forehead (LXX Ex. 28:36).64 Of course, we can
read in all this the unbridled enthusiasm of the Fathers for Old Testament
typology, exemplified by Ambroses On the Mysteries. But in the light of the
Mystery Saying and the recovery of the authentic Christian gnosis, the Fathers
may have understood the Christian Liturgy as the successor and fulfilment of
the cosmic mysteries of the Temple.

Finally, a comment on the Mystery Saying and Qumran. In her book Creation:
a Biblical Vision for the Environment, Margaret Barker points out that at the
time of Jesus, the Qumran texts were exhorting contemplation of the mystery

61
Origen, Homilies on Numbers, tr. T.P. Scheck (Illinois: IVP Academic, 2009), V.1.4/p. 17f.
Cf. Basil, On the Holy Spirit, tr. D. Anderson (Crestwood: St. Vladimirs Seminary Press,
1980), 27.66.
62
Eusebius op. cit. 3.31/p.94; Greek text, Eusebiuswerke: Die Kirchengeschichte, ed. T.
Mommsen, GCS 9/1 (Eusebius vol. 2) (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichssche Buchhandlung, 1903),
p. 264.
63
Epiphanius, Ancoratus und Panarion, ed. K. Holl, GCS 25 (Epiphanius vol. 1) (Leipzig:
J.C. Hinrichssche Buchhandlung, 1915) II.29.4.4/p.324; The Panarion of Epiphanius of
Salamis, ed. & tr. F. Williams, Book I (Sects 1-46), (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1987), p. 114.
64
Compare Rev. 22:4.

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of existence, if that is what the phrase raz nihyeh means.65 Vermes translates
raz nihyeh as the approaching mystery (see below). is the niphal of ,
to be, so has a reflexive sense, something like happening. Clines reads raz
nihyeh in its DSS contexts as mystery of existence/the future.66 Barker now
prefers the mystery of becoming, which embraces both the senses of
existence and future.67

Whatever the correct meaning(s), from its contexts the raz nihyeh seems to have
been concerned with three things. First, ethical behaviour; second, eschatology
(Gaze upon the raz nihyeh and understand the birth-time/sources (or: begetters)
of salvation who is to inherit glory and trouble/injustice68), which fits very well
with the Targum of Is. 24:16 above. The third concern is creation, if one follows
Barkers translation of 4Q418.43, Gaze upon the raz nihyeh and know the
paths of everything that lives.69 In fact the whole poem is concerned with the
raz nihyeh. One verse proclaims:

Then you will know the difference between good and evil (cf. Gen. 3:5)
relating to their deed. For the God of knowledge is the foundation of truth,
and through the approaching mystery He set apart its foundation, the work
of [His hands]

Notice that knowledge of the creation (the work of [His hands]) and ethical
behaviour (their deed) as inseparable. This is not the spiritual elitism of the
Gnostics, who selfishly pursue their search for knowledge, stealing indeed from
the tree; rather, it is firmly in the tradition of Enoch, who was shown the
mysteries of the heaven that he desired to know, because he was just.70

Is. 24:16, which Theodoret understands either as the Lord speaking or as quoted
by Jesus in his Mystery Saying, begins with From the ends of the earth we hear
songs of praise, which hints at the cosmic liturgy. And it was in the liturgy that

65
Margaret Barker, Creation: a Biblical Vision for the Environment (London: T & T Clark,
2010), p.69. An earlier view, which she expressed in Christmas: the Original Story
(London: SPCK, 2008), p.49, was that the Mystery Saying referred to the Creed, the
Incarnation and Nativity of Christ, which, Barker argues, were foreshadowed by the
priestly mysticism of the Holy of Holies.
66
D.J.A. Clines (ed.), The Concise Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield: Sheffield
Phoenix Press, 2009), p.88 ().
67
Margaret Barker, personal email, 1 August 2012.
68
4Q417.1, tr. Barker, Creation p.69/Vermes, op.cit. p.403.
69
Barker, Creation p.69. Vermes has look at the approaching mystery and know the
heritage of all the living (p.409). Cf. D.J. Harrington, Wisdom Texts from Qumran
(London: Routledge, 1996), p.83.
70
1 Enoch 60.10; 1.2, 46.3; cf. Gen.5.24.

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Basil understood the gnosis to be handed down.71 Finally, in the Odes of

Solomon, the themes of light, knowledge and justice abound.72 And in 1QS
XI.3, 5-6 we have For my light has sprung from the source of His knowledge;
my eyes have beheld His marvellous deeds, and the light of my heart, the raz
nihyeh.73

I am not arguing for a special connection between the Mystery Saying and
Qumran or indeed between Jesus and Qumran. Rather, Jesus, like the teachers
of the Qumran strand of Judaism, taught knowledge of creation that is, Gods
gift to humankind of his knowledge of his creation. This was a knowledge
which was intimately connected with liturgy and its contemplative dimension. It
is a dimension of the Scriptures, and of the liturgy, which we have forgotten.

Acknowledgements
My thanks to Fr. Stphane-Dominique Hundo OP for his help with finding a
key source for this article, to Margaret Barker for many references and help
with Aramaic and Hebrew words and Targums, and to Anthony Gelston and
Robert Hayward for helping me with the Syriac sources.

71
See n. 56.
72
Odes 7; 8; 10.1; 17; 38.
73
Barker, Creation p.78; Vermes p.115.

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